So, we went shopping today, hopefully for the last time for at least two weeks if not more. We were able to get pretty much everything we wanted, except no bread (of any sort!), no tylenol (of any brand, including generic etc) and still no toilet paper. I think we have enough TP for maybe a week or two, I'm not actually sure because we've never paid much attention to it before, we would just always buy when running low.

Oh, and Mr. SK couldn't find the kind of rice he always buys, and turned his nose up at the other kinds that were there!

Other than that, there were items for which our preferred brand was completely sold out, and we got a different brand, or maybe a different size than what we wanted. We only visited two stores, and decided against going to a different store because there were more people out and about than we expected. We tried to avoid other shoppers, and it seemed like that was what others were doing as well. I suspect people are not going in to work and so are out and about at all times during the day. (For example, I noticed that the traffic was not especially light...)

I asked the gal at the checkout at one store (the other one we used self checkout) about the TP, she said they got a shipment a day or so ago but it sold out in less than a day. And then she said trucks come usually on Thursdays and Saturdays but she didn't know whether they'd have TP or not.

I hope we can avoid another trip to the store for at least two weeks, so fingers crossed.

Reading about the likelihood of generalized shortages of consumer products in the future makes me very nervous.

How are things where everyone else is?

ETA: also, Mr SK (who usually does all of our grocery shopping by himself) is now afraid that he'll be out and someone will do or say something to him because not only is he Asian, but he also has a very obvious accent and doesn't always understand everything. So I have promised to go shopping with him for the foreseeable future.

Oh man. Poor Mr SK. That would be frightening.

I've never used it, but do people have access to Amazon Fresh? From what I see the prices seem pretty reasonable.

Any experiences to share?

I bought TP on Amazon fresh last week. Price wasn't great but they had it. I've bought other groceries from them in the past and it seems to work pretty well.

I just checked and it looks like the still have TP today as long as you want Cottonelle.

quote:

Oh man. Poor Mr SK. That would be frightening.

Yeah, and it doesn't help that he read those reports about how two of the things that people are now panic-bulk-buying are guns and ammo. I think it's harder for him to ignore that kind of thing because he just.doesn't.understand. gun ownership (not that I do either) and it somehow emphasizes for him his "foreigner-ness" I think. It's funny to think of me "protecting" him by going out with him, when he's so strong and I'm such a wimp. But that's ok, he's got the brawn and I've got the... English skills?

WTG, I hadn't heard of Amazon Fresh, so I checked, and indeed, it's not available here.

I also checked Walmart's pick up service and so on, none of those services have toilet paper right now.

I'm sure we'll find some before it becomes urgent. I just hope that product scarcity doesn't become the rule, even though I sort of expect it will.

I have found that janitorial supply houses still have TP and a some of them sell to the public.

OTOH I expect the supply will be back to normal in a week or two so maybe just wait.

I received two deliveries yesterday, one from Amazon Fresh and one from Whole Foods. Whole foods has very little. Out of a order for meat, bread and a few other things all I got was two loaves of bread and a package of sage. Amazon Fresh fulfilled all my stuff, but a lot of it was snack stuff, plus ricotta and semolina flour.

Kroger Clicklist has about half of what you ask for.

Today we ventured out to a local farm where i buy a lot of meat and eggs for a few chickens, pork chops and eggs. Figured that jaunt to the country was very low risk.

Tomorrow I will get a delivery from the local foods coop. We'll see what we get. Should be everything.

We are good for a month or two.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
I bought TP on Amazon fresh last week. Price wasn't great but they had it. I've bought other groceries from them in the past and it seems to work pretty well.

I just checked and it looks like the still have TP today as long as you want Cottonelle.

Thanks, just ordered some!

Instacart also does grocery delivery.

I can't find it available to order anywhere.

Oh, well except for this:


is there some way to report this? Or report the seller?

quote:

OTOH I expect the supply will be back to normal in a week or two so maybe just wait.

BTW, i suspect you're right, mostly. The thing is, probably for a while anyway, as soon as it's in stock in stores here, it will be purchased up quickly.

What a PITA. Har, see what I did there?

So, I thought I found some TP to order on Amazon, it said there were 8 left in stock, but it was Amazon Pantry, so I had to fill up my cart (?? Never used that before, and I have prime) anyway, in the maybe 5-ish minutes it took me to fill up the cart, the TP (and cereal) came up as no longer in stock.

Hopefully we'll find some to buy before we run out, otherwise we'll have to resort to Jodi's TP substitutes!!

Ask someone in Physical Plant where the school buys their TP. I'll bet you can get a case from the same place. Cleaners and disinfectants, too.

Ask them if they have any "broken cases". Institutions buy by the case and broken cases are a hassle to sell. They might give you a deal just to be rid of them and you really don't need a whole case anyway.

Thanks for this suggestion! If we get really desperate we'll have to see if that's something that might help. Thing is, campus is deserted right now and no one is supposed to be there (I know because I went to get get some books from my office!)

We'll see, I'm hoping that we'll get some before we run out here. We could post on FB and ask for handouts, but hopefully it won't come to that either!

I've also heard that you can buy those industrial rolls fairly easily (what Steve is talking about). Walmart has some locally--google "industrial roll toilet paper."

I went to our local store today to get produce and a few other perishables. They were out of all TP, all disinfectant cleanser and wipes, most flour, all refined sugar. Produce looked totally fine, dairy was reduced but I found what I needed in a brand not typically my own. But c'est la vie.

They also had a number of milk substitutes, which are unavailable in Costco (things like almond milk, etc.).

I guess COVID-19 has turned everyone into bakers.