Grocery shopping these days.

[Grayfox]

First of all understand that I cook just for myself. I try to keep meals small and easy. As such, I go grocery shopping once a month. One trip to Kroger and one trip to Sam's pretty much covers all my needs for the month. Usually a couple of small quick trips for bread, milk or some other small thing thrown in there somewhere. But I buy the bulk of my food on one day at the first of each month.

Its time.

I went to Kroger a few days ago. I got up early to make the 7:00 to 8:00 am "Senior Hour" in hopes they had restocked overnight and there would be a good selection. WRONG!
Lots of empty shelves still. A little bit of some off brand toilet paper and paper towels. No kleenex! and I'm suffering badly from allergies.
Canned vegetables were decent. But canned foods, chili, soup and such, well the pickings were slim and mostly off brands.
I was really disappointed with the meat dept. Nothing in the way of small packages like I normally buy. You know, a single steak or a 2 pack of pork chops. About all they had was huge roasts. monster T-bones and family packs with about a dozen pieces in them. No good for a single guy.
But I did manage to grab a couple of one pound packages of ground beef before what little there was disappeared.
Ok, so I got what I could and went home.

Yesterday I tried to go to Sam's at about noon. Nope! Line to get in was wrapped around the building. And judging from the huge carts of the people coming out, it had probably been picked over pretty good already. So I just went back home.
This morning I got there half an hour before they opened. I knew there would be a line waiting for the doors to open, but still, I was somewhere around number 60 or 70 to get in.
While waiting, the line behind me grew to about another hundred people.

So I get in the door and made a beeline for the meat department. Good news! it was well stocked. Yeah, Sam's likes to bulk pack too. But I grabbed a couple of 6 packs of pork chops and three 4 packs of steaks. Figured I better get it while I can.
Actually managed to get a bulk pack of Puffs facial tissue. Thank God! My nose will definitely appreciate them.
Not the usual selection, but I grabbed a bunch of frozen stuff. Sandwiches, quickie stuff and such.

Oh, and when I left, there was still a line wrapped around the building to get in.

BTW: when I got home I ended up spending more than an hour breaking down the big packages of meat and re-wrapping it all for the freezer in individual pieces.

I actually bought much more than I should have. But it was there and with all the talk of coming food shortages, I wasn't taking any chances. So, it was a bit of a PITA, but I'm good for a couple of months at least.

So, how's the food shopping where you are? Good, bad, slim pickins or well stocked? Any horror stories to share?

 

[schutzen-jager]

go weekly with wife - no lines here for past several weeks , but on Monday most stores have limited meat sales to 2 packages of any kind - ground beef very scarce -

 

[arjay]

I avoid the sr hour and get there around 8:30-9:00 am. Store is mostly empty and most everything is in stock. I asked the cashier about sr hour this morning and she said it's always busy

 

[Salty RI]

Our store opens at 6:00 am to 7:30 for us old farts, I went once they had nothing, I find the best time to be late morning.

Sent from my LGL52VL using Tapatalk

 

[old bear]

All in all, the food shopping here in the RTP area of NC has been fairly good. I may not always find everything I would normally buy, but I've always found things that will work. As for meat, no shortage here. Let's hope it stays that way.

We will be starting Phase I of our statewide reopening this coming Friday. I hope everyone, myself included, will show lots of common sense.

 

[ralph7]

Senior hour for my store is 7-8am.
It is an absolute breeze, hardly anybody in there and the last 4 times I went, I was able to check out with nobody in front of me.
This almost makes up for being a dilapidated deaf fossil.
I did my meat stocking the last two times and my freezer is full of ground beef, pork, and bacon. I'm lucky in that they must stock the store before I get there on Saturday as there is pretty much anything I might want.

 

[SteveA]

I do my folks shopping at 7:30 on Friday mornings here. Seniors get a couple of hours on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Friday early everything seems to be well stocked in anticipation of the weekend.

 

[Lee Barner]

Lee, you need to come up here and shop. got plenty of everything food wise. don't know about TP, that changes daily. people still crazy about that. see ya. lee

 

[LVSteve]

Pork was limited to 2-packs per customer at Smiths (Kroger) yesterday. Most other stuff was pretty well stocked except for paper products.

 

[swsig]

Every two weeks, I go to my nearby Kroger to stock up. I usually get there before 8 am, but I didn't get there until after 9 yesterday. Nevertheless, they were pretty well stocked, except for pork (none) and toilet paper (none). I can understand the pork shortage due to problems with the packing plants, but I don't understand why the toilet paper problem persists. The hoarders must be stocked up until the 22nd century by now, so I'm surprised that the supply level hasn't returned to normal.

Another observation: The store had a lot of customers, and most were wearing masks. Of those who were not wearing masks, every single one of them was a younger person. To be fair, some younger people were also wearing masks, but no older people were without one. I don't know if going mask-free was due to the young people not having access to masks, or because they didn't care, but it was quite noticeable. If it was because they didn't care, they risk being labelled as "The Lamest Generation".

 

[Geronimo Jim]

Reason I got married for the third time was so I would not
have to go shopping.

 

[fiasconva]

I went to Sams this morning and it wasn't all that bad. I got there about 5 minutes after opening and had to wait about 10 minutes in line to get in. Luckily, I only had to buy 4 or 5 items. They had both toilet paper and paper towels and everyone there had some in their cart even though they were limited to one of each. The funny part was the self checkout lines had at least 20 people waiting so I walked over to the regular registers and they had almost no one there. I had one person in front of me and was in and out in about 20 minutes.

 

[ParadiseRoad]

...we have to get up at 5am to make it to Walmart's geriatric tuesday event by 6am...

...30 mile round trip by the way...

 

[pawngal]

My local smaller grocery has been fully stocked for the past several weeks with the exception of Clorox wipes.
Last night I went to Walmart for some misc. items, checked out the meat cases, fresh was gone, gone. Plenty of frozen chicken parts and hams.

 

[Fishinfool]

Except for paper towels (none), my local Weis Market is pretty well stocked. Big bummer though, is that this is the second time shopping that there has been no tomato's. I usually eat a big salad every night with dinner, and it just aint the same without a sliced up tomato, but I guess I'll get by...

Larry

 

[tops]

My wife stopped at a small Walmart today for a loaf of bread and saw they had plenty of hamburger. She was wondering what to fix for next week carryout meals for the shut ins at church. She bought 15 lbs. of hamburger to make spaghetti sauce. Spaghetti, salad, roll and fruit cobbler should be a pretty good meal. The meat has been the biggest problem for the last couple of months but she has lucked out every month. Larry

 

[The Analyst]

Local store is well stocked except paper goods. No waiting in a line, they keep customers flowing in and out with expedience. All but a handful of shoppers were not wearing a mask.

 

[twodog max]

Thank God for 5 deer and a cow elk in the freezer.

 

[robrossk]

Here in St Louis area not too bad. Our local stores are sometimes a bit short on meat but stocked back up in next day or so. That said we are are going in on 1/2 cow with total of 5 families so should have about 45 lbs of meat in freezer fairly soon.

 

[Kanewpadle]

Some rationing here. But we get our groceries delivered. And the local butcher has contracts will local farms so they have plenty.

My dad also has groceries delivered. He also gets meals delivered from Meals On Wheels. It's free. He gets a good meal every night. He's happy that he doesn't have to cook. He gives the driver a healthy tip every time.