We’ve been getting our groceries through Fred Meyer ClickList curbside pickup every other week. Twice so far. It was a half day late the first time, a day and a half late the second time, but they call me to tell me so. Fine by me.

We get produce and some other things (fish!) through Imperfect Foods weekly, and that makes me happy.

I know there are bakeries in town that will sell flour and yeast. A friend saw my post on FB about my lack of flour, and offered me a bag (she had an extra). Bob’s Red Mill all purpose! Yay! And another friend had yeast to spare, and left it on my porch.

Are there CSAs in your area? I don’t want the randomness of what’s in the box, so I’m doing Imperfect. Your mileage may vary!

Benefits of living in a small town, I guess... My husband does a weekly shop at our local grocery. They have the big plexiglass sheilds around the cash registers, hand sanitizer at the door. He wears a mask, though it’s 50/50 on the rest of the folks in the store. While there were some shortages early on, now just about everything is in supply. Toilet paper, lysol wipes, flour, and yeast have all made a comeback. The convenience foods sections are a bit more thinned out than usual, but since that’s not really what we buy it doesn’t impact us. And there are still options - just not the same variety of, say, canned soup or frozen pizza as there once was. The last time he went (on Sunday) he got everything on the list without a problem, including a couple cleaning supplies that we were low on.

Word is that Ontario is past the peak, so our social distancing is working here. We are way below even the moderate projections they gave in March. Except in long term care homes, things have been very promising. Our state of emergancy was just extended for another 30 days until mid-May, but I’m starting to think they may ease up slightly after that. Thankfully, our govenments (federal, provincial, and municipal) have all been very clear that it’s a medical call, and that restrictions will be lifted slowly only when it is deemed safe to do so, so I’m pretty confident we are in good hands.

Spotty shortages here. No flour at the Kroger chain but no problem getting it at the smaller independents.

Otherwise, can pretty much find anything you want.

No yeast anywhere in the little packets. I'm wondering if you can get it at a place like Gordon Food Service. I saw it listed on their website, but not sure if it's in stock. Gotta buy a 2 pound bag, but I'm sure you can store it in the frig.

I freeze yeast. It keeps pretty much forever that way.

I went to Costco yesterday. It was almost normal. There was no line to get in. The still have the board out front telling you what's in stock and what they are out of. I got everything on my list. Vegetables are still in limited quantity. Again, they only had one pallet of the tomatoes on the vine, but they did have some other five-pound boxes of tomatoes -- a different brand than they usually carry.

Oh, one thing they have not had for weeks, now: Cheez-Its. Still no Cheez-Its. I don't even know if that's something they don't normally carry and they just had them in February, or what.

I've never bought yeast at Costco, so I don't know what they normally carry. I only buy it in the three-pack of small bags. I'd imagine Costco would have the jars or maybe a five-pack of the three-packs. I did buy a jar once when I was in college and I was baking bread a lot. I just don't eat that much bread anymore. But apparently Mrs. pj wanted to do some baking. If either of us ventures out again this week, we'll try one of the neighborhood stores or maybe the Asian grocery.


I did strip into the washing machine and take a shower as soon as I got home. Mrs. pj brought the stuff in from the car and decided not to wipe everything down with bleach -- she said the interwebz said that didn't really do anything.

We've had spotty shortages for weird stuff, but over the course of time we've been able to get everything. I feel confident in our TP supply without going into crazy hoard mode, we have rice (brown and white jasmine, no less), fake ground meat, olive oil.

The weirdest things are in short supply--salsa?? por que? It's super helpful that my daughter is staying here and brought her Hello Fresh order with her, so we have 3 meals a week that are delivered as if by magic.

My Fred Meyer/Kroger Clicklist pickup was ready on time today! So for the first time, I see how it’s supposed to work. They texted me a reminder to pick up, told me to go to website to approve of substitutions, and showed me what they couldn’t fulfill. Whoa, efficient.

But! I hit the wall when they told me there were no Hebrew National hot dogs, and there was no way to remove the now useless hot dog buns from my order. I really want a junky hot dog.

Also, they said there were no raisins. Mr. AM really likes his raisins.

So I put on my mask, went into the store, grabbed raisins from the bulk foods area, and turkey hot dogs. Tried to get liquid hand soap refill (they won’t let you do pickup on soap/sanitizer) but they didn’t have it.

Then went back out, sanitized my hands, and picked up the rest of my groceries from the pickup area. I guess that’s not a bad compromise; it limited my time in the store.

The aisles aren’t wide enough for 6 ft passing. They should make one way aisles.

Onward!

quote:

They should make one way aisles.

At least one store here is doing this. Mr. SK went just after they started, he said some people were confused by they were getting it. That was over a week ago, we'll see how it is the next time we go.

quote:

Originally posted by BeeLady:
Sigh...I try to stock up but fresh stuff just doesn't keep that long. Our local Market Basket (the chain famous for the employee strike) has loooong lines to get in. I have not yet tried the senior hours but may have to try that going forward. (6am!)

As everyone online is doing, making bread would be nice..except there is NO FLOUR to be had. I even tried King Arthur direct and the online grocery site PeaPod.

I have a few small bags of various flours and will mix them together to make soda breads as I don't have any yeast.

I needed milk today and decided to take a short drive to a local dairy farm's stand. Got fresh milk in glass bottles along with farm fresh beef and other locally made items...It was a pleasure and I plan to do this as part of my regular shopping.

What is grocery shopping like for you in other parts of the world?

Kerry--and anyone else looking for flour--try here:

https://www.wheatmontana.com/p...our-cereal-and-seeds

I will look into that. Thanks! It's right near where my buddy lived in Three Forks - Buffalo Jump Road.

I haven’t been to a store in 7 weeks.

We get weekly deliveries from FreshDirect - NY area delivery-only grocer. Fortunately I started this early enough to get a weekly reservation.

All the delivery services are more or less impossible to schedule now.

I got toilet paper in my last delivery. Haven’t seen flour or yeast in ages.

Interesting that a roll of TP is now worth more than a barrel of oil.

Shorty and I talked today and he clued me in to the local places to get flour..If I cannot, I can get it from the restaurant where he works! Whoohoo

Wisdom on shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the Mayor of Osaka Mr. Ichiro Matsui

https://www.foxnews.com/world/...heyre-more-efficient

Let men do the shopping, because women take too long.

quote:

“When a woman goes [they] take a long time as they browse around and hesitate about this and that ... Men can snap up things they are told and go, so I think it's good that they go shopping, avoiding human contact“

Ax...ha!

I zip through as fast as I can...

My foodie cousin (male) has to look at every da.. item in the store...then buys 6 of them!!!