Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

This is the place for general and miscellaneous posts on topics which might extend past the boundaries of any specific region. No non-grocery posts.
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storewanderer
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: May 28th, 2020, 11:18 pm A large Safeway in my city has plexiglass in front of the cashier and behind the cashier now. It still does not cover up the entire area, but it is at least some protection from behind now. The shields still need to be bigger and cover more of the area.

I think they should clean the credit card reader after every customer. Every single time, you have to key in your phone number for the Safeway Club card and then you have to press whether you want to donate to a charity or not.
You can use the edges of your card to touch the keypad. I need to pull out the old physical Safeway card I have which has a bar code. I have some Vons cards too but those don't scan they only swipe and I don't think a swipe is good since it contacts heavily with the card reader. Also the red cancel X botton works rather than touching the screen for the donation. I think at Raleys to get past the donation you press the number 3. Then tap credit card on reader and done.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by Alpha8472 »

Walmart has been a difficult to find hand sanitizer, but yesterday they had hundreds of little 2 ounce bottles of Walmart brand hand sanitizer. I had found little bottles bottles of 99 cent Purell hand sanitizer at the front checkouts at a low volume Walgreens. Supermarkets seem to be able to get tons of hand sanitizer from local distilleries. These are local brands of hand sanitizer using ethyl alcohol and some of them are a watery liquid instead of a gel. I even see 7-Eleven with large bottles of hand sanitizer made at local distilleries. Perhaps buying the locally made ones help out the local companies. Who knows?

The disinfecting wipes at Walmart get restocked at random times perhaps every few days. I don't know why people use disinfecting wipes. You can just use alcohol in a spray bottle and wipe it down with paper towels. The disinfectant wipes seem to be really expensive and wasteful.

Toilet paper seems to be getting better at Walmart. They are receiving large packs of Walmart branded toilet paper.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by Brian Lutz »

In my observations here, toilet paper and paper towel supplies have been stable here for the past few weeks. I suspect that as the reopening continues a lot of stores are going to be overstocked for a while as people go through their stockpiles.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by jamcool »

A lot of microbreweries have been extracting the alcohol out of their spoiled beer (that they were unable to sell to bars and restaurants), which they are turning into hand sanitizer.
It’s still impossible to find regular isopropyl alcohol or Lysol
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by BillyGr »

Alpha8472 wrote: May 28th, 2020, 11:18 pm A large Safeway in my city has plexiglass in front of the cashier and behind the cashier now. It still does not cover up the entire area, but it is at least some protection from behind now. The shields still need to be bigger and cover more of the area.

I think they should clean the credit card reader after every customer. Every single time, you have to key in your phone number for the Safeway Club card and then you have to press whether you want to donate to a charity or not.
I suspect many stores were solving that problem by just using alternating registers, since that way there is no one walking right behind a cashier (they are separated by the not in use register).

I did see at least one store here that did wipe the reader (at least for the self check), but perhaps some places don't see that as being important, particularly now that the information was out that surfaces weren't the issue that they were once thought to be.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by storewanderer »

jamcool wrote: May 29th, 2020, 10:47 am A lot of microbreweries have been extracting the alcohol out of their spoiled beer (that they were unable to sell to bars and restaurants), which they are turning into hand sanitizer.
It’s still impossible to find regular isopropyl alcohol or Lysol
I actually saw isopropyl alcohol today at a Rite Aid, a CVS, and Safeway. (70%)

Also it has been quite available via Wal Mart's website. But you have to order quick. Limit 1 (it is a 2 pack of 32 ounce bottles in Equate brand). Both 70% and 91% there but again it goes out of stock quick (reappears after 20 minutes if you refresh). Wal Mart's website has been a fun little game but I've been able to order big jugs of hand sanitizer, rubbing alcohol, and disinfecting wipes multiple times in the past six weeks as these items quickly go in and out of stock and every single order fulfills.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by storewanderer »

BillyGr wrote: May 29th, 2020, 11:53 am

I suspect many stores were solving that problem by just using alternating registers, since that way there is no one walking right behind a cashier (they are separated by the not in use register).

I did see at least one store here that did wipe the reader (at least for the self check), but perhaps some places don't see that as being important, particularly now that the information was out that surfaces weren't the issue that they were once thought to be.
Today at Whole Foods the cashier did not wipe anything down before my transaction. Before they wiped down everything (belt, counter, pinpad) between customers. I guess when it is 90 degrees out things get lax.

Same at Safeway; multiple locations where I went to regular cashiers and nothing was cleaned between customers. People behind me didn't even want to social distance. One behind me actually told me to "move up" as I was standing outside the checkstand waiting for the person in front of me to clear it. Wish I had a shopping cart to stand in front of and distance myself from them.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by storewanderer »

I am seeing really mixed in stock condition across chains. Right when I think things are starting to normalize I come across some stores that are still having shortages.

From what I am seeing, paper product aisles are still getting cleared, but not every day. Hand soap aisles are still getting cleared, but not every day. Cleaning supply aisles seem to be in tough shape and it is evident historically people just didn't buy many cleaning supplies in supermarkets.

I saw a Raleys (high volume store) with an empty paper product aisle last night and a lot of outs in center store as well.

I went into a Save Mart today (extremely low volume store) where the paper product had no more than 30 packages total of paper towels, bath tissue, and kleenex. They had exactly 3 bottles of bleach (Seventh Generation Non Chlorine). They had thousands of out of stocks all over center store on soup, flour, sugar, beans, etc.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by cjd »

I went to Publix yesterday (for the first time in two months) and it was the first time they had the plastic barriers installed. They are very small, and only cover the area where the cashier is standing. Where you would typically stand at the end of the lane, where the card reader is located, there isn't even a barrier. If you were to sneeze, it would just go right over to the cashier. And the bagger isn't covered at all. They should have ran the barriers all the way from the cashier to the end.

The store was pretty busy, and all of the employees had masks on. Most of them were different, a few had fabric masks and some had garter masks. Customers seemed to be distancing and many were masked.

At the entrance there were two employees bringing back carts and wiping them down. One of them kept saying "all carts are sanitized" as you came in and said "have a nice day as you left." I thought that was a nice touch.

At this particular store, which is a new build, this setup works well, because there is one way in and one way out. The carts are stored in the vestibule, loaded from the out door, so they can be pulled out as you come in. The other Publix was a former Albertsons so the carts are stored outside in a large covered area with windows, but since they're all loaded and removed from the same spot it's hard separate clean from dirty carts.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by storewanderer »

Went to a store in Rancho Cordova called KP International Market. It is a probably 85,000 square foot facility about 70% store and 30% food court/soft goods shops. It is pieced together of an old Lucky, old strip mall space, and old Longs.

Entry is interesting. Line up. Then you must take disposable gloves and then you must sanitize the gloves with the provided hand sanitizer. Masks were provided for those with no masks. Glove and mask required to be worn at all times in store. Then you wait and you get to enter the store after the employee decides to let a few people in. While you wait around the gloves/sanitizer you watch as they sanitize carts and bring them around to give as you walk in. Sanitized hand baskets were also available.
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