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Author Topic: New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?  (Read 3331 times)

John Camp

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New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?
« on: April 22, 2020, 04:12:31 pm »

I'm in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Went to the supermarket today -- the supermarket is part of the Albertsons chain -- and found no toilet paper or paper towels. No hand sanitizer, no medical alcohol, plenty of soap. Supplies of Coca-Cola were running low, as was milk (no 1% at all) and limited pasta (limited availability, and limited purchase -- no more than two packages per customer.) Lots of produce. Plenty of orange juice. Didn't look much at meat, because I'm a veggie, but from a quick glance, it didn't seem like there was a particular shortage. Plenty of "treats" -- candy, cookies. No JIF peanut butter, except "fat free," which is also largely taste-free. I know, because when they ran out of regular peanut butter a week ago, I bought jar of fat-free, and still have some of it, and probably will have, until I take it out with the garbage. Overall, the market looked somewhat tattered, and there seemed to be fewer choices in general, compared to two weeks ago, the last time I went. Fair safety measures -- all employees and customers wearing masks, most customers also with gloves, plastic panes between check-out lady and the customer, but the check-out lady wasn't wearing gloves. (And I guess there'd be little point, when I think about it.) One-way aisles, which is good, but a fair number of people ignoring them.

My feeling is that the best time to go is mid-afternoon, around two o'clock. Early in the day, I'm told, there's a rush of people who hope to find toilet paper and paper towels. Lat in the day is after work, and a fair number of people still work. Office Depot is open for business in a state that is largely shutdown.

what's the situation where you are?
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faberryman

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Re: New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2020, 04:22:29 pm »

The new laissez-faire economics originating from Las Vegas:

“Assume everybody is a carrier," the mayor said Tuesday on MSNBC. "And then you start from an even slate. And tell the people what to do. And let the businesses open and competition will destroy that business if, in fact, they become evident that they have disease, they’re closed down. It’s that simple.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/04/22/las-vegas-coronavirus-reopen/

It is unclear from the article whether the mayor owns a funeral home or is just working on commission.

Meanwhile, in my hometown, I have no idea what is going on. I haven't been outside the house for five weeks except to walk my dog. I gather from home deliveries from my local grocery store and from Amazon Fresh that there are shortages. I have yet to get everything I ordered.
« Last Edit: April 22, 2020, 04:40:10 pm by faberryman »
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elliot_n

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Re: New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2020, 05:11:35 pm »

London supermarkets are mostly restocked. The only gap is in the Home Baking aisle - no flour, no yeast :(
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Chris Kern

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Re: New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?
« Reply #3 on: April 22, 2020, 05:15:05 pm »

My feeling is that the best time to go is mid-afternoon, around two o'clock. Early in the day, I'm told, there's a rush of people who hope to find toilet paper and paper towels. Lat in the day is after work, and a fair number of people still work.

Early in the afternoon also seems to be the optimal time to shop in the Maryland city where I live, which has a population similar in size to Santa Fe if you count the close-in neighborhoods whose residents shop here that are technically beyond the city government's rather narrow jurisdiction.  (In Maryland, the county is the primary local governmental unit.)

Our two local supermarkets, both rather smaller than your Albertsons (I'm familiar with two of their stores in Santa Fe: one in the shopping mall off Cerrillos and the other closer to downtown on St. Francis), and they both had similar stock situations to what you describe when I visited them last week: plenty of fresh produce, an adequate supply of meat and fish, a limited selection of bread and other baked goods, an even more limited selection of non-perishable packaged foods, all the usual junk food in the usual abundance, and shelves for paper products which reportedly empty almost immediately after the stores open each morning; I'm not an early riser, so I wouldn't know.

This area has a large ethnic Chinese population and we also have several Asian supermarkets which siphon off what would otherwise be a lot of business from the two "traditional" (can't think of a better word) outlets.  I'm not surprised that toilet paper is still difficult to find because of hoarding and the unusual number of people who are staying home all day rather than spending most of their waking hours at work or school, but I figure there must be more to it than that because how much pasta and frozen vegetables can people consume?  Presumably there are still disruptions in the stores' supply chains.  It isn't apparent—to me, at least—why.

I'd be interested to hear what forum participants in other countries are experiencing when they shop for household necessities.

JoeKitchen

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Re: New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?
« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2020, 05:25:38 pm »

I have not seen toilet paper on the shelves since the end of February.  If worse comes to worse, my sister in law bought a case of 60 rolls, but I'm okay for now. 

No hand sanitizer either, but bar soap actually works much better at killing/removing germs fyi.  You can look it up; I did and was surprise at how much better it is. 

They are still rationing milk, which is putting a damper on my cheese making, but for the last two weeks the shelves have been fully stocked.  So I am not feeling bad buying multiple gallons from different stores in the same day. 

Chicken is hit or miss, but all other meats are in stock. 

They started selling soft pretzels again, thank God (Philadelphians eat 12 times the amount of soft pretzels as the average American) but are sold individually wrapped. 

Delis are still closed, so no sliced meats.  With that said, I am thinking about taking up charcuterie, which does not look that much more complicated then cheese making. 

Unlike Michigan, I can buy seeds and plants during planting season, so that is good. 

No hair cuts yet, but my wife and I are on a 4 month schedule for those, and I got a hair cut in February.  So I am not looking too shagey.  I've been wanting to grow my hair out again; 38 and no receding hair line or bald spot forming, so maybe ...

Everything else is getting back to normal.  Overall, Governor Wolf did not become a petty tyrant like others, which is keeping me somewhat confident in his governance, albeit not totally agreeing with it. 
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Jonathan Cross

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Re: New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?
« Reply #5 on: April 22, 2020, 05:27:20 pm »

Yes agree with Eliot, stocking in UK much better than it was. It is only a few people in at a time, or even one out, one in.  If produce department gets several people, then none are let in till it clears.  A couple of weeks ago you could queue for an hour 2 metres apart, but now better.  Cash payment is not liked, and some supermarkets have an app that uses the camera on your phone as a scanner and then the phone is pointed at a QR code on the till to cut down contacts - it works well and cuts down on cashiers.  Can get toilet paper, but most items are limited to a max of 3.  Failure to observe causes a problem at checkout. 

Everyone is much more relaxed, it is working well and people are smiling and dancing round others to keep apart. 

Best wishes,

Jonathan

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Jonathan in UK

Gordon Buck

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Re: New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?
« Reply #6 on: April 22, 2020, 07:25:00 pm »

I’m in South Louisiana in a little area called Prairieville which is a little south of Baton Rouge.  In general, I try to avoid Walmart but do use Sam’s Club for various supplies and pharmacy.  I normally use a local grocery, Rouse’s.  My pantry and freezer are nearly full so I don’t go to the stores very often.

Today at Sam’s Club, I noticed that they were monitoring the number of people in the store; however, there was no waiting line.  I had no trouble getting paper goods – even toilet paper.  No hand sanitizer, no rubber gloves, no masks.  Sam’s Club seemed to be fully stocked with groceries but I didn’t get any.  Many people were wearing gloves and masks but not all.

When the schools closed, Rouse’s shelves began to empty.  Of course, they had no toilet paper or paper towels.  They always seemed to have plenty of meat, chicken, shrimp and fish.  One oddity (to me) was that they were completely out of cream of mushroom soup!  My wife pointed out that this was a key ingredient in many casseroles and that with the full family quarantined at home, there would be many casseroles prepared.  All of the “kid food” and junk food disappeared from the shelves as well as the quickly prepared meals.  Lots of cooking going on around here.

Yesterday I noticed that Rouse’s was nearly restocked.  They even had toilet paper!  Strangely, they have very little milk but they now have a good supply of cream of mushroom soup!  They still have a good supply of ham and chicken but that may be about to change.  Many people were wearing gloves and masks but not all.  Rouse’s has restricted their hours of being open but only a little.
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James Clark

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Re: New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?
« Reply #7 on: April 22, 2020, 07:25:29 pm »

No real issues here in Austin, TX.   Our regional supermarket, HEB, has been recognized for being way ahead of the curve since the outset.  The worst we had, even when the hoarding was bad about 3 weeks ago, was a limited selection of toilet paper, an intermittent lack of some organic produce, and per-shopper limits on family-friendly things like peanut butter and frozen pizzas.   People have been equally accommodating, lining up outside and spacing appropriately even before HEB put in guidelines on the floor.
« Last Edit: April 22, 2020, 07:51:37 pm by James Clark »
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Robert Roaldi

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Re: New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?
« Reply #8 on: April 22, 2020, 10:41:49 pm »

In Ottawa (Canada) grocery stores seem to be well-stocked now. Toilet paper is back, a weird thing really since there was never an actual shortage. Sometimes there will be flour, sometimes not, yeast is more iffy. I guess the supply chains haven't complete adapted yet to the fact that more people are cooking at home. They've installed uni-directional lanes so it's IKEA everywhere now. There are plexiglass screens in front of cashiers and they've stopped taking cash. I go during early morning senior hour, nobody there. One big change is that people buy more now, presumably a week's worth or so. They all seem to have all the meat, fish and fresh produce we want.

I've ordered from Ikea for home delivery. I ordered lumber online and I have to go pick it up, but they bring it out to my car. Same with vet supplies.

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Redcrown

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Re: New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?
« Reply #9 on: April 23, 2020, 02:34:22 am »

Des Moines, Iowa, here. No extraodinary hardships, but I'm sometimes baffled at what's out-of-stock. No tomato soup, no vegetable oil, no toothpicks, not much toothpaste. Plenty of milk, juice, and meat. I'm addicted to Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper. Last week the soda pop aisle looked fully stocked except for one big hole where the Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper was supposed to be.

One way traffic inside the store started last week. Huge bright red arrows at the ends of each aisle. But I corrected 3 people going the wrong way before I gave up because there were so many. I'd guess only about 20% of the people were wearing masks. No demonstrations or protests here yet. Our numbers are way above average, driven by the number of retirement homes and care facilities and a few large meat processing plants with hundreds of infections.

I'm eligible for the early morning senior hour but haven't tried it yet. I hear it's great. Less people and better stock because they only restock overnight.
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LesPalenik

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Re: New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?
« Reply #10 on: April 23, 2020, 03:22:39 am »

Des Moines, Iowa, here. No extraodinary hardships, but I'm sometimes baffled at what's out-of-stock. No tomato soup, no vegetable oil, no toothpicks, not much toothpaste. Plenty of milk, juice, and meat. I'm addicted to Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper. Last week the soda pop aisle looked fully stocked except for one big hole where the Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper was supposed to be.

One way traffic inside the store started last week. Huge bright red arrows at the ends of each aisle. But I corrected 3 people going the wrong way before I gave up because there were so many. I'd guess only about 20% of the people were wearing masks. No demonstrations or protests here yet. Our numbers are way above average, driven by the number of retirement homes and care facilities and a few large meat processing plants with hundreds of infections.

I'm eligible for the early morning senior hour but haven't tried it yet. I hear it's great. Less people and better stock because they only restock overnight.

One way routes are really not effective. Maybe they would be if everybody needed the same items, so they would follow the same route, but if you need only a few items and know where they are, you can take shortcuts and expose yourself to fewer people. There is a very good chance that the others need different items and they will be in a different store section anyway. Bad design!

The extra early morning opening hour is a good idea. There are hardly any people in my store at that hour, so there is no risk of coming into a close contact with anybody.  Just one cash register was open, but that didn't create any problems.

This week, my store created a one-line queuing arrangement, but with 10 people in the whole store, it is actually a stupid idea, especially in that store the entrance to the queue was at one end of the store and the only open cash register was at the other side. Good intention, but poor implementation.
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PeterAit

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Re: New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?
« Reply #11 on: April 23, 2020, 11:54:01 am »

Here in Chapel Hill NC we are most fortunate that the excellent farmers market is still open. They are taking extraordinary precautions, and the vendors that are still coming have pretty much everything they usually do.
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chez

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Re: New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?
« Reply #12 on: April 23, 2020, 06:17:40 pm »

Did my weekly shopping this morning here in south central BC. Overall, shelves were full, got everything I needed except French opinion soup mix I use in burgers. Plenty meat and dairy products. Lots of baked goods. Lots of frozen vegetables. Usual supply of fruits and veggies.

Biggest thing on short supply were disinfectant wipes and sanitizers.

I did notice more than usual packs of meat in people's carts...thinking all those meat processing plant closures got people a bit scared. Me, I can easily survive without meat if I had to...so no biggy.
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LesPalenik

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Re: New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?
« Reply #13 on: April 23, 2020, 06:27:54 pm »

Did my weekly shopping this morning here in south central BC. Overall, shelves were full, got everything I needed except French opinion soup mix I use in burgers. Plenty meat and dairy products. Lots of baked goods. Lots of frozen vegetables. Usual supply of fruits and veggies.

What's your onion about the French opinion soup?
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armand

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Re: New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?
« Reply #14 on: April 23, 2020, 08:10:12 pm »

Kalamazoo, Michigan.

The Meijer chain of stores has dedicated hours for first responders (2 days/week, 7am till 8am) so I try to make it there during those times. Most things that I care about are in stock. Early on some of the meats were gone but I see more now.
Yeast is gone, I didn't need any but a friend looked everywhere. Flour is short. Sanitizer and wipes are nowhere to be seen. Luckily I was able to buy a gallon on the internet (overpriced of course) and my wife got another one of the more liquid one (with glycerin instead of aloe gel) so I feel much more relaxed about this. They have enough produce, sometimes toilet paper too.

Costco is quite organized, there is a line and a limit on how many people they let in the store at the same time. The meats are much smaller quantities, mostly organic  ;), which is usually good as the usual meat portions were too big for me. Otherwise they have most stuff including plenty of toilet paper. I even bough extra and gave to some friends in need. No wipes though. Plenty of produce. Alcohol is also plenty.

Ken Bennett

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Re: New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?
« Reply #15 on: April 24, 2020, 03:41:32 pm »

Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a city of about 200,000. We have been lucky enough to not have a huge COVID-19 impact here so far -- we shut down schools and universities in mid March, and the state went to a stay-at-home order before the end of March. Our local hospitals have been dealing with cases but not overwhelmed so far.

Our regional large chain grocer has consistently been out of toilet paper, sanitizer, rice, beans, bread, etc. (To be fair, I have not been back there in over a week.)

Our local Trader Joe store has been fully stocked, including meat, TP, eggs, coffee, etc., both last week and this morning. Only a handful of shoppers late morning on a weekday.
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Alan Klein

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Re: New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?
« Reply #16 on: April 24, 2020, 09:00:46 pm »

I'm in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Went to the supermarket today -- the supermarket is part of the Albertsons chain -- and found no toilet paper or paper towels. No hand sanitizer, no medical alcohol, plenty of soap. Supplies of Coca-Cola were running low, as was milk (no 1% at all) and limited pasta (limited availability, and limited purchase -- no more than two packages per customer.) Lots of produce. Plenty of orange juice. Didn't look much at meat, because I'm a veggie, but from a quick glance, it didn't seem like there was a particular shortage. Plenty of "treats" -- candy, cookies. No JIF peanut butter, except "fat free," which is also largely taste-free. I know, because when they ran out of regular peanut butter a week ago, I bought jar of fat-free, and still have some of it, and probably will have, until I take it out with the garbage. Overall, the market looked somewhat tattered, and there seemed to be fewer choices in general, compared to two weeks ago, the last time I went. Fair safety measures -- all employees and customers wearing masks, most customers also with gloves, plastic panes between check-out lady and the customer, but the check-out lady wasn't wearing gloves. (And I guess there'd be little point, when I think about it.) One-way aisles, which is good, but a fair number of people ignoring them.

My feeling is that the best time to go is mid-afternoon, around two o'clock. Early in the day, I'm told, there's a rush of people who hope to find toilet paper and paper towels. Lat in the day is after work, and a fair number of people still work. Office Depot is open for business in a state that is largely shutdown.

what's the situation where you are?

Being a diabetic with weight issues, I tried low-fat Jif once like you and figured I rather put up with the diabetes and weight.  I could have sent you my jar.

Alan Klein

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Re: New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?
« Reply #17 on: April 24, 2020, 09:05:59 pm »

The new laissez-faire economics originating from Las Vegas:

“Assume everybody is a carrier," the mayor said Tuesday on MSNBC. "And then you start from an even slate. And tell the people what to do. And let the businesses open and competition will destroy that business if, in fact, they become evident that they have disease, they’re closed down. It’s that simple.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/04/22/las-vegas-coronavirus-reopen/

It is unclear from the article whether the mayor owns a funeral home or is just working on commission.

Meanwhile, in my hometown, I have no idea what is going on. I haven't been outside the house for five weeks except to walk my dog. I gather from home deliveries from my local grocery store and from Amazon Fresh that there are shortages. I have yet to get everything I ordered.
Give the Las Vegas mayor a break.  When you move to the Nevada desert, nearby Death Valley and the Mojave Desert, where gambling is the main occupation, well, you look at things including life a little differently.  Take your chances.

Alan Klein

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Re: New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?
« Reply #18 on: April 24, 2020, 09:19:25 pm »

I haven't gone to any of the big chain supermarkets in 6 weeks in central NJ.  we've been ordering on the phone from a local Italian grocery where you have curbside pickup where the stock boy drops the food bags in your trunk.  Paid by credit card on the phone.  I want to stay out of crowds.  They don't have soda or Snapple which I order from Staples who delivers for free. Chocolate syrup they also don't have  and other various stuff.  They have good steaks, fresh flounder and other fish,vegetables, fruit, milk,  pasta sauce, and other stuff.  But you have to be flexible in what you wind up with as they substitute a lot.  Beside Staples, I've ordered from other on-line stores and outlets as the case may be.

Pricing on line is crazy high.  I can't tell from the grocery store because my wife use to do most of the shopping before.  How have you found prices?  Which items are higher than they use to be?

LesPalenik

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Re: New Topic: How's the shopping where you are?
« Reply #19 on: April 24, 2020, 09:51:38 pm »

I haven't gone to any of the big chain supermarkets in 6 weeks in central NJ.  we've been ordering on the phone from a local Italian grocery where you have curbside pickup where the stock boy drops the food bags in your trunk.  Paid by credit card on the phone.  I want to stay out of crowds.  They don't have soda or Snapple which I order from Staples who delivers for free. Chocolate syrup they also don't have  and other various stuff.  They have good steaks, fresh flounder and other fish,vegetables, fruit, milk,  pasta sauce, and other stuff.  But you have to be flexible in what you wind up with as they substitute a lot.  Beside Staples, I've ordered from other on-line stores and outlets as the case may be.

Pricing on line is crazy high.  I can't tell from the grocery store because my wife use to do most of the shopping before.  How have you found prices?  Which items are higher than they use to be?

I prefer to shop in person. I go once or twice per week to my local supermarket early morning when there are hardly any people in the store. I buy mainly bread, vegetables and fruit, and like to select myself the particular items and take advantage of fresh offerings or daily specials. If I were buying soda, chocolate syrup, or other packaged stuff, then the online method would be also acceptable.
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