I went grocery shopping this morning, and I don’t know if I just lucked out or if it’s always that deserted at 7:30 on a Friday morning, but anyway there were many entire aisles that were completely empty, or just an employee stocking shelves.
My preferred frozen broccoli florets were back in stock, which is SUCH a spoiled-sounding sentence and I know it, but I cannot hide this aspect of myself from you: I am picky about broccoli. I like (1) florets, and furthermore I like (2) a particular BRAND of florets, and further-furthermore I like (3) a particular PACKAGE SIZE of that brand. It is the store brand, and their smaller bags of florets come in an opaque bag and are sometimes disappointing/terrible; the larger/family size is not a better deal per ounce, but is packaged in a clear bag and is consistently good. That was more than I intended to write about frozen broccoli.
Chicken nuggets were still kind of low on selection, but better than before. Canned beans were low on selection, but they had the kinds I wanted. Mustard was weirdly low on selection, probably just a non-pandemic-related glitch. Plenty of paper towels and toilet paper. I did not even visit the cleaning supplies aisle, because I have enough and didn’t want to be tempted. (Gosh.)
They did not have the new lemon Pop-Tarts, but they did have a crisp apple flavor, which I bought because I want to know if it’s good or if it’s terrible.
In keto grocery news, they had tons of Rebel ice cream (lots of varieties, and plenty of each variety in stock), and they also had one flavor (peanut butter fudge) of the Enlightened keto ice cream I’d wanted to try, but still not the new Enlightened keto cheesecakes, unless I am looking in the wrong place, which is entirely possible. And they had the unsweet vanilla almond milk I wanted to try. (I was very hesitant to try almond milk at all, but did so at the encouragement of my sister-in-law, and I REALLY LIKE IT and to my surprise find it a completely acceptable substitute for milk. I get the Silk brand, BECAUSE OF THEIR CUTE COMMERCIALS, and I am not kidding.)
Probably we don’t even NEED grocery shopping reports anymore, now that everything seems pretty much back to normal, but I am finding it hard to stop. Also, I am still so interested anytime anyone says anything about their grocery-shopping experience, and perhaps I am not the only one. I leaned forward in my chair, chin on hand, to read Life of a Doctor’s Wife’s recent post on the topic, and was still thinking about it when I was at the store, and checked on my way past to see if my store had the frozen pancakes her store has been out of (they did), and then wondered about that for awhile, and with considerable interest. WHY these weird localized outages? And I almost BOUGHT SOME, not because I needed any but because SHE couldn’t get any, which made me feel like frozen pancakes were something to be SNATCHED UP.
Well. As she says, this sort of interest/agitation may be a FOREVER sort of issue for those of us who handled the grocery-shopping during the pandemic. I think I will feel SOMEWHAT better/calmer when it feels Permissible to go shopping more often: right now, part of my agitation is that if the store is out of something, I feel like I can’t check again for at least another week. Once we are vaccinated, I will feel much more comfortable running into the store in between the bigger trips.
Yesterday I picked my daughter up from school and she mentioned she had a cheeseburger for lunch, and I thought that sounded delicious, but we didn’t have any buns, so she and I popped into the store to get some plus some regular bread since we were low. I refused to think about what else we may need, I did not get a cart, and it felt very freeing to just walk hand-in-hand with my first grader and grab what we could carry. Then we got home and my husband said he ALSO had a cheeseburger for lunch, so we didn’t end up doing that for dinner after all. But that was ok. Now we CAN when we want to next.
I have always been interested in grocery store differences, but yes, that leveled up this year, and I am curious as to whether it will settle down again. I think it will?
(my store *still* does not have soy sauce [formerly Oriental] ramen. It flickered briefly into stock, and then went away again. You can buy 12-pack bricks of beef, chicken, or shrimp, but all other flavors are limited to 3 per order.)
Grocery store query for all you beloved commenters (seriously, how is that Swistle has no commenters who make me roll my eyes or smile in a patronizing, indulgent way? I love it here):
Does anyone else have fewer jam/preserves options than Before? I swear the sections at the places I shop are shrinking. I’m in the DC suburbs, FWIW.
PS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROz3-9wy3eY
Yes I would say I’ve noticed this in my mid-West area. I had wanted to buy a specific brand of strawberry jam (which I know “before times” was always available everywhere). It took me three store visits to find it again.
I still enjoy reading these reports, and also, thank you for introducing me to Life of a Doctor’s Wife, which I will be reading from now on!
I too went to grocery store this morning — needed some fruits/veggies especially because I wanted to make vegetable soup this weekend and don’t have any vegetables. Or stock. Anyway, I wound up getting into it with a guy because I asked him VERY POLITELY to pull his mask up. He refused, told me to mind my own business (and some other nasty things). He also asked me if I was doing this to be on social media? WTF. What is WRONG with people? You went through the trouble of remembering the mask, putting the mask on — now just PULL IT UP. Needless to say after this I got very flustered and forgot half the items on my list.
Oh, GGRRRRRR. Why??? Why are people terrible?
Do we think these people and the people that bag the dog poop and then leave the bag are the same people? (they do the hard bit but still fail in a way that’s actually worse than doing nothing at all)
Don’t even get me started on the dog poop people!
I too will feel a lot more settled when we can just drop into the grocery store for things when needed. I had already been doing the delivery service for grocery shopping before the pandemic, but what really made it work was that: 1. my husband was willing to go once a week for produce to the store to pick it out, and 2. our house is within a quick bike ride of the nearest shop so we could alway pick up a forgotten or unavailable item. I feel like for me, the freedom of vaccines will be that my husband can go and get something we need at the store.
I TOO grocery shopped at 7:30 this morning. It’s always nice and quiet, though sometimes the bakery has not yet made and/or bagged and/or sliced the onion-cheese bread that I like to serve with soup. Well, soup season is almost over here in Texas. And they DID have the bread today.
One silver lining of this whole… situation… is that I have trained my self to do something I once thought was impossible: to grocery shop once a week. The planning was not the issue- I already menu plan and have a meticulous grocery list (she said smugly)- it was some kind of hurdle where I just thought it was impossible. But of course it’s not. And while we sometimes do run out of bananas before the end of the week, we survive.
Thank you for the grocery update! You’re my reporter in the trenches, because I haven’t been inside a grocery store in a year and miss it so, so much!
Lisa Ann, keep fighting the good fight. Sorry that guy was a total jerk!
I’m still interested! My favorite brand/favorite flavor of waffles is out from my go-to store, but I suspect I have to be crazy and go somewhere else to find them. I wonder if we’re going to be like my grandmother who saved string in a jar on her windowsill and plastic bags and all the things since she moved to the US right as the depression began.
Something about almond milk just didn’t do it for me. My husband and I have recently embraced oat milk and oh my, it is GOOD! We use plain, regular unflavored and as someone who used to be a huge regular milk drinker, I don’t miss it at all. I use it primarily for cereal, though, I don’t chug large glasses.
This sentence made me open my eyes very wide: “I have enough and didn’t want to be tempted.” Surely, that reaction in itself is an indication that the end is near! (Of the pandemic, not of life.)
I am very pleased to hear about your pancake availability. It must mean that there is some weird quirk HERE, and not that I will have to start making pancakes for my child. (My homemade attempts are never the perfect circles nor the perfect shade of brown that the FACTORY PRODUCED ones are, shocking, and apparently inedible.)
I am, and always will be, absolutely HERE for the grocery shopping reports! I find it fascinating and was a little sad after my most recent trip to realize that we might be reaching the end of Online Reporting of our Grocery Trips, since no one in my analog life cares. My store was down to one six pack of Ramen, but I noticed it didn’t give me the same panicky feeling that it did in the beginning of the pandemic- instead I shrugged and kept it on the list for next time. There was also a remarkable shortage of canned water chestnuts- there are usually three different brands, all with multiple options- sliced, diced, whole, etc. and this time there was only one lonely can sitting there all by itself.
Our grocery store shelves have been pretty well stocked the last few months, enough to where I thought we were back to pre-pandemic standards. And then my (usually warm and mild) part of the country was hit with a super hard freeze, major power outages, bursting pipes, no running water and yet another shortage of grocery products. I think I had a bit of PTSD the first time I went shopping after the snow/freeze: a run on eggs, milk and bread. Absolutely no meat except chicken feet (umm…no, thank you). Rations on bottled water which we desperately needed as our water supply was cut off for several days.
I feel like I’m living in a dystopian era and we keep getting traumatized over and over and over again. Things at the grocery store are finally back to normal again, but my urge to hoard gluten free pasta, rice and beans? That may last a lifetime.
I have like an opposite existence of going to the grocery store every day (sometimes multiple times!). City apartment living with a minuscule kitchen and a pantry that is one drawer. In France we have a 6:00 pm curfew and every restaurant, bar, museum etc is closed so it’s like an odd life of taking kids to school (once schools reopened last spring, for elementary they never closed), working from home, doing errands midday. Always with masks and we try to keep our distance… but cases are high again. And I still take public transport sometimes when I need to go somewhere. That said, a report just came out from the Institut Pasteur saying that the store or metro is not a big source of spreading (literally everyone wears a masks) – the main cause is symptomatic people at home or work who wait for a positive result to isolate and contaminate people in the meantime. Still cases are so high again, I am going to try a more disciplined food procurement approach!
LEMON POP TARTS? I have never in my life eaten or desired a pop tart until now. I also didn’t know frozen pancakes were a thing that was sold, but I guess if frozen waffles are then why not? We had frozen broccoli and cauliflower regularly when I was a kid and I swore I would never eat either again, which worked out well because my daughter at 18 will still only eat both raw (I stir-fry them if I cook them at all). I haven’t noticed any shortages here recently – we did stock up on toilet paper last time we went into lockdown in December just in case, but it was always available and we’ve started using the stuff we stocked up on. I find different grocery stores endlessly fascinating.
I was just able to order refills of my preferred liquid soap in my preferred scent, for the first time all pandemic.
I’m wondering whether the manufacturer has finally been able to increase production to meet demand, or if everyone has finally stockpiled enough cleaning products and now we’re just buying enough to replace what we use.
Or maybe we’re all just getting tired of washing our hands all the time? I hope that’s not it.
This is not pandemic related (I don’t think), but unless you have a Keurig, there are no more decaf options for coffee outside of Folgers and I am OVER IT. Row upon row upon row of flavored coffee, dark roast, light roast, Brazilian, Colombian, Seattle’s Best, Dunkin’ Donuts, organic fair trade, whole bean, ground and none of them, None Of Them, are decaf. I thought I was just limiting myself by looking for larger bulk sizes, so today in my grocery run I scoured the coffee aisles at two different stores, willing to grasp at anything that wasn’t whole bean. I think I saw one bag of decaf from one brand that I’m sure was really expensive, and it’s possible I hallucinated it. I bought the Folgers I do not hate Folgers, but as someone who loves coffee and can’t have more than one cup of caffeinated without my entire body shaking for half the day, it’s disappointing to have only one option. (Usually, I buy at Costco, which has its own single decaf option, but at least it’s bulk size. And not Folgers).
Anyway. First-world problems and all of that.
Today I bought all the stuff for Easter (white eggs, dye, candy for the kids baskets, Easter grass that we probably don’t need, but just in case), even though I will probably do at least one more trip to Target before then, because I can’t shake the supply insecurities. I’m finding that most of what I need is there, and if it isn’t, it’s usually because I’ve gone at a bad time (Target has very little stocked first thing in the morning), but there’s just enough missing – whither the maple-flavored Farmer John’s sausages? – that I keep expecting problems.
I shall never tire of grocery store updates; I am always interested!
Nothing is really out of stock here EXCEPT the PC brand (store brand) frozen baby peas at Superstore. This is SO STRANGE. Frozen peas are available in different brands and even organic, but not the little ones that I like.
My local Aldi MOVED THE HALF AND HALF to the other side of the orange juice and butter, so I thought they were out. And then I found it. BUT WHY DID THEY MOVE IT?
Don’t they know it’s a whole pandemic?
I also will probably never tire of Grocery Shopping Reports. I’m endlessly fascinated by 1) what other people buy or consider essential (it’s like taking a sneak peek in someone’s pantry or fridge) and 2) the unevenness of shortages across the country.
Most things are pretty much back to normal in my grocery store but I have not been able to buy Spam in the last few months, like the shelf is just empty of all types/flavors. (I normally buy the low salt version but at this point I would take the regular) Also the particular brand & type of frozen breaded chicken we like (Tyson Southern Breast Tenderloins) has either not been available or is nearly 2x the Before Times price and I refuse to pay that much. Ramen, which was very hit or miss up until 2-3 months ago seems to have stabilized. The 6 pack of Hershey bars are still hit or miss, although they seem to be on the shelf more often than not these days.
I do think a lot of us will suffer from Provisions PTSD for a long time to come. (I laughed at Ang’s grandmother saving string in a jar… my depression era grandma would wash and reuse tin foil and sandwich bags among other things)
I love the grocery reports! It reminds me of the old days when blogs were called online diaries, and they were filled with the small things that went on in people’s lives, I did find that fascinating.
I don’t usually grocery shop, my husband loves to do it. But I was on spring break last week, and went to Target last Monday. The shelves were BARE! I started getting as Laura S mentioned-“Provisions PTSD”. It really slammed me, when things started going bad last year, I made a grocery run and they were out of almost everything, and it shook me up. In Alaska most of our goods are shipped, and we don’t do the runs on grocery stores if the weather gets bad-that is just our normal winter stuff. I talked myself off the ledge because I seem to remember stores let there inventories get low at the end of a quarter. Seeing all those empty shelves was not a good feeling!