Hubs and I decided yesterday that we will no longer physically go into our grocery store anymore. That’s about the only place I would have gone in to anyway. Hubby does make occasional trips to the hardware store or the animal feed stores. All of that is about to change.
According to this recent article from Vox (click here) because of the new mutant strain of the coronavirus, going out in public just got a whole lot more dangerous. You may need to wear a better mask (perhaps two of them simultaneously) and avoid optional trips to the grocery store or pharmacy, if possible. You’re better off getting inside a grocery store for just 5 minutes vs 30 minutes and then exiting ASAP!

The virus appears to be getting even better at infecting us. Since at least December, new, more contagious variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19 have been outcompeting earlier versions of the virus in countries as far and wide as Brazil, the UK, and South Africa. The advantage the new variants carry seems to be that in any given situation where people are gathered, they’ll infect more people — an estimated 30 to 70 percent more people in the case of the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in Britain, which has now been identified in 50 countries.
I’ve been stockpiling our food supply specifically for this reason, as such as to what is currently unfolding. Should hubby or I need milk, I have boxed cartons of milk. Should we need eggs, I have freeze dried varieties. Should we need bread, I’ve stockpiled different types of flour and yeast. Granted yes, I could hire someone to do our shopping (DoorDash or Instacart) but each time I have tried those companies, it has been a disaster. Also, because we live so remotely, it’s near impossible to get any fresh food delivered.
It’s time to avoid other people, even at the grocery store (if possible).
More cases mean more really sick people, more strain on hospitals and health workers, more rationing of health care — and more deaths, including the entirely preventable ones now firmly linked to ICU bed shortages. More cases will also give the virus more opportunities to mutate further and potentially escape our vaccines, perpetuating the cycle of doom.
It’s been near impossible to set up an appointment for the vaccine here where we live. Neither one of our GPs will take on giving the vaccine to their patients. My personal doctor wouldn’t even write out a prescription for me for an epie pen, knowing full well how allergic I am to so many things. I can only get the vaccine at a hospital now because should I get an allergic reaction to the vaccine, I don’t think anyone in an auditorium or stadium (where the vaccines are now being doled out) will be able to save my life should I start suffocating to death.
Right now, the best thing for us to do is continue to hunker down at home and wait. And wait and wait and wait.
I’ve been doing grocery pickup at Walmart. It works well and is free (and contactless). Hope you can get a vaccine.
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I forgot about wal mart. I will check in to this thanks so much!
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I am another Walmart fan. I’ve been picking up from them since April. Produce is very good, lots of organic options. One time they only gave me 1 pack of organic ground beef instead of 2 ($6 loss). I got an instant refund thru the app, no question.
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Sounds good. Thanks for sharing.
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There are a lot of places that do pickup service with no charge. Local Ace hardwares do pickup as well as free delivery. As An Ace rewards member they send me lots of coupons $10 and $5 ones as well as accumulating rewards. I have done pickup at Whole Foods and Michael’s with no contact. I wonder if Walmart still allows free RV parking and you could have pickup service for your food at the same time on your trip to Florida Sincerely, Lara
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Our Shop Rite has curbside delivery but every time I log on, the online will not honor the can can sale. remember those? I can only get digital coupons off. They open at 7AM. I think Nick is just going to go at 7 and rush through. We only need two canned items. He’ll get a case each. Should be quick.
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Cindi , when I use their ordering online and they shop for me the discounts came off when they took my card and I paid. My suggestion is to call the store and see if that will happen at the online checkout or when you get to the store. Sincerely, Lara
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Lara, yes you have to go into the store, give them your membership card and then you get the discount. That defeats the whole purpose of ordering online for curbside delivery. So, hubby got up early this AM and went to Shop Rite, in to the store, got 2 cases of Tutterrosa canned tomatoes (@.66 each vs $1.25 each), 4 gallons of EVOO (@$7.99 vs $10.99) some grated cheese at full price and a gallon of milk on sale @$2.99. He was home and back in 45 minutes! He said there was no one in the store AND they disinfected the check out station after every customer. They never did that before. So, it was a win-win. ALL our stock piling is done. Now we wait for the Civil War to pass next week. UGH!
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Home Depot and Lowe’s has curbside pickup too. All of my favorite restaurants have curbside pickup. Lara
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WE use Home Depot and Tractor Supply curbside pickups. They work great. We haven’t been to any restaurants in months. I don’t like take-out anymore. It’s just not quality anymore.
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OMG My Aldi’s order placed at 1:42 arrived at 2:52 today. An hour and ten minutes! I am 20 minutes away! (Forty minutes round trip if I was doing it). Instacart keeps my items history and it took less then ten minutes to place the order. 36 items, 18 fresh produce items, mainly organic are super fresh and the largest like I requested when I ordered. Shopper delivers on my front porch. Ten feet away from my kitchen and pantry. It’s all put away in less then ten minutes. I will gladly pay the extra charges to have such an easy, less stressful, time saving system to get my food. I haven’t been to ShopRite in a year. Just don’t use canned items anymore and all of the other items I picked up there cheaply I am getting delivered from CVS with their CarePass and ExtraCare digital coupons making them much, much cheaper. Sincerely, Lara
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My Walmart is absolutely empty at 7 am. They start sanitizing everything at 4 am- so things are clean. I zoom in , get my fresh things in one of my bags, self check out, packed my second bag, zoom out. Yesterday it took seven…yup seven minutes. Veggies and milk (I have plenty of meat). There are Amish buggies lined up by 7:30. Hope you can figure something out that works for you.
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This sounds very doable. We’re usually up by 5am so shopping early like this is a good thing. Plus the self check out. Thx.
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Hi. This is a follow up to your comment. My husband went to both Home Depot and Shop Rite this morning. He got to Home Depot at 6:30 and Shop Rite at 7AM just as they were opening. He said there was no one inside other than the workers! He ran in, got what we needed, checked out and was home by 7:45AM. Thank you for your tip! It worked out great. Our stockpiling is done!! And I’m freezing quarts of milk for later on in the upcoming months.
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FYI: CVS pharmacy is administering Covid19 vaccine at their Center Moriches store. Not sure if you have any closer where you can make an appointment. Lara
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HI Lara. That was very kind of you letting me know. Thank you so much. I logged on this morning (I’m usually at my computer by 5am searching for an appointment) When I logged onto CVS, it was already booked. But I registered for their alerts. I think our only hope is going to be a pharmacist friend of ours. He said he will alert us when the vaccines come to his office. Fingers crossed.
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So I just looked and you have a lot of CVS in your area, maybe give the closer ones a call and see if they will be giving vaccinations and when.
I received an email that my 2020 savings was $259 and directing me to the tracker that shows I have saved $75 so far in 2021. I signed up for the CarePass on November 20 , which I get free shipping by always having a CarePass item purchase. I really like Gold Emblem new pistachio kernels and roasted almond combination. Sincerely, Lara
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I think I got an appointment with a pharmacy. I just got back a confirming email. I’ll keep you posted. It’s 2 hrs away but it’ll have to do.
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Hi again, I just got a reminder on my appointment for Friday. I am hoping all goes well in DC today. Lara
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Yes. Good luck all around!
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I just got an appointment for my vaccine for Thursday, tomorrow, late afternoon. YAY!!!!!
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