Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

[CalItalian]

Gelson's is banning reusable bags as of Saturday, March 28 until further notice.
They've also temporarily closed their Pacific Palisades, California location for cleaning and inspection as an employee tested positive.

[Alpha8472]

If they are doing a thorough cleaning they have to throw out all that food. This is like restocking a brand new store. That is very expensive and time consuming.

[storewanderer]

I went into the Reno WinCo tonight and in some ways it actually looked worse tonight than last week. I guess it is just really busy.

Dry rice/beans is almost completely out of stock. Baking supplies are very lightly stocked as well. Many outs in canned goods as well.

It is about to be the first of the month and I have no clue how these places are going to handle that with the current conditions.

Looking at tomato sauce a number of SKUs are simply missing and the shelf tag is gone even (which had been restocked last week) with other items flexing in their place. Cleaning supplies is a mess; no bleach, limited cleaning wipes. Disposable tableware picnic type stuff is real lightly stocked now basically only private label stuff no branded stuff. Paper products, I was in the store very late at night, and they actually still have paper products... they have a policy limit 1 kleenex, limit 1 paper towels, and limit 1 toilet paper. For paper towels you had a few choices: 1ct Brawny at 1.81, 2ct large Brawny at 4.xx, or 1ct Clear Value Towel at .51. For toilet paper you had 1 choice: 4ct Angel Soft Double at 2.something. For Kleenex you had various choices of small count Kleenex all around $1 (75ct rectangle and the various little cubes in multiple types), there was a lonely box on the bottom of 144cts with no shelf tag.

Bulk Foods barrels were mothballed (emptied and cleaned) with their contents emptied into round plastic containers to be sold. Bulk foods wrapped items in barrels, and coffee or bulk foods unwrapped items that come out of the drop-down dispensers were all still available as normal.

[Bagels]

I was at the Vons in Temescal Canyon (Corona, California) again late this afternoon. The service deli has recovered. You should be able to get your sandwich. They had zero customers at the service deli when I entered the store at 5:30 PM. Meat (except service meat which was completely empty) has mostly recovered. They had plenty of the $1.47 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts that are in the mailer ad. They had plenty of butter (advertised for $2.49 but the shelf tag was only reflecting the regular price of $4.98. It did scan for $2.49 - I bought the ad limit of 2). I was shocked but this store which had no pasta on Tuesday had almost completely recovered in that aisle and I was able to get the 29 cent Signature Select Pasta. Still very little water (no multipacks), no paper products at all (still) and limited cleaning supplies (I was in for Gain detergent $3.99 + there is a digital Just for U $1/1 coupon but they were wiped out). Plus freezer section is still a mess. I was able to get the advertised (Fab 5) Red Baron pizza. Deli and dairy are still hit and miss but I was able to get the Lucerne cheese (limit 4) for $1.88 that is advertised this week.

One thing I noticed today was the Fab 5 prices were coming up even if you just bought just one Fab 5 item rather than five. At self-checkout it would automatically apply the savings each time I scanned a Fab 5 product. Normally, it won't take the savings off until I get to the 5th Fab 5 product. I have a personalized price for Rice-a-Roni for .99 cents and as always it gives me that savings in addition to the Fab 5 price (Rice-A-Roni is $1.29 on the shelf but my personalized price is .99 cents. Fab 5 price is .79. The system takes the price down to the Fab 5 price of .79 stacks another .30 off for my personalized .99 cent price and makes them .49).

This particular Vons and the Albertsons in Lake Elsinore have become my favorite stores to shop during this virus because they are trying to keep business in the store running pretty much as usual under the circumstances - even with limited supply. I appreciate that and will remember that once this is over. They are the total opposite of what my local Winco in Perris, CA and Ralphs in all locations I have been in are doing limiting movement or customers into their stores.

The Aldi near me in Menifee, California has some intense competition. There is a Super Target across the street that just completed a full remodel this past fall. A newly built Barons market that opened last May 2 blocks away. Ralphs is also 2 blocks away. Directly behind Aldi a new from the ground up Sprouts is currently being built. Plus a partially completed Smart & Final (contractor lawsuit with the property owner is currently holding it up) which may or may not open across the street and a new Grocery Outlet which is about to start construction about 1 mile away. They're going to have to keep the prices low at that Aldi.

I returned to my local Albertsons tonight, and they had replaced the signage I referred to earlier (that indicated select items were not available at the price listed in the circular) with one that indicated limits on some items listed in the circular had been reduced due to supply issues. The roast, chicken and butter now reflected the price in the circular -- I'm guessing they tried to get away without having to sell these items at a loss, but foot traffic is clearly down.

I also stopped at Pavilions (in Laguna Niguel) to see if I could get my sandwich (no Vons are nearby, and I can't think of any Albertsons in South County that offers custom sandwiches). Poor Pavilions -- it looked like that specific store hasn't gotten any business. Its deli is still shut down, but the meat counter was open. They had mountains of bread as manager's special -- 69c for a loaf of Value Corner and 99c for a loaf of Signature Select (I bet these are identical products, with different branding, just like the milk).

You brought up the loophole in J4U -- if an item's part of the "Fab 5" savings, and you have a custom offer, the item's price is reduced to that of the custom offer, and the "Fab 5" savings are taken off of that. For example, earlier this year, Signature Select frozen pizzas were being sold for $4.99, or $2.99 when you bought 5 participating items. I had a custom offer in which I could get the pizza for $1.99. On my receipt, the final price was -0.01 ($4.99 - $3.00 J4U savings - $2.00 Fab 5). I've gotten it on several other items, too. Smart Ones were $2.50 / $1.50 Fab 5, and I had a J4U offer for $1.46 (or some odd number close to that). I also had a personalized 10% off frozen entrees coupon and $2.50 off 5 Smart Ones coupon. I bought 5, and it generated a negative amount close to a buck that was taken off my basket.

Now that we've exposed it, I'm sure it'll be fixed .

[klkla]

Gelson's is banning reusable bags as of Saturday, March 28 until further notice.
They've also temporarily closed their Pacific Palisades, California location for cleaning and inspection as an employee tested positive.

This is Gelson’s statement regarding the Pacific Palisades store:

“ We would like to notify our customers that we are temporarily closing the Pacific Palisades location, located at 15424 Sunset Blvd., due to the unfortunate circumstance that one of our team members has tested positive for COVID-19. The employee last worked at the store on March 22 and is currently recovering at home. To keep everyone safe and protected as this pandemic grows, we are taking precautionary measures for cleaning and sanitization related to coronavirus (COVID-19). As soon as the store has been fully sanitized and inspected, we plan to reopen and continue providing our community with the highest level of customer service and accessible products at all times.

We are alerting all Gelson’s employees at the location, encouraging anyone who may have been in contact with the affected team member to follow CDC-recommended self-monitoring guidelines and to call their healthcare providers right away if they develop any symptoms. Those team members that were in direct contact with the employee will be paid for a 14-day self-quarantine. While the store is closed, Gelson’s will be paying all associates any scheduled shifts which are canceled. As soon as the store has been fully cleaned we plan to reopen. At this point, we expect the store to reopen on Saturday, March 28.”

It’s hard for me to believe that this is the only grocery employee to have been infected. Makes me wonder how other companies will deal with this when it happens.

[BillyGr]

One thing I noticed today was the Fab 5 prices were coming up even if you just bought just one Fab 5 item rather than five. At self-checkout it would automatically apply the savings each time I scanned a Fab 5 product. Normally, it won't take the savings off until I get to the 5th Fab 5 product. I have a personalized price for Rice-a-Roni for .99 cents and as always it gives me that savings in addition to the Fab 5 price (Rice-A-Roni is $1.29 on the shelf but my personalized price is .99 cents. Fab 5 price is .79. The system takes the price down to the Fab 5 price of .79 stacks another .30 off for my personalized .99 cent price and makes them .49).

I'd suspect that they may have done that to prevent complaints where someone was willing to buy all 5 but was not able to do so, either due to limits on certain items or due to some items not being available.
Not being sure if this program usually requires 5 of the same or allows mixing & matching of 5, but it seems that could be a problem if someone was planning to get certain items and those were in limited availability.

To add to changes, ShopRite (at least here in NY) decided to just do a single page ad for this week (with one side explaining the reasoning and the other featuring a small number of deals), while the other two chains (Price Chopper and Hannaford) just have normal looking ads (which one suspects will have some items that are unavailable, and one hopes most will understand that).

[storewanderer]

It’s hard for me to believe that this is the only grocery employee to have been infected. Makes me wonder how other companies will deal with this when it happens.

There have been ongoing reports of cases in grocery stores of grocery store employees for the past couple of weeks. I have seen such reports in OR, WA, NorCal, and various other places involving multiple chains. I suspect there are unreported cases as well.

Unfortunately it makes sense. These employees are on the front line of hundreds/thousands of customers, some of whom are disrespectful of the spacing guidelines and others who are outright disgusting (coughing on employees, tampering with products, etc.). They are working longer hours under more stressful conditions than normal in what is an already stressful job just on a good day.

The stores need to change how they operate. They basically should not have any employees interacting with or even near customers who do not have to be. That basically means the cashiers and the pharmacy are the only two areas that "have to" interact with customers. Forget direct customer service in meat, produce, bakery, deli. Make it all self serve and no special requests right now. Replenish it all after the store closes/before the store opens with the reduced store hours. If it has to be replenished during store hours, close off the area that needs to be replenished so the employee is able to do it without customers surrounding them.

Perhaps delis could operate for custom request orders with those ordering kiosks since there is no employee contact involved. But few chains have those. Then there is the issue of the kiosk needing to be cleaned and how the orders are delivered to the customer without employee interaction (having to rummage through a bin of completed orders is not going to be the right answer...).

We already see more and more stores banning the reusable bags that are potentially germ filled to protect the cashiers and protect the cleanliness of the checkout counters from those additional and unnecessary germs. We are lucky the environmentalist groups had not yet completely shut down single use plastic bag production in the United States so companies were able to quickly fill in the gap and get the thin bags back to the stores. Plus given the situation with China and how the virus has impacted manufacturing where all the reusable bags come from, who knows if supply of reusable bags is short or delayed at this time.

[pseudo3d]

Conditions seem to be improving at my local H-E-B.

- The deli and bakery have returned to some semblance of opening, like pre-sliced meats and some cake items (lots of cake slices, looked like). More importantly, rotisserie chickens have returned. They have not returned to full service.
- Produce is markedly better, with none of the big gaps from a week or so ago (where most varieties of apples were gone). The gaps in the produce aren't much worse than what it typically looks like it looks like at night (some salad and bagged items missing).
- Deli cooler cases aren't half-closed down anymore, but selection and quantity are very bad.
- Meat looks pretty much normal now.
- Paper products was still pretty empty, but they still had paper towels (the cheapest store brand) even at 2 pm on a Saturday. They also had napkins (the fancier type). It used to be dead empty by that time of day.
- Center-store is showing signs of recovery. Some pasta products and sauces are back (those used to be gutted), but several categories like flour and rice are still pretty much empty.

[cjd]

Went to Publix on Friday. Bakery was pretty stocked with fresh items. Meats were very low as expected, service meat case and fish completely closed down. Dairy was ok, I got the last 1/2 gallon of chocolate milk. Store brand sodas were very low, their version of Mountain Dew and Coca Cola flavors were completely out as well as others. Although I've seen that happen even without this situation.

For a Friday late/afternoon the store really wasn't particularly busy. I was able to go straight to an empty checkout a cashier was standing in front of and there weren't a lot of them open.

[Alpha8472]

The issue is not a shortage of food. The issue is that the food is sitting in the warehouses due to a shortage of warehouse workers and truck drivers. The driver shortage has been an issue long before this epidemic. The word from warehouse workers is that many of them are quitting left and right. The workload is crazy and the pay is terrible. Many of them are afraid of catching the coronavirus.

The warehouses are overloaded with food and they cannot get the merchandise to stores fast enough.

With all of the people who are out of work or will be unemployed soon, why can't these companies hire more warehouse workers?

Truck drivers are also in short supply, but they do not seem to be recruiting any more than before. Perhaps the companies are afraid of hiring too many people.