Grocery Shopping

[O2Bfree]

We went to Winco today and they had all their bulk dispensers operating again. The bulk barrels were back too, though filled with pre-bagged product. Some spices were available in bulk, but the herb section with the big jars wasn't set up.

 

[sengsational]

Sam's. Plenty of baby back ribs. Same price as usual $3/lb.

 

[Dtail]

Went to Publix today. About 75% mask wearing.
Always out of Lysol type sprays and wipes.
I guess I will have to hit Walmart at 7am.

 

[FIREd]

My regular supermarket now requires masks. There is a guard filtering out people without mask at the door. At the moment, supermarkets are fully stocked in this area.

 

[Aerides]

I can't find regular bathroom cleaners: like shower scrubs, mildew removers, tilex. Can't find them in any publix or target. I guess these makers have deployed all resources to regular cleaners, wipes, etc.

TP is getting back. Not normal, not every brand (not of course the one I like), but there are choices.

 

[Sojourner]

There are packets of some herbs and spices in the Hispanic food aisle that are cheaper than the bottled products in the spice aisle, though higher than bulk prices and not in the amounts I sometimes want. I didn't think about Hispanic markets. There are quite a few of them in my area, so I'll have to check them out.

+1

I always buy things like black pepper, cumin, cinnamon, and chili powder in the Mexican/Latin/Hispanic aisle of my local grocery store. Much, much cheaper than buying even the generic, store brand spices in the "regular" spice aisle. And if I need anything a little more exotic, a trip down the road to the Asian-International grocery store gets the job done. No way am I going to pay $5 for a small bottle of McCormick nutmeg when I can easily get essentially the same thing for ¼ the price.

Oh, and here's a tip for keeping those valuable spices fresher for longer. Store them in airtight bottles in the fridge, especially if they're pre-ground (e.g. cinnamon powder vs. sticks).

 

[Gumby]

+1

I always buy things like black pepper, cumin, cinnamon, and chili powder in the Mexican/Latin/Hispanic aisle of my local grocery store. Much, much cheaper than buying even the generic, store brand spices in the "regular" spice aisle. And if I need anything a little more exotic, a trip down the road to the Asian-International grocery store gets the job done. No way am I going to pay $5 for a small bottle of McCormick nutmeg when I can easily get essentially the same thing for ¼ the price.

Oh, and here's a tip for keeping those valuable spices fresher for longer. Store them in airtight bottles in the fridge, especially if they're pre-ground (e.g. cinnamon powder vs. sticks).

We order from Amazon in larger quantities and keep it in the freezer. We refill the spice jar from that stash as necessary.

And as far as the grocery report - I went on Wednesday. The meat situation seems to be back to normal. Still a little low on long pasta (spaghetti, linguine, vermicelli) but sauces back to normal. Some flour has returned to the shelves, but still no yeast. They had a substantial supply of TP (weird brands, but TP is TP in my book). Still a shortage of cleaning supplies, wipes, etc, although they did have bleach.

Masks were ubiquitous and social distancing well-observed. The virus hit CT hard, and people have been very good at pitching in to stop it.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Everything well stocked where we are, no issues. Most folks are wearing masks, at least at the places we frequent.

 

[Souschef]

Just came back from my local Von's. They had all kinds of Charmin TP (DW's favorite brand). As an aside, I just saw a YouTube video of a guy cutting a paper towel roll in thirds to use as TP.

 

[jollystomper]

Everything well stocked where we are, no issues. Most folks are wearing masks, at least at the places we frequent.

Same here in the DMV. Most of the stores I went to this week were well stocked with sections/displays of hand sanitizer/PT/TP, and people were not running over each other to buy them.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

Other than buying some tp for our parents, we haven't had a need to buy any yet since before everything went nuts. We typically have a bunch because I like using Costco's Kirkland while the missus likes the Charmin and the number of rolls in a pack is huge. I think we still have 3 months supply left. However, on a positive note, during our last couple of trips to Costco, the tp aisle is starting to have product versus being essentially bare for a few months.

On a negative note, the beef prices here are starting to get a bit crazy, no doubt likely due in part to a couple of our meat processors having a bit of an outbreak a while back causing the corresponding ripple effect. Even McDonalds Canada announced a month back it would need to supplement its beef supply from US suppliers.

 

[John Galt III]

+1

I always buy things like black pepper, cumin, cinnamon, and chili powder in the Mexican/Latin/Hispanic aisle of my local grocery store. Much, much cheaper than buying even the generic, store brand spices in the "regular" spice aisle. And if I need anything a little more exotic, a trip down the road to the Asian-International grocery store gets the job done. No way am I going to pay $5 for a small bottle of McCormick nutmeg when I can easily get essentially the same thing for ¼ the price.

Oh, and here's a tip for keeping those valuable spices fresher for longer. Store them in airtight bottles in the fridge, especially if they're pre-ground (e.g. cinnamon powder vs. sticks).

+1. Ya, the guy pricing the McCormick spices at $5 for a 1 or 2 ounce bottle is doing too much acid, I think. I thought the Hispanic aisle was always more expensive than the generic stuff, though. But I'll check again. And I will def check the bulk aisle. I just hadn't considered that, for some reason.

 

[Dtail]

Just came back from my local Von's. They had all kinds of Charmin TP (DW's favorite brand). As an aside, I just saw a YouTube video of a guy cutting a paper towel roll in thirds to use as TP.

His version of dryer sheets...

 

[Sunset]

Just came back from my local Von's. They had all kinds of Charmin TP (DW's favorite brand). As an aside, I just saw a YouTube video of a guy cutting a paper towel roll in thirds to use as TP.

So funny, he will be calling a plumber soon..

On the other hand maybe he is a bad person and put that on to trick people into doing it.

 

[Amethyst]

We are on the same wavelength. I thought the same thing. I think I have always known not to flush paper towels! There are always signs in public bathrooms not to do it.

I did use to think it was OK to flush facial tissue, until the TP shortage hit and there were warnings everywhere not to do it.

On the other hand maybe he is a bad person and put that on to trick people into doing it.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Cottonelle or Charmin for us. If there is none of those then it is paper towel or copy paper for us.

 

[gwraigty]

On Wed. I went to Meijer to buy a birthday cake and managed to score a family pack of 80/20 ground beef for $2.99 lb. This wasn't advertised in the sale ad. I didn't move any further into the store than the bakery section, but it and the produce and meat sections looked well stocked. In hindsight, I should have picked up another ground beef package at that price, but I wasn't sure of my available freezer space.

On Fri. I did a somewhat larger grocery trip to Walmart, so I moved through the store from end to end, going down maybe half the aisles. I saw more low or empty stock than I've seen in many weeks: canned vegetables, lunch meat, bacon/sausage, TP stocked at about 50% (no more purchase limits), almost no paper towels or eggs. Some produce bins were completely empty. They were out of larger bags of potatoes. They had 5 lbs. of russet for $2.97, which I bought. The waxy potatoes were all $5.97 for 5 lbs.

 

[pacergal]

I really noticed increase cost tonight--went to local Safeway to get a few things for Fathers day picnic tomorrow.
$61 for gallon of milk, quart of lemonade, a package of bakery cookies, a mini watermelon, two packages of sliced cheese, yogurt and four containers of hand sanitizer since I am down to last one.
That's it, and it all fit into one bag! It just seems high to me.

 

[Sunset]

I really noticed increase cost tonight--went to local Safeway to get a few things for Fathers day picnic tomorrow.
$61 for gallon of milk, quart of lemonade, a package of bakery cookies, a mini watermelon, two packages of sliced cheese, yogurt and four containers of hand sanitizer since I am down to last one.
That's it, and it all fit into one bag! It just seems high to me.

Wow...
But was it really the four containers of hand sanitizer that raised the price ?

Here milk last week was:
Great Value 2% Reduced-Fat Milk, 1 Gallon, 128 Fl. Oz. $2.27

 

[sengsational]

Sam's had Clorox wipes stocked right on each checkout lane, along with masks. I should have looked to see if they were N95 or just "procedure" masks. I was stocked on both/all, so I wasn't looking closely.

 

[FreeBear]

Tucson Costco finally had chicken this week. Tons of boneless skinless breast, more or less normal price, limit 2. Each package was nearly 10 pounds, so we only had freezer space for 1. Eggs seemed expensive, but I think they took the limit one sign down.

Trader Joe’s had the usual line to go in, so just a brief wait. Very well stocked. Even found hand sanitizer.

Things seem more or less normal at both stores. Crowds a bit less too.

With the virus ramping up here in AZ, I wonder if we’ll get another round of panic. Seems calm so far. Folks seems to want to move on, for better or worse.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

We went to Costco Friday and did not buy meat or chicken as it is almost 2 x the price as Aldi. Aldi is our preferred grocery shop. We seem to be buying less and less food at Costco. We find ourselves only going there for Hardware and Electronics as of late.

Aldi's Boneless Chicken Breasts were $1.49 a pound this week and pork loins were $2.75 a pound.

 

[Sunset]

We went to Costco Friday and did not buy meat or chicken as it is almost 2 x the price as Aldi. Aldi is our preferred grocery shop. We seem to be buying less and less food at Costco. We find ourselves only going there for Hardware and Electronics as of late.

Aldi's Boneless Chicken Breasts were $1.49 a pound this week and pork loins were $2.75 a pound.

Pre-Covid19 I found here, that Costco is always 2x the price of "normal good prices" on chicken compared to Walmart, Aldi, or FreshMart.

Costco was good for Pork Loin, Rotisserie Chicken, and hamburger.

 

[Amethyst]

Those who are complaining about milk being, gasp, $2.00 per gallon - at our neighborhood Walmart, a gallon of Walmart brand 1% milk is currently $3.45.

 

[mpeirce]

Those who are complaining about milk being, gasp, $2.00 per gallon - at our neighborhood Walmart, a gallon of Walmart brand 1% milk is currently $3.45.

Huh, Kroger here has milk (regular, 1%, 2%) at $1.79 for 1 gal. here.

Normal regional variation I guess.

Eggs are $1.29 doz. and ground beef (80%) is $3.99.