Grocery store shelves are being emptied all over the country...

I've been trying to find tomato paste and any size jar/can of sliced/whole mushrooms.

With so many working/staying at home they're cooking more often than usual and for more people for more meals. Little picky stuff is harder to get than it was.

 

With restaurants not doing as much business, would Sams Club or Costco be a good option? You can repackage the large cans.

 

Great idea but I tried them as well. Sam's usually has pallets of those but not now. They don't seem to be restocking quite as well as the true grocery stores. I did learn the new arrivals at Sam's get placed out in the center of the store rather than in the shelf areas where it would normally be. Strange.

 

I can understand. Sams usually has 2 different types of white flour but had none last time I went there. We have had to bake our own bread recently.

 

The wait at local stores is quite variable. Trader Joe's and Whole Foods tend to have long waits, while there's a local Safeway with no line at all. I was sent on a foraging expedition to TJ's, and I'm just not willing to wait a half hour in the rain. I did score a 6-pack of TP at TJ's a few days ago when the line was like 5 or 6 people. TJ's could have restocked their produce by going next door to the small produce store with full stock of everything and no line.

 

instacart workers on strike, and some whole foods 'associates' threaten walkout on tuesday

 

This was in my morning email from Trader Joes -- click on the photo and it will take you to the full receipe -- and what's an instacart??


Pantry
Pasta

Think you don't have enough
ingredients on hand for a delicious,
make-it-in-minutes meal? Think again.
If you've got pasta, a can of fish, garlic,
olive oil & some spices-then you've
got pantry pasta!

Stay Home
Soup

Here's a great "#StayHome soup"
using a box of soup, a can of beans,
and some onions, olive oil, and cumin.
You can use *any* box or can of soup
and *any* kind of beans-simply
adjust your featured spice accordingly.

 

grocery delivery service. i thought the supermarkets did their own. turns out it's an uber type gig worker thing, and shopping software.
8 billion dollar valuation, private company

 

Yes, T.J.'s remains very busy. The lines, sometimes long, are to keep low numbers of customers in the stores to increase the distance from one to another. Necessary. It might be a pain, but getting sick is much worse. Luckily, most stores are nearly fully stocked now. Even TP, earlier in the day. Some items have limits on purchases due to overly high demand.

8am to 9am are for seniors only. This new earlier shopping hour is new as of today.

 

I've heard the senior hours maybe are over-popular, showing up later in the morning can be quieter.

And @bisco has a good point: think sustenance. We really could go another week or two, with dried staples, tinned stuff and freezer.

 

We order online & pickup at Walmart. Their employees do the shopping & substitutions, if needed.

 

thats nice. the four stores i'm looking at discontinued curb pick and continued deliveries. i would think it would be smarter to encourage pick up to reduce wasted time delivering to those who don't need/want it

 

Being in a smaller market is hurting us here. The staple groceries are sold out and very little is coming in. On the Arizona side of the river Safeway, Smith's, Walmart, Sam's Club and Smart 'n Final are all getting a trickle when it comes to paper products, meat, bread, rice, disinfecting household cleaners, etc. Shelves are virtually empty of those products. On the Nevada side our local market that has been open 24/7 for years is closing down because none of their suppliers will deliver here right now. With the casinos and restaurants closed the lone market isn't big enough to justify sending a truck just for them.

We're doing ok because our pantry was packed with over a three month supply of canned meat, fish, veggies, instant potatoes, rice, water, etc. before this whole mess started. We were used to having disaster provisions in California before we moved so we had already done the same here. Toilet paper was a problem but Amazon just delivered a 36-pack of 1000 sheet two-ply this morning.

We're actually having a good time staying locked down. The three students are working on their schoolwork online. We're all spending a lot of time playing board games, card games, games on the Wii and the kids have introduced my wife and I to Dungeons & Dragons. Plenty of isolated desert trails to walk for exercise too. Top that off with the fact that our older daughter's fiance was a chef for Applebees until three weeks ago and we're eating even better than usual.

It's great we find ourselves in this position (not having to go out at all) because my wife is in one of the high risk groups.

 

A friend posted this today on FB. The names have been removed to protect the mortified.

 

Those full-length pork loins are the best. We also do the same thing with the big bulk packages of beef tri-tips and briskets. Years ago I picked up a barely used electric deli slicer for free, making it really easy to cut our own steaks and roasts.

 

i just checked our walmarts, no time slots available for pick up

 

Wooo Hooo, 4am trip to 3 desolate stores and I scored the Green Giant sliced mushrooms and 4.5 oz Hunts tomato paste. I saw two other shoppers. Score!

 

social distancing for the win!

 

At 6AM my local Walmart had Kleenex and TP but darn little and I did not get greedy. Senior hours are great for two reasons. 1. Few people in the aisles because who families with kids in tow aren't shopping. 2. Old folk (like me) are less likely to be widely associating which means less risk.

My group association for the week was a group of 40 carefully spaced on the lawn singing "Happy Birthday" to a lady on her 100th birthday last night.

One good thing about the current situation is, when we play golf, few are on the course and the round goes much quicker. No one touches each other, or touches the other person's clubs or ball. Not even the flagstick. A job I wouldn't want right now is managing director of a hospital or a golf course. Many of both will go under.

 

caution: new study shows covid can travel up to 27 feet in the air