What were the 3 worst shopping issues you had in COVID? Did it change anything in how you do things

meyati

start looking for the replacement. Last night my son said, we need yellow mustard. The 3 things we had the most trouble finding was---flour---bread---laundry soap. At WalMart I found a torn- 10# bag of flour, and 2 women began offering me money for it. They stopped at $15. I had to have that because I couldn't find any bread/tortillas at all.

I buy bulk flour now, and it's delivered to the door by a NYC wholesale company. I figure that leaves smaller bags of flour on the local shelves for people that don't wholesale for one reason or the other.

Carool

Wow, the flour came from here in NYC?!

It’s a year since it was hard to find some goods and some foods because of Covid, and things have for many months been back to normal here, in relation to those difficulties. I remember the toilet paper shortage and how food shelves emptied quickly. People panicked, and some hoarded.

It seems so long ago, but it was only a year or less. I’m glad you brought up the memories. Supermarkets weren’t open for long each day. It was stressful.

So glad things are better now, at least for now. And so sorry about India.

MarcieB

Things are pretty much back to normal here too. I remember when the supermarkets would distribute flour and yeast in clear plastic containers - like they must have bought it in bulk and packaged it at the store. But, it was dreadful flour! Who knows how old it was? Then we discovered our local farms and mills made online ordering and *pick-up* a thing! We could get fresh milled flour, local eggs, and produce as it came in season. We are still buying from those farms - best turnips I have ever had.

Molly72

Toilet paper of course!
But I hoarded & actually bought some from Amazon, so now we have plenty. Our local grocery is not the best & is still running out of stuff like sugar-free items.I have seen several customers buy all the sugar-free canned fruit, fruit juices, and puddings, leaving the shelves bare. The employees blame the warehouse or the delivery trucks, but refuse to limit large purchases.

But I can always make the long drive to a nice store like Kroger's or Meijer's.
We live in the county, and get eggs, and produce from local farms, and of course, from our own garden once the weather warms up.
I have melon, and tomato plants ready to plant outside, but it has been too chilly at night to plant yet.

meyati

Seriously, India horrifies me. I don't understand why Biden didn't send excess vaccine to Michigan when the governor was begging for it. It wasn't like Texas and Louisiana were using their vaccine.

Now we have India with something that couldn't even be imaged by the creepiest movie director. Little oxygen, no vaccine? cremating on city streets. The accident of birth is the only thing that prevents me from being born there. Now to correlate India to Michigan. Can we send enough vaccine to help India? No, but we can send enough to help individual Indians.

Albuquerque is a bit larger than St. Louis, MO, but Albuquerque seems to be at the end end of America's supply chain. We are better off with online shopping. We weren't better off even 10 years ago. It took weeks to get something. We can go to a store- and it may or may not have something. An example is my dermatologist prescribed a cream for my eczema in early 2020, and the New Mexico price was $750 to $1,100. My dermatologist did research and found that in El Paso, TX the same med- same size tube was $610. Canned pumpkin is hard to find, so I hoard it. Missy is old, has a bad stomach-bleeds each time she poops-not a lot. She's on a diet of easily digestible foods- and canned pumpkin is a large share of her diet. Ryder needs pumpkin so he doesn't get constipated. We don't know about Jax, but he's had several spells where we took him to the ER vet, and he had all sort of labs, X-Rays, IVs, and water packs injected into his shoulders. One time he was so sick that I had to take him back about 10 hours later. My regular vet said- try pumpkin with his dry food. He had one spell since then, but not bad enough to take him in to a vet. So, I will fight other dog owners for pumpkin-- Missy is down to 82 lbs, Jax is 75, Ryder is in the low 60s, I know that Western rural communities have it an awful lot worse, even now. One small store or trading post serving a few hundred square miles-- and the truck didn't have any TP, no bread/flour/yeast/cornmeal--. One small NM city-had it's only grocery store--Albertsons--closed down for COVID--and the next closest grocery store was over 300 miles in El Paso. The manager donated absolutely everything to the 2 local food banks, even the normal food being brought in until the store could open.

Molly72

And this is America, Meyati?
That is really unforgivable not to have grocery stores closer than several hundred miles.
I should not complain about not being able to find certain foodstuffs or even "stuff". Our closest
grocery is about 12 miles away.

We now have enough vaccine in MI, any excess in the country should be sent to India. Some of our American people are now refusing to vaccinate, so send the vaccine (if possible) to those who are in dire need of it. Those who want to live.

meyati

Molly--small towns are and have been a 100 miles or so apart in West Texas, Wyoming and New Mexico, and -YES this is reality now and in the past.

As for groceries- standing in line and then seeing bare shelves- I joked this is like Moscow, Russia in the 1960s. Having other shoppers trying to buy my torn bag of flour, was also like Russia.

Molly, different regions are different from other regions---to say this is not America is very wrong. People need water to drink-that was true in the 1800s as much as it's true in the 21st century. Towns that do have water in the MidWest are still dying because there aren't jobs and entertainment for the young people-they move to the cities. So, please-- we are Americans, even if we live in a village with 300 people that have outhouses and take baths in galvanised tubs to water horses. We do take the tubs inside for a bath.

Molly72

I did not mean that as a put down for the west or rural America-- I also live in rural America, I meant it as a complaint for America's government to provide better care of all their citizens-- more health facilities, more stores in all areas, better roads, safe bridges, etc.
Not just help for cities & towns, but all of us. I didn't have decent internet connection until a few months ago.
You should see the rural & urban roads in MI !!!
Our dirt/gravel roads out in the country have potholes big enough for a duck to swim in! Our car needs constant repairs for tires & rims & the road commission is not good about grading & repairing except for a few times a year.

Our water, we of course have a well, is full of way too much iron and lime, but fixing that problem would cost thousands. But we choose to live in the country--so we put up with a lot. Much safer out here than in a city, but we also have problems that city folks never even consider. Our government needs to consider all of America!

Carool

Biden IS now sending India vaccine-making materials and other desperately-needed supplies.

It’s a shame that India’s leader, similarly to Trump, downplayed the severity of Covid and encouraged mass religious holiday celebrations, during which many people caught the virus.

meyati

I accept that explanation Molly, but water is a factor here in the SouthWest- even in Nevada and parts of Utah. I've certainly heard about Detroit and other cities on the Great Lakes. Lung cancer is almost considered a teachers disease, bc so many schools built after WW2 used lots of asbestos to fireproof schools. That could be a major reason so many people develop lung cancer.

I've been signing petitions to up pay for NM doctors and rural hospitals, because the US government- Social Security, PHS, Congress has the lowest pay-reimbursement for NM in and out of the US. Things have been closing down in this state since the mid-1990s. People with money and their doctors pay to have their injured loved ones sent to Texas and Colorado.

Molly72

We are lucky about water here in MI, we have plenty. Quality in some areas is not good, in others very good. Nestle, a bottled water company is taking water from one spring up north to sell as a popular brand to the public, the spring is running dry, leaving the locals high & dry, but Nestle could care less. All to make big bucks.
Actually, the Detroit city water is supposedly very good. In fact, Flint got their water from Detroit until the government decided to save a few bucks & switched their supply from Detroit's water to the infamous Flint River. Then all &%@ broke loose with lead leaching into the local water pipes. Poisoned the poor people of Flint, they are still trying to replace all the water pipes, but damage has been done to the kids of Flint. All to save a few bucks!

meyati

I hear you--I was surprised to find out that in the county, directly south of us, a company was bottling water.

We've had a drought for 10 years, hardly any lawns. The government complaining that most of the big trees were cut down-the state water authority came here and fined us through the water authority until we removed trees in this neighborhood. and the governments allow a company to turn on a spigot, fill bottles, and ship them out to god knows where, while farmers can't get enough water for crops.

Part of Albuquerque laws are cut down old trees, then give credits for planting young trees from a nursery/landscaper, and then give water credits to water the young trees-- like a young tree has maybe a 100 leaves for shade and cleaning the air, while an older tree has thousands and thousands of leaves and makes lots of shade and is home to birds. A pox on this thinking.

I naturalized of side yard-2 trees-native desert plants-Spanish Broom, Apache Plume, redprairie sage, Russian Sage--some weird California thing from the Mojave dessert that likes my yard and different types of yuccas, besides what the wind blows in- like pretty daisy looking Flea Bane I got a in face personal notice to cut it all down- go to a nursery and buy approved plants--I hadn't watered that for about 5 years. I told them if they insisted that I'd go to a median and dig up the city plants--I told them since the city planted Apache Plume, I could darn well have Apache Plume in my yard. I went online to California Dept of Ag, Illinois and and Iowa- and I downloaded acceptable plants, how to care for them in droughts, etc. when to cut back. etc. I mailed those to the mayor and Zoning. Also plant identification pics. The city now has that on it's site. 2 years ago an inspector cited my Russian Sage-sweet sagey smelling purple blue flowers as Russian Thistle which is tumble weed. I took pics of sage and Tumble weed- pointed out that a 4" pot of sage can be $20, and the idea is to have almost water free yards-not to support nurseries and landscapers. They are leaving me alone again. I told them to train their inspectors to know what a tumbleweed looks like and leave flowers alone.

legaljen1969

The situation is India is just terrible. There is a man in our office building who went to India to see his mother because she was dying. He attended her funeral just before things really ramped up over there. He was planning to stay for a little while to help his family get things in order. Now he unable to get out of India or back into America. He may never get back home. I feel for his wife and children. His son is getting ready to graduate from high school, even though its going to be a virtual ceremony. They had a celebration planned. Now they don't know if he will make it home- for graduation or ever.

legaljen1969

My three worst shopping issues during COVID were the shortages of cleaning supplies. It was hard to get any sort of disinfectants. It was hard to get laundry detergent. Even just plain soap to wash your body was hard to come by. I had to use shampoo for body soap or body soap for shampoo for several months. I would get whatever I could find and do the best I could.

Once supplies started coming back, I too started buying things as soon as whatever it was had become half or less full. I did once offer to buy some Lysol Laundry Sanitizer from a woman who had two of them. I had been trying for almost six weeks to get some. I had been able to find two bottles of Pine Sol which I had. So we traded- she took one Pine Sol and I took one Laundry Sanitizer.

If I had extra of anything I was willing to share with people. I would have never charged, much less price gouged someone, for an essential. Our neighbors were great about sharing whatever we could if we had extra of something that someone else needed. Living at the coast where we stay in "hurricane prep mode" for half of the year, I always have "emergency supplies" and I know well what happens when an emergency is announced. People panic and buy up everything.

Truthfully, the main thing it has changed for me is to buy only what I absolutely "NEED." I am not a "stock up" person any more. This situation could ramp up again at any time, or some new situation could come about where we have hoarding and selfish people. And I don't want to be the one who took the last bottle of something that someone else needs just because it was "on sale."

The biggest thing that changed in how I do things, is that I really do, at all times, try to think of others before I think of myself. I always ask my older neighbors if I can pick up anything for them when I go to the store. I reach out to people I know are not able to get out and do things.

meyati

I buy flour, rice, sugar in 100 lb bags. Most of my life I bought like that and I went shopping 4 times a year--living on ranches that became snow bound. Me buying bulk leaves 5#, 10#, 20# and 25# bags of flour-sugar, etc on the local shelves for people that don't buy bulk---. Believe me, it doesn't go bad-none of it is wasted. Fortunately, we had tons of bar soap in Albuquerque. I found a Louisiana rice grower that sold premium rice to 5 star NYC, NO, and DC restaurants. They decided to sell it to house wives, etc. There wasn't a grain of rice anywhere in NM-not on military bases-not trading posts-not independent stores and co-ops. I gladly paid the price. For some reason- every store had Arm & Hammer laundry soap--I still buy it.

Now my son is a different matter, not only was he raised shopping about 4 times a year, he was a seacook, and he shopped for 3 or 4 months at sea with a crew of 120.

legaljen1969

Meyati, you have had a very interesting life.

I am always amazed to hear the stories of others. You are definitely NOT a wasteful person. I learned during the pandemic to be much less wasteful. I won't lie. I definitely used to be a lot more indulgent and a lot more wasteful.

I admire people who really do use every last bit of everything they have, and know exactly what they need to make life work. I am trying to be more like that.

Carool

legaljen, that’s so sad about your office neighbor who’s now stuck in India.

I tend to waste food. I’m aware that this is very wrong, and that there may well be a time in the future (either near or not so near) when I will remember with longing how much food I wasted. Well, it’s not that I waste THAT much, but I do waste.

meyati

It's hard to cook for one or 2 people--the worst is for 3. recipes are usually for 4 people-meat packs have 4 patties, 4 chops, 4 servings of chicken and so on.

In Readers Digest- a young lawyer took his new wife for a dinner at the senior partners home. She absolutely loved one dish, and asked for the recipe. The hostess was absolutely delighted, and had the maid get the recipe from the cook. The new wife successfully cooked the food, but she ended up giving the leftovers to several neighbors. A few days later she was sent flowers with an apology note. The recipe was for 2 people, a cook, 2 maids, chauffeur.

Kebohs

Oh my! The toilet paper, the hand sanitizers,the Lysol spray and the Clorox wipes. All so hard to get because of all the hoarding. Here in the Delmarva everything is pretty much back to normal as far as supplies go. I hope it stays that way.

legaljen1969

carool, food is probably my biggest waste item too.

Carool

Kebohs, we were unable to get wipes or sprays, so we gave up on getting those. At first we tried to wash off packaged or canned foods, but we soon stopped doing that. Fortunately, it turned out that doing so was unnecessary after all.

I remember how at first it was so hard to get masks.

meyati

I didn't have any trouble with masks, as I shop on Ebay a lot. I'm actually having more trouble now, because so many people sell artsy and designer masks, and they often don't clarify the type of mask.
There wasn't a great selection in the early days, but there were enough suitable masks to have a selection. The problem was getting somebody to make and fill the order, or for enough healthy people to deliver the order. my son likes the weird off the wall masks--on open shark mouth, tongue hanging out--. I found some great ones from Japan for my son.

One of my issues was and is getting dry dog food for the boys.

legaljen1969

I wanted to first update everyone and let you all know that my office neighbor made it back the USA yesterday. I just talked to him a few minutes ago. He's not in the building yet. He is still doing a self-imposed quarantine, but he called to let me know he made it back to the states. I was so happy I almost cried.

Meyati, if you ever need for me to send you some pumpkin I saw a bunch in a couple of our stores yesterday while grocery shopping.

meyati

Kroger is the only place with pumpkin-the DOD and Albertson don't have any at all. Sometimes Walmart has pumpkin. We go to Kroger 3 times a week. Sometimes the shelf is empty for a week or 2. Bulk has giant cans of pumpkin- that is larger than many Dutch Ovens and would make a couple hundred pies.

We're doing OK right now-10 big cans in the pantry. I don't think that Missy will survive the year. She went from a 112 lbs to about 85. She goes outside and does her business. Last week, we had a thunderclap right over the house, and we all jumped. It scared Missy so much that she couldn't stand up on her hind legs. I put a towel around her and held that to support her. I cried that night, and she was up wagging her tail. Her intestines are really fragile and dry dog food tears them up and she bleeds. She had a colonoscopy in 2018, so that's why we know. I roast and debone turkeys for her, roast up sweet potatoes, steam white rice, add egg powder to her food since 2018. her internist thought that she'd pass in about 6 months. She's happy and follows the boys out to bail at the meter men in the alley and greet the Chewy Box. I got her in 2008 from the Socorro County Sheriff pound. I've never regretted getting her.

Molly72

Cat owners take notice:
Just went to our local (only one) grocery, and there was a sign up in the cat food area about a shortage of canned cat food from one of the major suppliers. Some blather about lack of materials and shipping problems and this and that. The shelves were somewhat bare.
This grocery store, a small local chain, is noted for its poor supply chain and lack of customer service among other things. So I really don't know if I believe if this note was true, or just another in their long line of excuses for lousy service.

Carool

legaljen, that’s great news about your neighbor! Thanks for the update.

Carool

Meyati, I’m sorry that Missy has lost so much weight. You are doing everything humanly possible to sustain her. I so wish that animals lived much longer lives. But for now, she’s here.

Carool

Molly, good luck getting cat food. I assume there are other sources. I have no pets but I love cats and dogs (almost all animals, actually).

meyati

Molly, Chewy told me that Alpo went out of business. The DOD is still selling 16 lb bags and Chewy is still selling 47 # bags. part of the problem is that slaughter houses are COVID centers. Perhaps ALPO might have changed it's mind--I bought a few hundred lbs of ALPO's COME N GET IT. My hounds like it. It's healthy--Missy started eating it in 2008. It hasn't been recalled or killed any dogs.

In the past I bought dog food that gave my dogs health problems, and the USDA shut that down because it didn't have any vitamins. I changed to Purina and vitamins and the poor dog lived another 8 years or so.

I hope that you can keep feeding your cat what it likes and you trust.