During our stay-at-home mandate, I put off going to the grocery store as long as I could. I had tried ordering groceries online, but that was a total fail. After having my items sit in the Whole Foods shopping cart for days with NO delivery slots available for the week, I finally decided that I had to go.
I had some ideas on how to go about it, then read an excellent article that confirmed my plan and gave me other suggestions.
Strategy:
- Pick one store – although I usually go to several stores, I picked one smallish, organic market.
- Go less frequently – if possible, shop for two weeks instead of one.
Items I took with me:
- Paper list
- Pen to mark off items
- iPhone with Apple pay in my back pocket
- Travel-size hand sanitizer (the only sanitizer I own by the way)
- Face Mask
- Car key in a pocket – I left the purse at home
Guidelines while shopping:
- Practice social distancing
- Wear face mask
- Disinfect shopping cart (my store does this to prep for the next customer)
- Commit to buying before touching – Don’t touch anything you aren’t going to buy. This seems obvious, but I saw a woman do this more than once!
- Don’t use your phone. Keep it in your pocket to avoid contamination.
- Stay calm and collected.
Checking out:
- Put all items on the conveyor belt
- Use hand sanitizer
- Get iPhone out of pocket
- Pay with ApplePay (I didn’t have to sign or touch the store pad)
- Put iPhone back in my pocket
Leaving the store:
- Push the grocery cart to the car
- Load grocery bags in the trunk
- Put away grocery cart
- Use hand sanitizer
- Get in the car and go home
Reflections on the experience:
- Plenty of food. In no way did I feel like this was a shortage situation. The only item out of stock was TP, which luckily I didn’t need to purchase.
- People were respectful. Most people I encountered were polite and careful to adhere to six-feet of social distancing.
- Confident in my immune system. My husband and I have been paying close attention to what we eat and are doing our best to take care of our immune systems. I realized that being sure of my health helped me feel less stressed when out and about.
Healthy Groceries
Photo credit:
If you are looking for more information, here’s the article I read to prep for my outing:
https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-grocery-shopping-guide.html