Anyone stockpiling food?

[hopemax]

We to the store for the first time since last Wed. Got everything on our list except the still rare toilet paper. I am on the last 6-roll pack from pre-Virus. I have some from when we went out on March 4th, but I would like a little more. Hoping people will have stopped with the hoarding by the time we really do need more.

They had chicken, but it was $7.99 / lb so I only bought one thing of strips for a meal I want to make on Monday. Otherwise, I will make do with the 3 2-piece pouches I have from the last time I bought at Costco. And hope Costco will get stocked up eventually. Although, I doubt we'll see $2.99/lb. Flour was really, really low, so I bought one of the last 2 Gold Medal 5 pound bags on the shelf. I wanted to get brownie mix but they were out, but since I have flour, I think I have everything to make brownies from scratch. Produce was well stocked, bread was well stocked, meat case was about 2/3rds of normal. I didn't look at eggs or milk, but butter was fine. Pasta aisle looked decimated, but I overstocked on that at the beginning. Cereal was pretty wiped out as well, but I was able to get the box of Rice Krispies I wanted. Overall, the store was way better than it had been. Our state (Colorado) went under "stay-at-home" on Thursday, so I thought it might be worse, when people "I have no control, so I am going to panic grocery shop" again.

The hard part, is that the store only had a very small ad this week. Only rib-eye for meat, only grapes for produce on sale. I'm used to buying and meal planning based on what's on sale. Now we just have to basically pay full price. Snack foods were still on sale, but I am trying to not go hog wild on those. Although, we did get some Hostess stuff, chips, and graham crackers (I have Costco sized Nutella jars, that has been my pandemic comfort food).

 

[barkley]

The hard part, is that the store only had a very small ad this week.

some stores in our region have taken to not publishing ads anymore. the websites indicate that they can't anticipate what items/amounts they will have day to day so they don't want people to see an ad and have unrealistic expectations on availability.

 

[JoanneAZ]

Today I was on a quest for eggs. It only took visits to 3 different stores to get them, but I did finally find them. Fresh produce was in good supply but canned goods, pasta, rice, pasta sauce, dry beans, and tuna are in short supply or just gone. There was some chicken, pork, beef, lamb, seafood, and various sausages. Ground beef was only available in 5lb+ packages of 80/20. I replenished spices and sauces. There was very little salt and pepper but I think that’s because my usual store had it on sale earlier in the week. I didn’t check paper goods as I don’t currently need them but stocks of those have come and gone quickly over the last 1-2 weeks. There was some bottled water, too.
There were fewer people in the stores than there would normally be on a Saturday and people were paying attention to physical distancing. One of the stores I go to had a sign up out front that said something along the lines of: We are here for the long haul, we’re all in this together, let’s all be kind to each other. Good words to remember.
Stay safe, stay well.

 

[HeatherC]

Today I was on a quest for eggs. It only took visits to 3 different stores to get them, but I did finally find them. Fresh produce was in good supply but canned goods, pasta, rice, pasta sauce, dry beans, and tuna are in short supply or just gone. There was some chicken, pork, beef, lamb, seafood, and various sausages. Ground beef was only available in 5lb+ packages of 80/20. I replenished spices and sauces. There was very little salt and pepper but I think that’s because my usual store had it on sale earlier in the week. I didn’t check paper goods as I don’t currently need them but stocks of those have come and gone quickly over the last 1-2 weeks. There was some bottled water, too.
There were fewer people in the stores than there would normally be on a Saturday and people were paying attention to physical distancing. One of the stores I go to had a sign up out front that said something along the lines of: We are here for the long haul, we’re all in this together, let’s all be kind to each other. Good words to remember.
Stay safe, stay well.

Curious what state you are in if you don’t mind me asking? Stay healthy!

 

[JoanneAZ]

Curious what state you are in if you don’t mind me asking? Stay healthy!

Arizona. I shopped Safeway (Kroger), Sprouts, and AJs (a local gourmet grocery store that carries a few things I can’t get elsewhere and has pre-made food to go).

 

[HeatherC]

Arizona. I shopped Safeway (Kroger), Sprouts, and AJs (a local gourmet grocery store that carries a few things I can’t get elsewhere and has pre-made food to go).

Wow. That is crazy. Sorry you had to go to all those places. I’m in Massachusetts and so far we have not been having those issues...at least where I am and our neighboring towns.

 

[Toolulu22]

We went to the grocery store yesterday and got pretty much everything on our list.

Pasta aisle was very bare, but we were able to get some egg noodles (not the ribbon kind I usually like, but spaghetti shaped) for us and a box of plain penne for our neighbor.

The paper goods aisle was still wiped bare except a few boxes of tissues and 5 rolls of anorexic looking rolls of generic paper towels. I bought my limit of 1 of each item because my husband feels we need them.

The produce aisle was in good shape and things were filling in from a few weeks ago when the stores looked barren.

We still have a stockpile of water, as do most people around here. Over the past year, residents on Long Island (NY) have discovered our drinking water is contaminated with something called 1, 4-dioxane. No one wants to run out of water. I use bottled water to change the water in my fish tank.

 

[JoanneAZ]

Wow. That is crazy. Sorry you had to go to all those places. I’m in Massachusetts and so far we have not been having those issues...at least where I am and our neighboring towns.

Thanks, but it’s not too much trouble, 2 of the stores are within a mile of my place, the other is maybe 5 miles. I was able to get everything I need. I picked up some pre-made salmon with dill for dinner as a change from cooking for myself.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

I’m in Virginia. I just went out today for some additional groceries, toiletries and household goods. While I’m not usually an Aldi shopper, I started at Aldi this time because last weekend it was the only place I could find ground beef. My Kroger has been out of pasta, chicken, ground beef, eggs and paper products the last 3 or 4 times we’ve been there. I needed all that stuff and Aldi had it!!! I was down to 1 roll of paper towels; Aldi had a big pack (no TP though they had it last week). They had lots of chicken, milk, eggs and ground beef. Then I went to Target for shampoo, conditioner, face wash, powdered Gain (I got the last box; they had none last week.), banana bread mix, breakfast burritos. All in all, I got everything I needed!!! Yay!

 

[izzy]

Virginia here, too. I went to Walmart and Aldi today and got pretty much everything I needed. (Plus some unhealthy things that I didn’t need. Haha!). My two big scores were at Walmart. Got a big pack of toilet paper and a 4.5 pound package of 93% lean ground beef that came out to $3.70 a pound, which is an awesome price. They were wiped out of 1 pound packs of leaner ground beef - they did have ground chuck, but that’s 20% fat. Anyway, we just divvied it up into smaller packs and froze them. Now we don’t have to worry about ground beef for months!

 

[Imzadi]

I am done shopping! I had to go out an extra 4 times after the initial time when the the country was told to self-isolate. Mainly because the time period to isolate kept being extended here, then there wasn't enough food, and when there was, I made crucial mistakes in buying the right amounts.

I now have enough food to last to the end of April and TP to last till Mid May.

It was such a relief after I closed the door when I got home, knowing I do not HAVE to go to the stores again for some weeks. Most of my stress was knowing I have to go out again for stuff as the cases here grow exponentially. That I'm risking my safety for chicken thighs. But, if I didn't go now, I'd end up needing to go out during the expected peak here and possibly end up as one of the cases. Now, I just wait the 3 days for the Covid-19 to die off any packaging. (I left the shopping bags in the corner with my shoes.) Do another round of disinfecting, and I'm good to go in here for a while.

The only thing I am missing is fresh veggies. But, I will order some stir-fry veggies from my neighborhood Chinese & Thai restaurants.

 

[Imzadi]

They had chicken, but it was $7.99 / lb so I only bought one thing of strips for a meal I want to make on Monday. Otherwise, I will make do with the 3 2-piece pouches I have from the last time I bought at Costco. And hope Costco will get stocked up eventually. Although, I doubt we'll see $2.99/lb.

Yes, I noticed the rise in prices here too. Large eggs are normally $3.99 and $4.39 for extra-large, at the local store. And they were last week, when I didn't do the math and buy enough. This time the large was $4.59 and extra large was $4.99. If I could go to Trader Joes, I think they are probably still $1.99 a dozen, if they have them. But, it's was always packed in there, pre-virus. Not going there.

 

[Owlpost23]

For those who are doing their own shopping, are you finding limits at the store? With the walmart pickup in my area, except for bananas and produce, everything has limits of 2. Now I could order 2 loaves of bread, 2 packs of english muffins and 2 packs of bagels, which I did and got none at all ...LOL...but I am wondering is this is just online or are people being stopped at the checkout with 8 loaves of bread. I realize if you have 6 people in your family, feeding them three meals a day, you need a loaf a day, but just wondering what and if any limits are occurring.

For one shop the bananas were limited to 6. Next shop , I ordered 9 and got them. A little banana tip that probably every one knew but me...........Normally we just buy a bunch and it sits on the counter and all the bananas go bad in 4 or 5 days. With this lack of just running to the store whenever....the bananas I got , I separate them and put them in the basement , spread out on a table. The basement is a little cooler than the kitchen and the bananas are lasting twice as long.

Even bananas are social distancing!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

My husband went to Walmart yesterday to get milk (it had gone bad the one we had), some more bagels and cream cheese, cheese, and frozen bread and he said it was much better stocked than before (they had a good amount of bread he said). This happened earlier than I expected. There were still a decent amount out like I don't believe there were toilet paper, paper towels, some frozen stuff but so much better than before. I should have had him check the cereal lol because that has been picked clean for a long while.

Now he went about 10am and said the store was fairly empty. Sister-in-law went to another Walmart not too too far away and she went in the afternoon. That Walmart was also stocked more than before but was quite busy and people were getting stuff (so probably the stock will get lower at least today and tomorrow or so again).

Our stay at home order was announced over a week ago and went into effective Tuesday. Since no new announcement, that would affect us, has been made in between that I was hoping that would help as people could calm down in not needing to have a new restriction added. Seems like that has helped a bit.

 

[skyblue17]

I am done shopping! I had to go out an extra 4 times after the initial time when the the country was told to self-isolate. Mainly because the time period to isolate kept being extended here, then there wasn't enough food, and when there was, I made crucial mistakes in buying the right amounts.

I now have enough food to last to the end of April and TP to last till Mid May.

It was such a relief after I closed the door when I got home, knowing I do not HAVE to go to the stores again for some weeks. Most of my stress was knowing I have to go out again for stuff as the cases here grow exponentially. That I'm risking my safety for chicken thighs. But, if I didn't go now, I'd end up needing to go out during the expected peak here and possibly end up as one of the cases. Now, I just wait the 3 days for the Covid-19 to die off any packaging. (I left the shopping bags in the corner with my shoes.) Do another round of disinfecting, and I'm good to go in here for a while.

The only thing I am missing is fresh veggies. But, I will order some stir-fry veggies from my neighborhood Chinese & Thai restaurants.

Glad you got so much stuff! I am probably heading out again tomorrow, as I'm trying to replenish so I don't get too low in any item.

I can't say I'm disinfecting to the point you are, though. We simply don't have enough disinfectant to do that and we still have no idea when we will be able to get more. We spray packages that are delivered but groceries, not so much. I wash my hands so many time during any food handling (packaged or not) that hopefully it balances out. I do wear gloves when shopping and don't use carts/baskets from the store.

 

[Imzadi]

Glad you got so much stuff! I am probably heading out again tomorrow, as I'm trying to replenish so I don't get too low in any item.

Try to go very early in the morning. I've found that is the best time. Most people aren't up yet, so the grocery stores & drugstores aren't filled with as many people.

I can't say I'm disinfecting to the point you are, though. We simply don't have enough disinfectant to do that and we still have no idea when we will be able to get more. We spray packages that are delivered but groceries, not so much.

When I mean disinfecting, I mean wiping down the counters & the floor, after putting away all the pre-packaged stuff that I didn't have to refrigerate. I left them all in a bag in the corner, until the Covid-19 is supposed to die. I wiped some of them down with a disinfectingwipe. But, as someone pointed out the directions say to use a wipe for 4 minutes. That's unrealistic. I'd rather just leave them in a corner for over 3 days.

 

[skyblue17]

Try to go very early in the morning. I've found that is the best time. Most people aren't up yet, so the grocery stores & drugstores aren't filled with as many people.




When I mean disinfecting, I mean wiping down the counters & the floor, after putting away all the pre-packaged stuff that I didn't have to refrigerate. I left them all in a bag in the corner, until the Covid-19 is supposed to die. I wiped some of them down with a disinfectingwipe. But, as someone pointed out the directions say to use a wipe for 4 minutes. That's unrealistic. I'd rather just leave them in a corner for over 3 days.

Yeah, I can't say I'm leaving anything in a corner for days either. It's a lot easier to just wash my hands all the time.

 

[Imzadi]

I heard on the news that the Instacart workers who are gathering all the food products to deliver to people are now protesting that their work conditions, (the supermarkets,) are too unsafe. They are demanding PPE to keep them safe. If they start getting the virus and all quit, one of the ways people have been getting food may be ended.

 

[Kitty 34]

DH headed to our Meijer at 10 am this morning with our list, my brother's, sister's and Mom's lists and found most everything on the list. Of course none of us had TP and cleaning supplies on the list so we were all good. What he did pick up today that he hadn't been able to last Monday was eggs, butter, my Snuggle fabric softener and my brother's flavored water. OH and some meat.

He said there was plenty of flour and sugar on the shelves and I'm only saying that as others are having problems finding that. So hopefully the "hoarding" starts settling down thru all of this and stocked shelves just stay stock a bit longer than three hours!!

 

[Kay7979]

We went to the grocery store yesterday and got pretty much everything on our list.

Pasta aisle was very bare, but we were able to get some egg noodles (not the ribbon kind I usually like, but spaghetti shaped) for us and a box of plain penne for our neighbor.

The paper goods aisle was still wiped bare except a few boxes of tissues and 5 rolls of anorexic looking rolls of generic paper towels. I bought my limit of 1 of each item because my husband feels we need them.

The produce aisle was in good shape and things were filling in from a few weeks ago when the stores looked barren.

We still have a stockpile of water, as do most people around here. Over the past year, residents on Long Island (NY) have discovered our drinking water is contaminated with something called 1, 4-dioxane. No one wants to run out of water. I use bottled water to change the water in my fish tank.

I would buy a water distiller. It seems it would pay for itself before long.