Shopping in the Time of the Coronavirus

[batmagadanleadoff]

Two liter bottles of Sprite, Sprite Zero, Diet Coke etc. going for eight or nine bucks a bottle -- or seven-fifty a bottle if you buy a case of six -- on Amazon.com


WTF? Anyone know why? They're still regular price at the supermarket and there aren't any shortages -- (except for Diet Caffeine Free Coke, which I haven't seen on the shelves in about a month, and so I eventually googled this issue and discovered that the pandemic has caused a shortage in one of the ingredients in Diet Caffeine Free Coke).

Anyway ---WTF? Eight or nine bucks for a two-liter bottle of soda?

[metsmarathon]

probably because they're a nuisance to lug around.

[batmagadanleadoff]

probably because they're a nuisance to lug around.

I know. That's exactly why I decided to shop for them online. Poland Spring gallons are "out of stock" on Amazon, too.

[Ceetar]

it's likely secondary market stuff, sold out on Amazon, and therefore only the people that relist things. It's like walking into a 7-11 or something where you pay $2.50 for a 2 liter even though it's on sale for 99cents at Pathmark.

there are arbitrary shortages of everything because everyone's stocking up on things they need in large quantities to avoid multiple trips, because they're worried things are going to sell out (and that cascades, hence toilet paper and people buying because other people say it's hard to get). People home more means drinking more of the stuff too.

I still can't find bread flour. It's on Amazon for various extreme markups the same way. Couldn't find vegetable oil yesterday (well, I found a huge jug in my basement when I went to put other stuff away)

[Ceetar]

*ponders*

the point of buying bread flour is the gluten. I bet I can buy gluten directly.

[kcmets]

Beer and soda prices pretty much level here in upper suburbia.
I made a pot roast yesterday and the $/lb was unprecedented,
but it was a damn good slab o' meat!! CNN says we're gonna
run out of food, so we'll enjoy while we can and then wither...

Our neighbors copped us some toilet paper yesterday. It's the
little things to make us happy day by day.

[LWFS]

Goddamn, a pot roast sounds good.

[batmagadanleadoff]

there are arbitrary shortages of everything because everyone's stocking up on things they need in large quantities to avoid multiple trips ....

But there are no shortages of Coke products.

They're still regular price at the supermarket and there aren't any shortages ...

Anyway ---WTF? Eight or nine bucks for a two-liter bottle of soda?

_________________________________

[S]oda prices pretty much level here in upper suburbia.

Same here. See above.

I think what happened is that everybody already had the same idea I just got --- to buy these two liter bottles online because if you wanna stack up on 'em, they're bulky and add up weight-wise if you buy 'em in quantity at the supermarket.

[MFS62]

The price of eggs skyrocketed a few weeks ago but is now back down to what it was before the spike.
Later

[Ceetar]

There are no nationwide production shortages of coke, doesn't mean the end of the supply chain is adequately stocked.

there are pictures of people dumping potatoes in fields and there wasn't a potato to be found in the store last week here.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Actually, this is kind of what I was getting at when I created the "Dining in the time..." thread. I was looking to have us share the challenges of provisioning ourselves with food during this pandemic. I guess I should have chosen a better thread title!

Something to keep in mind for the next worldwide calamity.

[cal sharpie]

Shopping in the neighborhood stores I'm pretty much finding everything that we need or want at regular prices - except for flour.

Shopping on Amazon sucks. Buy local, especially now.

[kcmets]

We don't buy flour, but have friends who have said they can't find it anywhere.

[metsmarathon]

yeah, seriously.

unless you simply cannot run the risk of venturing out, buy local. and then order local.

i'm trying really hard not to amazon shit up unless it simply cannot be sourced locally. i'm actually buying less on there than i was previously. thanks, coronavirus!

local small businesses are going to get slaughtered by this thing. every little bit that we can keep in their coffers, the better. amazon will be fine without us.

[Ceetar]

Sure but Amazon is going to deliver it without needing to venture out, which is dangerous. It's great that some businesses have started delivering (granted out of desperation) but I wonder if they, say the toy store, realizes that if they _continue_ to provide same day delivery of basically whatever even 5 years from now, it'd beat Amazon every time. Also I'm not particularly concerned about keeping Stop and Shop in business. If Amazon can deliver my cheerios instantly without me having to go to the store, then I'm doing that.

Sure, some of this is law based too, breweries delivering, etc. Hopefully the 're-open' plans involve a re-envisioning of how businesses operate. An expanding of hours would be great. We're likely still going to be in a world with the virus, so if we can spread the shopping hours over longer periods and get rid of curfews and business hour laws (Bergen County is garbage about all this stuff) it socially distances us over time. You could easily couple this with getting rid of the archaic nonsense of 40 hours from 9-5, with more flexible times and staggering it. It's a perfect time to change all this. It's absurd how easy it was, logistically, to do some of this flexibility stuff in the time of crisis, and we need to remember it when companies balk at needed change in the future.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I've been doing pickups from grocery stores. You place your order online, then (about a week to ten days later) pull up in the parking lot, pop your trunk, and a masked stranger loads you up with groceries. It takes more planning than a typical shopping trip, and you won't get everything you want, but you're avoiding the risk of being in a store where at a moment's notice you can be in somebody's sneeze cloud.

[cal sharpie]

Most stores are insisting on mask wearing prior to entry which makes the whole sneeze cloud thing less worrisome.

I can't imagine waiting a week to ten days to pick up food but that's me. We go to our local farmers market on weekends and make a once-a-week stop at the local supermarket. Previously we had been pretty lax about shopping, going out to buy one thing if we're short, now our list is pretty obsessive.

[kcmets]

Some stores are more pleasant to visit than others...

[batmagadanleadoff]

Some stores are more pleasant to visit than others...

I love that sign. Every store should have one like that. The two things that drive me fucking nuts when I go out are people without masks and people talking. Don't even ask what I think about people talking without masks.

[RealityChuck]

There is a potential shortage of carbon dioxide gas for carbonation, which may be why some retailers are gouging.

[metsmarathon]

oh sure, now that i've starting drinking way too much flavored seltzer...

[kcmets]

Are those homemade soda machines still a thing or was that an infomercial
buzz that came and disappeared into the beveragesphere?

[Frayed Knot]

My bro-in-law bought one of those a few years back ... and as far as I know has rarely if ever used it since.
His idea was to save money over buying soda although: a) soda is dirt cheap for the most part, and b) I don't remember his house drinking much anyway.
So while I'm sure it seemed like a good idea to him at the time, he's also one of those guys who's scarcely able to resist a gadget.

[metsmarathon]

i keep thinking that the surest way for me to kick the seltzer habit (which is fairly new for me, and is basically serving to keep me from otherwise snacking and/or chugging gatorade) would be to buy a sodastream.

[MFS62]

We have one guy at work who likes to cook, and has bought just about everything you've seen on an infomercial - going back to the "set it and forget it" rotisserie to the new all-purpose slow cookers that also air fry and change your car's oil.
He says most of them work pretty well, and if I would be tempted to buy something I've seen, I'd ask him because he probably has it and has used it.
Later