We changed the way we shopped during quarantine and continue to do so now. Usually we would both go to Target, Fresh Thyme, and Giant Eagle on Saturday afternoon. It seemed like an unwritten rule that people should try to limit the amount of people going
into stores. Playing by this rule, I took Target and Fresh Thyme and J took Giant Eagle. We would go on off times, like Wednesday at 1:00 or Thursday after work at 4:00. We would always take the carts back into the store instead of leaving them in the outside cart return. Staff was limited, and we wanted to help as much as we could. We’re still going to the stores during the week. It’s actually better, in my opinion. Instead of doing grocery shopping on the weekend, we can have time to enjoy the weekend.
One thing that wasn’t great during the quarantine was not being able to use our reusable bags anymore. We haven’t used plastic bags for anything in years, so it was really hard for us to go back to plastic bags. Luckily, Fresh Thyme offered paper bags, so I would ask if they could package my groceries in the paper bags. Fresh Thyme has since let us start using our own bags again, but with some rules. The bags cannot touch the checkout station and you have to bag your own groceries. No problem there. We usually bagged out own groceries there before the virus. Since we are still splitting up the stores, I feel like I get a workout at Fresh Thyme. I have to put all the groceries on the belt then I have to go bag them. And those cashiers are so darn fast! I’m bagging everything so quickly. It was nice before the virus when I could unload the cart and J could load the bags. But for now, this works.
While the hardware stores were deemed essential and still open, we didn’t go buy anything from them during quarantine. We had a lot of home improvement projects to do this spring and summer, but we didn’t quite feel right about shopping there. It didn’t seem essential to us and we wanted to stay away from people as much as possible. So, we just played a lot of hockey and left the home improvement projects until after everything started opening again. Now we’re off to the races with painting the garage floor, staining the cooking deck, and cleaning the siding on the house.
And then there was the post office. I touched on going to the post office a bit in my mask making story. If you haven’t read that one, click here to read it. It’s a good one, and the best story out of all of them. I went to the post office almost every day to ship out masks to people. Every time I went, there were people not wearing masks. It was pretty annoying, especially when masks were mandatory and people in there were still not wearing them. I would also use the self-serve machine. That was better because there was less interaction with people. I could use my pen with the touch screen tip to tap the screen for my transaction. By the third or fourth time there, I could have mailed something with my eyes closed. I even knew the packages weighed 0.40 ounces.
There were 2 instances where I shipped masks from FedEx and UPS. FedEx was the first place I went into that had the cups for clean and dirty pens. I thought that was a good idea; I never saw that before. I stood on the social distancing sticker on the floor and waited my turn. There was only 1 guy working there. He didn’t seem stressed out but did look a little worried about being there. That transaction went smoothly. I stood on the sticker closest to the counter. When he told me to come up to the counter, I did so and put the package on the counter, and he stepped back from the counter. Then I stepped back to the sticker and he stepped forward to the counter. He had it down to a science. These days, everyone has plexiglass at their registers. But at the time I was shipping the packages, they didn’t have plexiglass.
I also mailed out some masks at UPS one day during a lunch break. That experience was a little different. The employee seemed really nervous and like he didn’t want to be there. I can’t even imagine what it was like having to work in a store during this time. I stood on the sticker on the floor and we sort of yelled at each other through our masks. We both had quiet voices, so it was difficult to hear each other. It wasn’t angry yelling, just trying to be loud so we could hear each other. I had 2 packages and one of the addresses wasn’t coming up in their system so we both weren’t sure what to do about that. The other employee had to explain to me that the address wasn’t in the system and there was no guarantee that the package would get there. They asked me to confirm the address with the person and I was like I don’t know this person, it’s a customer. I decided that I wouldn’t mail it through UPS, but rather take it to the post office. Then, the guy asked me what was in the package that I was mailing. I wasn’t prepared for this question. And all these thoughts flew into my mind like “why are you asking me what’s in the package?” “If I tell you they are masks, are you going to steal them?” “I really need to get these masks to where they are supposed to go. Please don’t steal them.” “I can’t believe I’m living in a world where I’m worried about the UPS guy stealing precious commodities like masks.” I very reluctantly told him what was in the package and hoped that they wouldn’t get stolen. I couldn’t come up with a lie about what was in them. The package was 0.40 ounces and I didn’t know what else could be that light. After I shipped that one, I ran to the post office and mailed the other package. Luckily, the address was in the post office’s database and I was able to ship the masks out to where they were supposed to go.
We've done some other shopping, like going to Kohl's or Bealls in Florida. It's not that different, just have to wear a mask and can't try anything on. We don't really need a whole lot of clothes or anything really. We both work from home normally, and don't need new clothes. And there's always Amazon.
Thanks for reading this segment of my “This Damn Virus” story. Catch up on past segments here and come back next Wednesday for the next one! Sign up to receive a weekly reminder email about this blog here.
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