I’ve taken a few photos with my phone over these past few weeks – just in case I forget how crazy this pandemic was. I mentioned yesterday we bought some “just in case” food at Costco in late February and two of those items were paper towels and toilet paper. I wasn’t aware of how valuable they would become! At the time I bought them I remember thinking we would end up moving them with us when we left Atlanta and that would be just silly.
Now two months later, the paper towel and toilet paper aisle at Kroger near our house is still empty. If I shop early in the morning, they have a few boxes of maybe one or two brands. But if I shop later than 11am, that aisle is empty. It is crazy! Don’t people have enough stockpiled?
Another day, another empty tp and pt section:
Our Kroger does say that they limit your toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies and other things to 1 of each item.
But when I shopped at 7:40am a few weeks ago not realizing I was there early (I usually wait and go after 8am since senior hour is from 7-8am), I noticed the carts were full of Lysol Wipes (easily 10 tubs or more in each cart). No wonder they are always gone when I look for them in the morning! I still haven’t seen wipes since. I bought one tub at CVS back in early March and I’ve almost used it up. I prefer Fantastik and paper towels but it would be nice to be able to buy at least one tub of Lysol or Clorox wipes. I tried to go back into Kroger one day at 7:30am to try and snag a single tub of wipes and I was told to come back after 8am. Oh well.
Recently, the news has been talking about all of the meat processing plants closing and we might run out of meat. I looked this morning and our stock at Kroger was fine… for now:
One area of the grocery store that is always wiped out lately is the bread section. People must be making a lot of sandwiches:
This bread aisle was at Walmart. Chris asked for Thomas Everything bagels. I turned and saw this and thought “oh no…” but if you can believe it – I bent down and looked and there was one last rogue pack of Thomas Everything bagels here!
In addition to bread, people keep buying out all of the Kraft American slices. People must be making a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches!
If you have a dog, you probably know that Kraft American singles are the secret to giving a dog a pill! James the Poodle got sick again recently (he is getting better) but we have to give him medicine and it helps to have sticky cheese! I wish people would make fancy grilled cheese sandwiches and save the sticky gooey Kraft American slices for James the Poodle!
Eggs are another thing that are usually sold out:
I am sensing that people are either A: Sick of Cooking, or B: Don’t Know How to Cook. Because the ramen noodle section is also wiped out:
But I am also sensing there is a lot of baking happening because the flour and sugar aisle is wiped out:
I’m thankful that the grocery stores are still open. And I’m thankful that there is plenty of food overall. But I am ready for life to get back to normal. It is so weird to walk around shopping and see everyone in their face masks. And I miss chatting with random strangers as we decide which vegetable is the ripest or whatever. I feel like everyone is in a “get in, get out” mode while shopping now.
Stay healthy everyone and this will all be behind us soon.