Grocery shopping. One of the ordinary necessities of life. But not now. In the ordinary pre-Covid life my husband, the cook , does most of the grocery shopping. But this time, it would be me as he has some underlying health issues. Monday morning. Up at six. The moon just setting in the west. A good omen.
The grocery store has an hour from 7am to 8am for seniors and the disabled. 7:00 am my husband drops me off. I was wearing my home made visor (To Mask or not to Mask) The four pages of shopping list was in my gloved hand. My husband was suffering from some food insecurity and we only wanted to shop once every two weeks.
Reader discretion advised! Not all the foods mentioned may be healthy choices.
I headed off to the refrigerator section and started to put in frozen juice, fresh juice, non dairy milks, yogurt, and frozen vegetables. On to the cereal section: Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies and Cheerios. I was on a roll as I waltzed up and down the aisles, plonking things into my shopping cart. Tortilla chips? Salsa? Yes! Veggie sticks ? Rice cakes? Macaroni? Yes! I was really enjoying myself now. Tinned food? 4 cans of tuna! Yes! Tinned ham? Good Grief they still have those. Last time I saw tinned ham was 1962! Tinned soups? Yes! Tomato, chicken noodle, mushroom, vegetable, into the cart. Round the corner and Whoosh…. the bakery section. Four loaves of sliced bread. Done! Hot dog buns. Done! Now the fresh fruits and vegetables. Acorn squash? Two into the cart! Organic bananas? Two bunches into the cart! Potatoes, onions, apples, grapefruit and green beans into the cart! The last page on the list. Tofu? Yes! Non-dairy cheese? Yes…sliced and a block. Woo Hoo! The only thing on the list I could not find was alcohol for sanitizing. Sold out.
I was not alone. There were other senior shoppers there too and we all respected the 2 meter distancing. If someone was looking for something on a shelf a second shopper would wait and move in to the shelf only when the first shopper had left.
My cart was full to the brim and I went to the checkout where the spacing was delineated with red and circles on the floor. My cashier was well protected with Plexiglas walls around her and my groceries went onto the conveyor belt passing underneath that wall. I tapped my card for payment and thanked the cashier for coming to work. She thanked me for coming in to shop!
On the way home we made a stop at the pet food store. Kibble and biscuits for our dog were already ordered and paid for. We phoned the store, the woman came out and put the bag of pet food into the back of the car which we had opened for her.
Once we got home the process of sanitizing began. All the plastic grocery bags were put onto the floor in our garage. I took out all the groceries and placed them on one side of a table. I wiped everything with a sanitizer soaked piece of cloth and placed them onto the “cleaned” side of the table. Once that was done, my husband would take them,in a plastic box, into the house, and put them away.
That afternoon we went for a walk on a nearby trail. We are very fortunate; able to buy enough groceries to last us for two weeks easily and access to trails for walking. Extraordinarily fortunate.
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