Prepping for Coronavirus

[weezy]

2 hours ago, Pat said:

If the pharmacy opens at 7, maybe you could time it to hit that right at the end of the shopping trip?

 

Good idea.  Something to consider.  

Kate, thanks for the offer, but I've still got a week to figure it out.  

[ktmoomau]

17 hours ago, weezy said:

Kate, thanks for the offer, but I've still got a week to figure it out.  

You know how to find me!  Offer remains open.  

[weezy]

Many thanks

 

[weezy]

On 3/22/2020 at 11:48 AM, ktmoomau said:

You know how to find me!  Offer remains open.  

Got it all figured out and the mfr discount approved, so being delivered tomorrow.  Thanks again for having my back

[Pool Boy]

I have pretty much not left the house since my last day in office on the 11th and even then to only meet some new folks from the company that acquired the one I work for otherwise my last in office day would have been the 6th.

Anyway, I say pretty much since I have walked several times around my neighborhood. I am facing having to go to the doc for a scheduled appt on Friday. I kind of need to stop and see if I can score a few things on the way home but probably won't. There is WholeFoods/Amazon and Instacart and then Chewy for my cats. Take everything delivered in and immediately wash hands and so on immediately after. It's not that I want to go out and be among people, but I am going to want some wine, cheese and yes a bit of toilet paper (doing fine there for now thanks). And PRODUCE. Maybe a really early morning foray in to Super Best.

[ktmoomau]

I put in a Harris Teeter express lane order, for Monday a fews days ago.  Which is fine, I don't need anything now, I just have been planning for when we run low  on butter and lactose free milk (and Diet Coke our shameful addiction).  Plus Hubby really likes squishy white bread, which I am not good at baking.  Although I was going to try a Japanese Milk Bread recipe. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Cheesetique has added some produce and other items that you can order for pick up (if I could do normal dairy, that would be a nice option).  Apparently Streets Market was pretty well stocked a few days ago- don't know if you can do pick up.  I haven't wanted to go in a store.  So the places offering pick up have been great. I would like to support small if I can. BUT I also appreciate Harris Teeter and them being able to do what they are doing for the community in all the ways they are doing it. 

I got Max's food from Old Town School for Dogs, they put it in my trunk, I have left it there for a few days, as Max still has some food left so I don't have to worry about disinfecting it all. And YAY for supporting a small business!  

[Rhone1998]

Might be a good time to join a CSA. There are a number of booze deliver options available...I opted to go with Ace Beverage and it was great-my order was delivered at no charge the next day, left on my front steps as I requested. 

For restaurant takeout here’s a list of options from around the area (not sure how up to date they are keeping it).

https://www.diningatadistance.com/washington-dc

final tip: if you’re ordering delivery from Whole Foods via the Amazon app you’ve probably seen it’s hard to find a delivery window. They seem to open new windows up at midnight, so put your order in, and then go to your cart right at midnight and you should see a few more windows you can choose from a few days out. 

[deangold]

We did our first Whole Foods Prime delivery. $50 minimum for free delivery.

3 different beers, 2 breads, 2 cheeses, a package of ground lamb delivered. I gave the driver $5.00 on top of our $5 online tip. Because of the beer, I had to hand him my drivers license but it was done literally at arm's length. 

When I put everything in the cart, I had 2# ground beef in the cart, but that did not show up on the order or my delivery. WFM ran out and did not contact me for a substitution although I had the "substitute if out of stock option" on. Trying to communicate with Amazon customer support was painful, 30 minutes of my life I will never recover. I had to tell my story to two people and then the system said enter my problem and someone would join me online to help! No thanks. 

[Count Bobulescu]

11 hours ago, Rhone1998 said:

Might be a good time to join a CSA. There are a number of booze deliver options available...I opted to go with Ace Beverage and it was great-my order was delivered at no charge the next day, left on my front steps as I requested. 
 

Believe that's illegal. Supposed to get a sig for booze.

[weezy]

Saw a youtube video about handling brought in foods and groceries to keep things as safe as possible.  Youtube video here

What I liked especially is the simple tape line to clearly demark clean/dirty areas, and having the sink filled with hot soapy water to clean produce before you start unpacking.

[PollyG]

On 3/17/2020 at 9:54 AM, genericeric said:

Observations on how different store chains are handling the outbreak - understanding that this is likely highly regional.

Wegmans - sanitizer at the door with a sign asking all customers to please use before entering, ample cart wipes.  Substantial restrictions on quantities you can purchase, which for the most part I agree with, however I wasn't able to get enough for normal grocery shopping for three nights.  Still limited stock available, even at 6:30am.  Note - a woman in line to check out who appeared to be receiving chronic medical treatment (perhaps chemo) began to feel faint.  The Wegman's staff could not have been more kind or helpful as they completed her shopping for her while making her comfortable and offering medical assistance.  After that I heard no one else complaining about lines.

Costco - Sanitizing carts at the door, but not until after you pushed it up.  Signs out front listing what they had and what they were out of.  Frequent signs displaying what 6 feet social distance should be.  Traffic direction so that people didn't get too bunched up in line to pay.  Completely out of paper goods but had a lot of water, 2 max.  

Whole foods - the grocery delivery and pickup appeared to be booming.  Completely out of red meat, very limited produce available.  They always have cart wipes, and employees were changing gloves between each customer.

Giant - Our local giant has been almost fully stocked, lines manageable.  Canned goods, paper towels, water, even some toilet paper.  Yesterday morning at 6am the shelves were sparse, but they said the truck was late - saw it pulling in as I left.

Wal-Mart - no sanitizer, no wipes for carts, no food.  If they didn't sell a baby food that's hard to find, there's no reason to deal with it.

H-Mart (Herndon branch): May have had someone to santize carts at the near-door pickup, we grabbed one from the corral and sprayed it down ourselves.  They did have decently sized plexiglass shields set up at the cash register to give the cashiers some protection.  No marks on the floor to establish distance for shoppers at the checkout, but it wasn't an issue because we arrived shortly prior to closing.  It was well stocked except for cleaning supplies, which were sparse.  Our experience has been that the Asian markets are less likely to be totally denuded.  It's probably a combination of racism and economic reality; many of the people who regularly shop at these markets don't have the financial means to buy several weeks of groceries at once.  

[Pat]

Mayor Bowser has ordered changes to retail food sales. Farmers markets and fish markets are no longer essential and have to obtain waivers to be open. No arts or crafts or non-food sales allowed at farmers markets. There are a lot of regulations about grocery and convenience stores. Customers have to wear masks to enter retail food establishments. Employers should try to supply employees with gloves and masks if they're working in close contact situations. Employees must be screened for illness before beginning shifts. There's lots more (also a few other changes that aren't food related.)

Maybe it's because I'm really tired, but I can't find the effective date of the order. Soon.

This is the order.

[Rhone1998]

5 minutes ago, Pat said:

Maybe it's because I'm really tired, but I can't find the effective date of the order. Soon.

This is the order.

It is effective tomorrow.

[Pat]

15 minutes ago, Rhone1998 said:

It is effective tomorrow.

Thanks. I knew it had to be there somewhere.

[Pool Boy]

We've had reasonably good luck with Instacart, usually an order can come the next day or two. We tried for the MIL at first, but she's in Annapolis and while the first go went well (3 days in the future) all future attempts are out 2-3 weeks in the future.

I make a foray out about oncee every two to three weeks to fill in the gaps that prepping and instacart and online orders cannot handle. Targeted, precise, no dawdling - well protected.

[MarkS]

Really glad I signed up for a CSA farm share.  Pick up on Wednesdays at a local shopping center.  Contactless.