What a fun afternoon I had today! I spent over two hours tracking the handful of groceries and other items we need, driving from store to store wearing my face mask and latex gloves, seeking the ever elusive facial tissues, toilet paper and bleach. There were none of those things in any of the 5 major grocery stores I looked in, but I eventually found a few packs of toilet paper at a convenience store that in usual times I would never have thought to even look in. These are not usual times. There were about 8 packs left and customers were only allowed to buy two at a time. I just purchased one, knowing how many seniors live near this store and who likely have limited time and resources to go shopping anywhere farther away. I do still have a few rolls at home, but with the complete run by the hoarders, I decided I would be wise to pick up an extra pack in case there is no more delivered for a long time to our city. Still no bleach, but I did also find a 6 pack of facial tissues. It took me over two hours to locate and purchase less than one hundred dollars worth of product because of all the driving around I had to do. CRAZY!
All the clerks are wearing gloves now, some have masks, some have plexiglass panels to separate them from us. ALL expressed appreciation for my own mask and gloves, which more than made up for the Ignoramous Woman who tsk'd at me and said quite loudly, "How ridiculous!" with great disgust. Well, I hope she doesn't pay the price for not taking better care of herself and refusing to distance herself properly in the store, as I wouldn't wish cornonavirus on even her.
So, once I finally arrived home with my bags of groceries I got to spend a good 30 minutes or more wiping down all the items and bags with disinfectant and drying them off. That is a good way to pass the time on grocery buying days! Good to know! I wiped off every single can, bottle, bag, cardboard box...you name it, I disinfected it. It felt good to know we have enough soap and water and towels to do that each time. YAY!
I am so thrilled that none of the grocery carts require a quarter or a dollar to release them for use by the customers now, there is no charge for bags of any kind, other than some of the cloth bags, but at Sobey's the charge per reuseable bag is now only fifteen cents. Most places won't let you bring in reuseable bags anyway, but at least plastic bags are available for free or a low charge at the cash registers.
We will be set for produce and dairy products now for quite a few days. The produce section at my closest market seems to have been quite well stocked from the start, only short occasionally on fresh ginger and garlic. Most of the other foods I need are out of stock there and have been for the past two weeks. So much for the unbroken supply chain from the warehouses, but a truck can only hold so much and if people insist on hoarding then the rest of us will have to adjust to shortages for several weeks to come.
That's life in a time of pandemic!
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