Grocery Shopping During COVID-19

Going out to a supermarket is an act of bravery during the COVID-19 pandemic. I go about once a week with a grocery list that I’m sure is going to tide us over for at least two weeks. It never does. It’s not that we eat a lot. Certain things that we’re almost out of just aren’t on the shelf the day I go shopping.

I wear a mask and bring along my Lysol wipes, but those widely publicized precautions barely scratch the surface of the challenges that grocery shopping presents these days. I realized that as I replied to a comment someone made on Facebook.

The posting complained that Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan had just declared that stores of more than 50,000 sq. ft. could have only four customers at a time per 1000 sq. ft. He said that results in social distancing of about 15 ft. instead of the federal guideline of 6 ft. Here’s my reply (based on experience two days earlier):

I'd rather allow extra room. The only way a 6 ft. rule would work is if everyone shopped and moved along at the same pace. Else they'd be closer than 6 ft. part of the time. Even with a shopping list, I find myself backtracking and mulling over the stock, trying to decide what to pick up. Shelves are so bare that I'm often forced to substitute. Like, do I want to pay more for a national brand of chicken broth to get no-salt? Or do I want to go with lower price and have to get beef broth, with salt (or various permutations there-of). And that was one of my easier decisions this week. Would you want to be the shopper stuck 6 feet behind me?

The 15 ft. rule would be especially helpful in stores that now have made their narrow aisles one-way. Those are a nightmare for me. The overhead signs never seem to list all the categories. First I roll my cart to the end of the aisle to find a variety of canned beans for chili. As I’m ticking them off my list, I see that I also need canned tuna. More often than not that’s at the other end of the same aisle, but I didn’t notice it when I wheeled by. In a store with one-way aisles, I'd have to go one aisle over and backtrack to the beginning of the aisle with the tuna and beans.

It's not any easier in the cat food aisle, especially if you're shopping for one finicky senior and two who will eat anything. Add to that the fact that the store staff sometimes mix the Fancy Feast chicken paté in with the beef and chicken paté. Both have red labels, one slightly darker. My finicky girl eats beef and chicken, but she’s not as keen on plain chicken. They also sometimes mix flaked salmon in with the salmon paté. Paté is  a safer bet for older cats. I could go on, but I see that your eyes are glazing over.

My recent trip tried my patience. A man was blocking the door of the main egg case, trying to decide which ones to buy. His female companion, behind him on her phone, was providing no guidance. I stood 6 feet away for a few minutes and finally just took a more expensive carton from the neighboring case.

As if shopping for our normal groceries isn’t challenge enough these days, being sequestered at home has led to binge eating comfort food. I rarely bought potato chips before. Now it’s on the list every time I go shopping. Have you ever noticed how long the chips aisle is? Lays sells classic chips and originals (what’s the difference??), honey barbecue and barbecue (?? again), salt & vinegar and sour cream & onion. Supposedly there are over 160 varieties of Lays chips. It’s no wonder I get confused in that aisle. And I haven’t even touched on corn chips.

Fortunately for me, we prefer original types, like Cape Cod kettle cooked. But even that brand comes in multiple flavors. In most stores, chips are stocked by brand, but some have the larger bags are at one end and smaller ones at the other. More often than not, I temporarily abandon my cart and walk up and down trying to figure out what's on sale that's binge-worthy.

The cookie aisle isn’t much easier to navigate and the transition from cookies to crackers is not always easy to follow. More back tracking. It should come as no surprise that grocery shopping during COVID-19 is so stressful that my cart has a lot more binge-worthy products than I had on my list when I left the house. At times like these, it’s critical to have a variety of comfort food on hand to survive each day’s news.

Copyright 2020 Business Theatre Unlimited