Food in the time of Hoarding

There is food, as I said in my last post. But hoarders have made much of it hard to get. I keep hoping they will back off, but my guess is that those who have grabbed much and are satisfied for now have been replaced with others who did not grab but now do.

Still, there is food. Just maybe not everything we want. Getting it is another story. I no longer go into the grocery stores. I am hearing that some stores are limiting access to a certain number at a time. Even so, the chances of infection are higher than if I stay out.

So far I have ordered food twice, to be picked up. There are designated pickup spots with signs. The signs say to call a certain number. When I call they ask for my last name and the space number where I am parked. Someone brings out the order and places it in my car.  I have picked up food from Smith's Grocery only so far.  Both times I had to wait; the first time three days, the second four, before I could pick it up. Pickup slots are limited. If more people do this, then will the dates become even farther apart?

Today I placed an order for delivery from Whole Foods through Amazon Fresh. I had the order ready to go yesterday and twice tried to place it but there were no delivery times available. So when I woke a bit after one this morning, I thought to jump on the computer and try again. I got a slot between 1 and 3 pm Wednesday, the day after tomorrow.

Other days I tried to order from Sprouts but it became ridiculous. Sprouts has a feature that allows one to create a shopping list, and I did that, laboriously. But then I discovered that the list is only a handy item you can create for yourself, if you are going inside the store. You can't click on something that says "deliver" or "pick up". I was unwilling to go to the delivery page and start all over. Besides, I am hearing that Instacart is overwhelmed, and that is what Sprouts uses.

Instacart is like Uber or Lyft. Ordinary people go into the store and do the shopping for you, then deliver the items. I believe this process leaves the opportunity for infection rather wide open. No guarantees that individual persons are being careful, whereas the employees of the stores have to follow guidelines to be safe.

My cupboards are slowly thinning out. I have a fair amount of dried beans, although not black beans, and I can never get any of those, wherever I order. I have pasta, rice, other beans and bean mixes, other dried food or nuts. Canned tomatoes, other grains. Last night I made baked beans in the Instant Pot, because I have many white beans.  I am regularly making substitutions in my cooking. This situation may make me more flexible in the future.