We made two trips out today, both for the purpose of acquiring sustenance.
Our first, in the morning, was to get a fifty pound bag of wild bird seed (Voracious little bastards. You don’t think the fly up to our window just so they can pose for photos, do you? They have to be bribed.) at the feed store north of town on Missouri 13 Highway. The feed store has a great system. You call them up, give them your payment information, they run the bill, you drive up, call them when you get there, they open the back tailgate, and load in the bag of seed. Everyone was masked and gloved up.
We’ve been trying delivery from one of the national chain stores in town. It works fine. We’re still utilizing that service. Their online ordering system is very efficient. They deliver, usually in a few days, notifying us by text every step of the way.
Today we thought we’d try the pick-up service of the local grocery store where we usually shop. Our last visit shopping inside this store a month ago, even though we were masked and gloved, was terrifying. At that time far too many people weren’t taking this disaster seriously. We’ve definitely been cured of any desire to repeat the experience.
We called today to figure out how their pick-up service worked. Simple enough. We e-mailed our list, they shopped it, calling if there was a need for substitution or if something wasn’t available. They then called once our order was available for pick-up, taking the payment information over the phone. When we showed up at the pick-up spot we called them to let them know we arrived and to describe our vehicle. Within a few minutes, a masked employee came out the exit with our order in a cart, opened the back tailgate, and loaded our order in. Simple enough. No problem.
There was a bit more traffic around town today. People were definitely shopping at the national chain home improvement store and also at the local grocery stores. And, of course, fast food drive-in windows were busy.
We noticed more people wearing masks. Still, not a majority, though. And almost no one wearing gloves.
I suspect that might change. I hope it will change.
Looking North on Ridgeview, on the way to the grocery store:
Gas.
At the grocery store, for pick-up.
One public entrance and one public exit. At the exit:
This Door EXIT Only.
Social Distancing Guidelines
1 person shopping per household.
NO children under 16.
Maintain 6 foot distance from others.
Those with special shopping needs see management.
Thank you for your patience and cooperation!
Pursuant to Governors Stay at Home Order.
No backpacks allowed in the store or reusable bags to be used at this time. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Senior Citizens Only, 7am-8am.
For Your Safety, Please.
Send only one family member to the store to shop.
Less people – more distance.
Because we care.
This is the new normal. We’d all better get used to it.
Stay Home. Wash your hands. Don’t touch your face. Good luck to us all.
#FlattenTheCurve
Previously:
Our Town (April 11, 2020)
Dear Michael: For the first time in a few weeks I went to Walmart today for needed supplies (no wipes or isopropyl alcohol available). In contrast to what I’d read about Walmart’s efforts to deal with the coronavirus crisis I found these problems at our local store: employees were not adhering to social distancing guidelines, employees were not wearing masks nor gloves, employees did not wipe down the belt on which purchases were placed, fewer checkouts were availabled forcing more people onto fewer checkout stations, there were no one way aisles, as opposed to Aldi’s there were no sanitizing of carts, there were no wipes nor sanitizers at the entrances, and very very few customers were wearing masks or gloves. From now on I am going to avoid Walmart as their management or a majority of their clientele don’t appear to be taking the pandemic seriously … Walmart seems to be doing the bare minimum to assuage people’s fears. Best wishes, Steve Wilson, Professor Emeritus of Biology
We’ve been doing our shopping mostly at Vons down in Oakhurst, and they seem to be taking the precautions seriously, so not really scary. Last time we went down we decided to go through the drive through at Taco Bell, but before we could order the computer system went down, and the girl behind the window came out in gloves and a mask to hand out coupons for a free taco for our inconvenience. I slipped her a couple of bucks and thanked her for coming to work during the apocalypse just so we could get a taco.
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