Grocery shopping and coronavirus: Herald, Fort Mill Times readers share their stories
They stay up past midnight, or go early in the mornings. Some venture into stores multiple times each week. Others hope to stay out of them for a month.
Grocery shopping during the COVID-19 coronavirus isn’t one size that fits all.
With federal recommendations to avoid in-store grocery shopping and local store quantity restrictions on staple items, the Herald and Fort Mill Times asked readers to share their experiences.
Facebook comments on both papers’ sites offer various strategies. For some, health issues that pre-date the coronavirus loom large.
Jillian Koroskenyi posted on the Fort Mill site that two boys in the house with chronic lung disease means the family doesn’t go out right now.
“We have been lucky to get grocery pick-up times for Walmart,” Koroskenyi wrote. “The best time to try is after midnight. I put everything in my cart I need then select a time when they pop up. They pop up right after midnight then every so often after that.”
Barbara Turner said access to medication meant a trip to Target that otherwise wouldn’t have happened.
“I’m staying in my home unless I absolutely have no choice,” Turner wrote on the Rock Hill site. “I was told it would be two days before my meds could get delivered to my home. So I had to go get them.”
Beverly Butlin posted on the Fort Mill site that, as a caregiver to a disabled senior, the plan is to plan way ahead and order online as much as possible. Butlin is afraid to shop the early senior hours many stores adopted to assist that high-risk population, due to judgment of others.
“When grocery shopping, I am afraid I am exposing myself and thus, her, to this virus,” Butlin wrote. “Though I do keep my distance and now will wear mask or scarf.”
Many families also have to adjust to having more mouths home to feed more often. Area schools haven’t met in weeks.
“With all the kids home and feeding them 3 meals, our cart is usually full,” wrote Pallavi Crowe on the Fort Mill site, who despite using up pantry and fridge staples first still shops once a week. “Usually they buy lunch and breakfast at school.”
Many stores allow only a pack of meet, loaf of bread or similar items per customer. For larger families, those restrictions can mean more trips to the store.
“It’s been hard to feed everyone 3 meals a day since they are all home and keep food in the house and have your groceries last a week,” wrote Terri Grabb, whose family of seven includes five boys age 7 to 21. “It usually takes 2 or 3 trips due to limits to get enough food for a week.”
Grabb also orders out twice a week to make groceries last, according to the Fort Mill site post.
When folks go online for groceries, their experience varies.
“Have not entered a store in 2 weeks,” wrote Josh Herbert on the Fort Mill site. “(Delivery service) Shipt has kept us stocked. We have a high risk family member.”
Shirley Steiniger hasn’t had success finding delivery to downtown Rock Hill.
“Have no choice but to occasionally go to store since no time slots are ever open for pick up at Walmart and no one delivers to my area of town,” Steiniger wrote on the Rock Hill site.
Colleen Coesens found that while some stores don’t have delivery or pick-up availability, others do.
“I have been ordering from Publix for home delivery,” Coesens wrote on the Rock Hill site. “Although I don’t always receive my first choices or even a substitute, it has been a good experience and relieved the stress of going into the store.”
Cindy Carner said inability to set a pickup appointment leads to in-store shopping a time or two each week.
“It’s almost impossible to get a pickup appointment,” Carner wrote on the Fort Mill site, “so we try to go at the end of the day when there aren’t crowds. There is less of a selection, but it’s safer.”
Susan Thompson posted on the Fort Mill site that between in-store shopping once a week and delivery when possible, a family of four gets what it needs.
“I have been able to get everything I need so far,” Thompson wrote. “Have had to order paper towels and toilet paper online (Amazon), because I haven’t seen those in the store. Would like to find a container of Clorox or Lysol wipes, but I have other products I can use instead.”
When shoppers do go into stores, experiences also vary.
Ashley Smash posted on the Rock Hill site that as a Walmart worker, there have been store changes, like employees keeping track of how many people are in the store.
“I feel like people are being more cautious,” Smash wrote. “A lot of customers are wearing masks and gloves and being really nice in general.”
Some appear to shop as they would with or without the coronavirus.
“I saw people with their kids just shopping like everything was normal,” Turner wrote of her recent trip. “I even saw a young couple with their infant. No mask, no gloves and no concern.”
Others take to far more precaution, up to cleaning shipped items or groceries. Sandras Treasures posted three weeks of isolation with a daughter, grandchildren and great-grandchildren has that daughter wearing a rain poncho, gloves and face mask to shop for groceries.
“This is “Be still and know that I am God“, time,” the Rock Hill site post reads. “It’s time to slow down, spend time with family, support others, and spread love, we could be in a lot worse shape.”
From online to in-store, twice weekly trips to people like Briana Weicherz who posted the goal was to stock up for a month except for a few perishables, one common thread ties them all. Shoppers are ready for the coronavirus to check out.
“My goal was to minimize any time in any store for the next month,” Weicherz wrote on the Rock Hill site, “hoping to get through the peak of this.”
This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 3:18 PM.
