Just got back from trip to WallyWorld. Only 100 at a time in store. When I went in had to wait about 5 minutes to be cleared. When I came out I'dd estimate there was about a 20-25 minute wait. Just needed some bananas and canned goods. Quick in and out.
You added to what I have been preaching for a couple of weeks. If all else fails, grab a handful of leaves to clean up but I never thought of banana peals. And to think of it, they’re even naturally scented !
Just back from regular shopping day. Got almost everything I needed. Walked past the aisle with toilet paper. People still hoarding it. Guy in front of me at checkout had a cart full of water. We don't get hurricanes so I don't know what his problem was.
I think that most stores have put limitations on some items that have been being hoarded, and bottled water is one of those items. When we were at Walmart a while back, they said that you can have one package (any available size) of TP, one package of paper towels, and one case of bottled water. I think that there were limits on things like hand sanitizer as well. Every time we have been shopping, the whole toilet paper and paper towel shelves have been totally bare; so even with limitations, people must still be rushing to buy those items. Alabama has just announced a stay- home ruling, and (like @Ken Anderson says) it is basically because of public outcry for this to happen. Only 3 people have died from CV in Alabama, so it is not because of how deadly the virus is, just because of how much afraid people are, and they are wailing on Facebook for everyone to be confined at home. About a hundred years ago, when there was the Spanish Flu pandemic, we had similar regulations from the government, and once the flu was gone, people went back to their normal lives again. That one was much more deadly than this one. The average of people dying now is 75 years old, and most of the people that do die have other health conditions.
The grocery store I go to has decided to make one-way aisles. I suppose because it's difficult to maintain 6' and pass each other. They have big yellow arrows taped on the floor and signs at the end "One-Way." I guess that makes sense. Works well if you go through every aisle. I usually just go straight to the things I want, so it was tricky, and I messed up once, but didn't get a ticket. About 1/3 of the shoppers were wearing masks. None of the employees.
Given that the objective is to keep people from coming into contact with one another, wouldn't it make sense to let people buy necessities, like toilet paper, in bulk? As it is, they are no longer carrying the bulk packs of TP in the store and they aren't allowing anyone to buy more than four rolls at a time. So now they have to go back to the store, possibly spreading or picking up viruses, every couple of days, depending on the number of people in the family.
Our Walmart has now started doing that same thing, and there were employees outside to enforce the amount of people allowed, and yellow tape strung up to make a walking lane to get to the door. We didn’t have to wait, so I think we arrived at a good time. The amount of people Allowed at once goes by the square feet of the stores; so even if 90% of the people were shopping for groceries, it didn’t seem to matter, once you were in the doors. I have read that farmers were throwing out their milk, although that does not make any sense to me. People are still drinking as much milk as they always do, maybe even more, since kids are home from schools now. Anyway, the price of milk has just about doubled ! So the farmers with dairy farms throw out the milk and then the prices double because there is not enough milk for the demand . What kind of logic is that ?
I had been reading about the possibility of some of the meat processing plants closing down, due to sick employees, and I just found an article from The Blaze that is saying that Smithfield, which is one of the largest meat-producing plants in the United States, is closing it’s South Dakota plant. I would not be surprised to see other food producers following suit, but I am hoping not. Smithfield is owned by China, so a lot of what they produce here is then shipped to Chinese markets. I am thinking that with all of the shipping closures, that Smithfield is probably not as well able to ship the meat to China right now, and that might have affected their decision to close the plant. According to the article, around 300 employees have tested positive for the virus, which seems like a lot all at once to me. Anyway, just in case, I thought it might be a good idea to stock up on meat products that can either be frozen, or that are canned, or have a long shelf life, like lunch meats. I also got some extra fresh veggies to chop up and put in the freezer in case they start cutting down on fresh produce also. https://www.theblaze.com/news/one-o...as-ominous-warning-about-grocery-store-supply
Worse, it's shipped to China for processing, then shipped back here for sale, with most of the cost of shipping subsidized by the American taxpayers.
I went to the supermarket for the first time since the world went nuts. It wasn't too crazy. They had someone outside making sure there were no more than a specified number of people in the store but there was no wait. They disinfect the cart before they give it to you. They had one-way aisles but there were at least as many people going the wrong way in them so it seems they're pretty much ignored. There were only a couple of people wearing masks besides employees, and not all of them were masked. Since I went in the late afternoon, they were completely out of toilet paper and paper towels, and it seems that there's a run on all types of cleaning supplies now. The only dish soap available was the really expensive stuff, and most of the cleaning supply aisle was empty. I did have to buy the expensive dish soap but, other than that, everything I had come for was in stock.
Speaking of masks, I tried to buy some for a project I am working on and nope, there’s none to be found. People are buying up 5 for a buck masks that do absolutely nothing but keep large particles like sawdust from being breathed in. I even looked on Amazon and can’t find the ones I want and the soonest I can get anything remotely like them is late May to early June and they are super expensive. The thing is, people are buying up something that is only meant for dust and pollen particulates and probably feeling really safe but they do not help with any kind of microscopic particle like this virus bug.
Well some mask is better than none. As far as I know virus organisms are not independently mobile. If you are wearing a mask of any kind it will catch any critters that hit one of the fibers. The ones that miss the fibers will sail right through. I maintain that a 30 or 50% capture rate is better than 0. Our grocery stores suck. We only have one local, they do the best they can. Oddly Dollar General is not badly stocked. Yesterday I got Flour and yeast, something that has been none existent any where else,maybe because folks don't think of DG as having that type of stuff? I am forty miles from the nearest Wal Mart or other corporate grocery,(Wegmans,Tops,Price Chopper). Actually this crap is making me go out more often as I am never able to find all that I am after. I just forage instead of shop.
Most of the ones I see here are home-made, with some people making masks for anyone who wants them. Whether they would be effective or not is all but irrelevant since it's more of a psychological security blanket for those who are wearing them. As Peter says, any kind of mask would be better than no mask, but that's only true if it's used properly. The big problem with non-disposable masks is that people don't think about what they're doing. What's the point in walking around with a mask on your face if you're going to pull it down over your chin while talking to someone, or if you're going to remove it with your hands on the part that covers your mouth and nose, thus contaminating your hands? Also, given that the disposable ones are hard to come by for average people, they are reused and, because these masks aren't built to be cleaned and reused, they aren't cleaned; thus, everything you're trying to protect yourself from is there, on the mask, to contaminate your hands every time you take it off or put it on. Other than as an emotional security blanket, masks can do more harm than good when used improperly, which is what most people do.
Like everything else about this ridiculous “pandemic”, it seems that the information is confusing about food in general , and meat in particular. I have seen the pictures online of farmers having to dump milk, piles of onions and vegetables just rotting in the field, and one of a whole pile of dead pigs, which looked to be about 5 feet high, and the article said that it was over 100 feet long. Apparently, the government bought the pigs and then just had them killed , instead of letting the company butcher and sell the meat. If they cut all of the food supply, bit by bit, the toilet paper panic is going to look like a small distraction. What is really strange, is that while we are having these restrictions on what foods we can purchase, at the same time, businesses are opening back up, and the restaurants are even supposed to start opening to some degree soon. It is hard, not knowing what to expect next ! We went up to the little meat market where Bobby likes to get his meat, and brought home some that he will process and then put in the freezer. There was no problem with how much meat we bought, at least at this point. Since I am pretty much a vegetarian (plant-based) person nowadays, we only needed to get enough meat for Bobby to have enough.