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Post by fullmahina on Jun 27, 2020 12:39:44 GMT
While riding home from a shopping trip the other day I was thinking about how our shopping habits have changed.
I am doing a lot more shopping online, mostly Amazon and Walmart. Our pet food store closed permanently so now I am buying the dogs' food and treats from Petflow.com (used to use Chewy but after too many bad experiences I have moved on to Petflow).
We haven't done any curbside pickup or used any shopping service like Instacart.
The shopping experience itself is not fun anymore. Get the list, get in and get out. Mask, gloves, wipes, and hand sanitizer. Cell phone in a ziploc sandwich bag just in case it rings and I have to grab it---don't have to worry about contaminating the phone (a little trick I learned years ago working as a nurse). I wear a fanny pack (now called a "waist pack," lol) with my supplies, a small wallet with a CC and my license and some cash. The fanny pack gets wiped down after shopping. In the old days I brought a purse and plopped it in the child seat of the shopping cart but that was then and this is now.
I buy many things in multiples now that we are only doing big shopping every 3-4 weeks. Even things like milk, which I freeze. I don't use much milk, just for coffee and cooking, so buying multiples and leaving them in the fridge doesn't work for me.
I still do the sanitizing thing and have a station set up in the garage with table, paper towels, spray, hand sanitizer, and two big busboy bins. I put the bags on the floor and take things out one by one, wipe them down, and let them dry on the table. Then they go into the bins to take into the house. Fresh fruits and veggies are left until last, dumped into a big stock pot and brought to the sink and washed there.
Gone are the days of going to four or five or six different stores in one day and wandering around like they were museums and then stopping for lunch. I do miss that.
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Post by bee on Jun 27, 2020 13:33:46 GMT
For Covid, not at all. Had one Walmart delivery and that cured me. I can don a mask and go out once a week.
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Post by DotRen on Jun 27, 2020 14:14:07 GMT
I have not been "out" (other than in the car), aside from an eye appointment and a couple of vet visits, since this started. I'm using curbside and delivery exclusively.
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Post by fullmahina on Jun 27, 2020 14:22:32 GMT
For Covid, not at all. Had one Walmart delivery and that cured me. I can don a mask and go out once a week. So no wiping down your purchases? You are braver than me, lol. Where are you located, Bee? I guess here in NY we saw the worst and most of us definitely are a little spooked, especially if we have household members that are immunocompromised (along with other health issues). I'm sure people who live in areas that are relatively untouched might be less unnerved than us folks in the Northeast!
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Post by bee on Jun 27, 2020 14:39:08 GMT
For Covid, not at all. Had one Walmart delivery and that cured me. I can don a mask and go out once a week. So no wiping down your purchases? You are braver than me, lol. Where are you located, Bee? I guess here in NY we saw the worst and most of us definitely are a little spooked, especially if we have household members that are immunocompromised (along with other health issues). I'm sure people who live in areas that are relatively untouched might be less unnerved than us folks in the Northeast! Nope, never wiped down anything. Have washed my hands a lot. Cannot use the hand sanitizer as the feel of it is gonna make me vomit. I live 30 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, in south La., 46 miles southwest of NOLA. Orleans Parish and Jefferson have been really bad, but my parish not so bad.
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squid
Transcendent Member
Posts: 976
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Post by squid on Jun 27, 2020 14:44:38 GMT
fullmahina, you have to do what you feel is right for you and your family, but I couldn't go to the lengths you do to sanitize my purchases. One of my sisters has been working as a grocery stocker since Covid struck in March and not one employee in her store in any dept. has contracted the virus. I do understand someone could be asymptomatic. I wear a mask, stay as far away from other shoppers as I can, use hand sanitizer when I get back in the car, and then sanitize my hands again after putting everything away when I get home.
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Post by fullmahina on Jun 27, 2020 15:08:06 GMT
you have to do what you feel is right for you and your family, but I couldn't go to the lengths you do to sanitize my purchases. I think it is the result of taking too many medical microbiology courses, working for many years in negative pressure isolation rooms in full PPE, and tagging and bagging many patients who had died from contagious diseases. Seeing the devastating effects of COVID on people who I know personally and hearing the stories from friends and former co-workers who are working the front lines. And yeah, the asymptomatic thing. If you're not testing, you don't know. Totally false sense of safety to think no one around us is not infected just because they don't have symptoms, IMHO. Nope, don't want to be bringing this thing into my home. Yes, I have read the articles about the pros and cons of sanitizing purchases. I stop at the point where they inevitable say "the risks are low"---I want to see "there is absolutely no risk." If they can't do that then there IS a risk and with a husband who has an autoimmune disease, heart disease, and cancer I think I will continue doing the most I can possibly do to keep the virus at bay. Even with all that we do I realize we can still get it but if we do it won't be because we didn't do all we could to prevent it. &^%# happens and if it does we'll deal with that too.
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Post by luanne on Jun 27, 2020 15:33:23 GMT
Dh goes out and does the grocery shopping every two weeks instead of once a week. We do the sanitizing. I just read where now they are saying the virus can't be carried on food, or food wrappings, but we will most likely continue. When dh brings the stuff home he puts everything in the outside pantry that goes there (no wiping down of that) and brings the bags inside of the foods that belong in the house. I wipe those down and put them away. I rinse off the produce (except potatoes and onions). We do a lot of online shopping as well. I have gone into CVS a couple of times since this started, but that has been because I needed to pick up a prescription. I really have no desire to go into a store, just because.
Dh asked me a few days ago if I was ready to go to Costco yet. Nope. But we do really need to go as there are things we get there that we can't get elsewhere and can't order online. Our closest Costco is an hour away and I have been concerned that we'd get down there and have to wait a long time to get in. A friend went this week and said they were able to walk right in. And I talked to another friend who said she'd been doing most of her shopping there as it was someplace she felt "safe" to go into since they were the first to install the plastic guards at the cash registers, wipe down carts, insure social distancing, etc. She also said she was buying quantities that would allow her to not need to shop as often. Prior to this we would go to Costco about once a month, we haven't gone since February.
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Post by gadgetgirlil on Jun 27, 2020 16:13:01 GMT
My shopping habits haven't really changed other than I have not ventured out to Costco since everything shutdown. I did do one online order with them as I needed some special towels for the dispensers at our rental property.
I never was the type to buy a big cart of groceries. Nor is DH. His habits did change as he now gets up early to go to Walmart, etc. He is NOT a morning person so this is a big change for him.
Masks, hand sanitizer and frequent hand washing is all we do differently now. No wiping down of groceries. We are in the western suburbs of Chicago.
ETA: I never liked shopping so never was one to linger and wander around the store. I make a list and get in and out as fast as I can.
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Post by bbbearsmom on Jun 27, 2020 16:56:11 GMT
fullmahina, How is you neighbor that had to go back into the hospital?
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Post by fullmahina on Jun 27, 2020 17:09:56 GMT
fullmahina , How is you neighbor that had to go back into the hospital? He had several surgeries during the two weeks he was there to remove rotten lung tissue. He is back home now but we have not seen him outside. When he came home after the first six weeks in the hospital we often saw him walking for exercise. His sister posts updates on her FB page where she regularly asks for prayers.
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Post by linda72 on Jun 27, 2020 17:26:00 GMT
luanne, our Costco feels very safe with all of the precautions they have in place. Ours has Senior shopping hours from 9-10 during the week and I go around 9:15 and just walk right in. They are changing the Senior shopping hours in July, to only 2 times a week, so check before you go. Costco HoursI don't wipe down my groceries after reading numerous articles that say it isn't necessary. But with all of the changes, daily, from "medical personnel", I'm never sure what is actually going on. No wonder people are confused.
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Post by bbbearsmom on Jun 27, 2020 19:26:49 GMT
fullmahina, Thanks for the update. It's too bad he's had to go through all of this.
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Post by alias123 on Jun 27, 2020 22:44:55 GMT
you have to do what you feel is right for you and your family, but I couldn't go to the lengths you do to sanitize my purchases. I think it is the result of taking too many medical microbiology courses, working for many years in negative pressure isolation rooms in full PPE, and tagging and bagging many patients who had died from contagious diseases. Seeing the devastating effects of COVID on people who I know personally and hearing the stories from friends and former co-workers who are working the front lines. And yeah, the asymptomatic thing. If you're not testing, you don't know. Totally false sense of safety to think no one around us is not infected just because they don't have symptoms, IMHO. Nope, don't want to be bringing this thing into my home. Yes, I have read the articles about the pros and cons of sanitizing purchases. I stop at the point where they inevitable say "the risks are low"---I want to see "there is absolutely no risk." If they can't do that then there IS a risk and with a husband who has an autoimmune disease, heart disease, and cancer I think I will continue doing the most I can possibly do to keep the virus at bay. Even with all that we do I realize we can still get it but if we do it won't be because we didn't do all we could to prevent it. &^%# happens and if it does we'll deal with that too. Fellow NYC person here. When I come in from outside I immediately wash my hands well. Then I wipe down all grocery packaging. Any un-packaged fruit/veg I wash when I prepare it. I also spray or wash my keys, doorknob, sink faucet, the table I put unwashed groceries on and refrigerator door handle. After all that and everything is put away, I wash my hands again. It doesn't really take a lot of time to do.
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Post by finreporter on Jun 27, 2020 23:23:24 GMT
I spend a lot less money! That’s how my shopping habits have changed! I hadn’t realized how frivolous my shopping spending habits were until they were stopped cold turkey. I’m very aware of it now. I did grocery delivery service for the first two months. Now I go about every other week and wear the mask and sanitize my hands as soon as I leave. I bring my wallet and keys and phone in a canvas washable bag and don’t touch keys or phone until I’ve thoroughly wiped my hands with the sanitizing wipes. I don’t wipe anything down except the milk carton if I’ve bought milk. And then I wash my hands upon getting home and sanitize my phone and door handles then wash my hands again once all groceries are put away.
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