Yesterday, instead of my usual adventure to Wal-Mark, which used to be a happy thrice-weekly occurrence, I decided to eschew Mr. Walton's Supercenter and hit up the nearby Publix. I mean, sure, Publix is slightly more expensive, but It's such a nice shopping experience! And since I'm not planning on paying my April rent anyway, I figured what the hell - I can splurge, baby! And splurge, I did. Did I say, "slightly" more expensive? Yow! Publix has apparently doubled their usually-high prices to "Cat-5 hurricane's a-coming!" levels.
I was meandering around the (candlelit!) store with the other rich people (and not many of them at that!), sipping on a complimentary glass of wine - a rather nice cab, actually. In the back of the store, the meat section was pretty empty, of course, but I don't eat much red meat anymore. There was *plenty* of ground turkey though, which is fine.
Suddenly, this heavyset, middle-aged woman comes rushing over to a nearby clerk - or maybe it was just a guy in a pale green shirt who looked like a clerk, I dunno. "WHERE'S THE TOILET PAPER?!" she blurted out. No greeting, no "Excuse me," no nothing but her loudly-barked question. How rude! I felt like telling her, "Hey toots, you can just take that attitude to Winn-Dixie!"
With a bemused expression the "clerk" (or whoever he was) politely directed her to the appropriate aisle, and she scurried off. I kind of laughed as I moved on over to the guy holding a tray of free, hot hors d'ourves. I mean, just how much toilet paper are people using?? Is it because as my friend Gene suggests, we're all home, sitting on our butts and just eating more, and therefore pooping more? Maybe!
Publix had everything on my shopping list, so even though my belly was full from the freebie snacks and I was a little buzzed on the wine, I headed for the Bakery aisle to get some (more) snacks. Passing by the Paper Products aisle, I noticed that it was...(any guesses - show of hands?)...right, EMPTY. No paper towels, no toilet paper...no nothing. Now I understood the clerk's bemused expression. (Fortunately I didn't need anything from that aisle.)
I went to the checkout - where I did NOT have to do that myself, thank the Lord! The valet then brought my car up front, and one of the anonymous green-shirt servants carefully loaded my groceries into the trunk. I should shop at Publix more often! Wal-Martz could surely take a lesson from these guys!
You know, it's a good thing that this coronavirus is an upper respiratory disease and not something that affects the bowels or intestines. Then we'd really be up Shit Creek without a paddle, wouldn't we? (Ouch, sorry for that one - I couldn't resist.)
Okay, continuing our grocery shopping theme, on to the meat-and-potatoes of this post! Here in Escambia County, Florida (pop. 315,000) where I live, 19 cases of the coronavirus have been reported. That's 19/315,000, or .00006 of our population. Nobody from my county as died. Our next-door neighbor, Santa Rosa County (pop. 180,000) has had nine...or .00005 of the population. One guy died, but he was in his 70's and had other medical complications.
Out on the west coast, my friend Hal Johnson lives in Redding, California which is in Shasta County which has a population of 177,000. Shasta County has had three reported coronavirus cases; one person has died.
To the above I hasten to add: "So far."
It appears that "COVID-19 2020" is probably not the nationwide epidemic that the government and especially the media feared (and maybe hoped?) we'd have. Is it because of the pro-active steps the government took to cajole us into shunning one another? Probably. The other thing is that we Americans who don't live in densely-populated big cities were already pretty good at "social distancing." And Americans had become pretty much germaphobes already.
Are we completely through with this pandemic? Oh no, certainly not! I'm sure that there are parts of the country that will continue to experience a rapid "community spread" of the virus. I sure wouldn't want to live in New York City right now! But at least the numbers are encouraging...for now.
Who Am I?
- Bob Barbanes:
- A nobody; a nitwit; a pilot; a motorcyclist; a raconteur; a lover...of life - who loves to laugh, who tries to not take myself (or anything) too seriously...just a normal guy who knows his place in the universe by being in touch with my spiritual side. What more is there?
8 comments:
Yesterday, I was down in my basement and used the downstairs bathroom which I hadn't done in probably six months or longer. Just out of curiosity, I opened up the closet in the bathroom and saw not one, not two, but three packages of toilet paper that I didn't know were there and one of them was a MEGA 36 roll one! Suddenly I feel very very wealthy.
LOL, Ed! Not only are you wealthy, you might become *very* popular should you decide to have a garage sale ;-)
Funny you mention Hal. I was just wondering about him in a blog post yesterday and Debby filled me in.
Okay, we obviously have no Publix or anything of that caliber in south Arkansas. Do they really have complimentary drinks and snacks? Was there a beer option?? (assuming you're not referring to the "testers" you can get at Sam's Club)
Fortunately I'd made a routine mega package TP purchase about a week or two before this all began. We're in good shape (though I do now note carefully how many little squares I grab for "number one". Rationing be damned when it comes to the other)
Ohhhh Kelly, you have to know when to take me seriously. And when to not...which is always. Publix is a chain of grocery stores based here in Florida. It's upscale; they are...let's say "proud" of their food! They have a truly awesome deli, which includes a sushi chef! (Who would ever believe that you could get sushi - and pretty good sushi at that - from a grocery store!) While Publix actually is a pleasant place to shop, they stop short of offering complimentary hors d'ourves and glasses of wine, it's not so farfetched that they would. They have a better wine selection than most liquor stores down here.
Damn, I'm starting to sound like a commercial for Publix...
Up in Washington State, in the little town of Omak they have a Safeway grocery store which is right near the Super Walmart. We usually get our steaks at Safeway because nobody else sells them so thick. There's a full florist in the joint, a full bakery, and a deli section you have to see to believe. It's pretty amazing.
I like Walmart because it's simple. You can go to one place and get literally everything you need, from auto parts to clothes and of course cheap, cheap groceries. The quality is not the greatest, of course, but like I say, if you want steaks, just hop across to the Safeway and get them there.
It's really interesting to me how grocery stores and supermarkets have evolved over time.
Well, dang. You burst that bubble. Here I though you might be getting "testers" in a more upscale manner... real plates and glasses rather than those little plastic cups like they pass out medication in at the hospital.
There are a few items for which I prefer the Sams Club or Great Value option over the name brand. When it comes to produce, there are some things better at Walmart, some better at my grocery store (Brookshire's, found in TX, LA, and AR).
We have Publix here and I also really like it. And altho perhaps upscale, they still have good sales advertised in their weekly flyer (print and online) and they have good BOGOs (buy one, get one free). They have a great beer selection and have good sales on those too. Speaking of, our local Kroger even has a bar where, in normal times, you can sit and have a beer perhaps while your spouse shops. I’ve never done it. I have no problem with it, but tend to think if a neighbor saw me drinking in the grocery store, they might think there’s a problem, i.e. he couldn’t wait until he got home?!
A bar in the Kroger?? That boggles my mind. And I though we were cutting edge being able to mix and match our own 6-packs (but only at one of our Brookshire's, the one I seldom visit)
Wow, Bob, a bar in your Kroger? I need to move to your town! My friend Matt lives just north of Atlanta, and when I visit we usually cook up a big meal. Matt and I both love to eat, and so we both love to cook. His wife Alisha gladly relinquishes kitchen duty when I come up. So we go to his local Kroger, which is an impressive store indeed! No bar in his store...yet, although I'm surely hoping it's something Kroger will implement at all of their locations. It's an idea that needs to catch on!
I went to my local Walmart just this morning. It did not seem any more crowded than any other Tuesday morning, and to my surprise all of the shelves were full! They even had completely stocked shelves of paper products - and not just the high-end brands, but plenty of the Great Value brand as well. So it appears that the panic-shopping and hoarding may be subsiding...for now. (Oh, but no hand sanitizer or Lysol spray, which sort of figures. I'm sure Purell and Lysol are gearing up as fast as they can for third-shifts at their plants.)
If only Walmart would install a bar...
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