Shopping for 3 weeks of groceries

How different is it to shop for 3 weeks rather than 2? I decided to try it to further reduce the potential of exposure to COVID-19 at the grocery store. Previously I was shopping every 2 weeks and had become very accustomed to the precautions: going early in the morning on a weekday when there are very few other shoppers, wearing a mask as every one else is, using the hand sanitizer at the door, wiping down the cart with a wipe the store provides, and staying well away from other people. I did the first shopping-for-3-weeks yesterday.

I planned ahead as usual – printed the list so I could keep my phone on the Scan app in the store (allows me to scan my items as I shop…checkout very quickly), got my bag of bags organized with produce bags and reusable bags, and attached my fully charged phone to a lanyard so that both hands would be free but with the phone easy to grab for scanning.

I had a piece of dark chocolate for provide caffeine/energy and was out the door by 6:20 AM. In noticed a little color at the horizon and a bright planet/star (my husband told me it was probably Venus) in the sky turning from black to dark blue. When I got to the store there was at least one other person in their car, masking up and carrying reusable bags into the store to shop. There were not very many cars around; I generally think there are more staff than customers in the store at that hour.

The shopping was mostly uneventful although there were some troubles:

The kind of almond milk I like was available, but it was in the very back of the slot and on the bottom shelf. I had to get down on my hands and knees on the concrete floor to reach back for it…painful in the moment but I have recovered.

The butterscotch chips were sold out. I’ll leave it on the list for next time since I want to make a holiday goodie with them.

The only kind of Organic hamburger meat they had was the 80% rather than the more lean I usually buy. I thought I would get the lean non-organic but they only had 80% there too. I bought the organic and we’ll have to pour off the extra fat…not something we are used to doing.

The cart was very full. I filled up the shelf under the main cart with larger boxes and realized that if I needed to buy toilet paper or paper towels, I would have to get those items at the end and balance them on top of everything else. This time I didn’t need to do that, but I did have one bag hanging from a hook off the side of the basket.

The back of the car was full. The bag with the fresh flowers went in the front passenger seat floorboard.

When I got home, my husband helped carry everything in…complaining that I pack the bags too heavy! And then we both washed our hands thoroughly…and I rewarded myself with my serving of pumpkin roll that I had purchased.

Overall – as long as I find the critical items on my list, I can shop every three weeks and reduce my exposure….until we are vaccinated. Maybe I’ll get used to the bit of extra planning and fitting everything I need into the cart. I might continue shopping every 2 weeks post-pandemic even though I had shopped weekly for many years. Some pandemic habits might stick.

Note: I brought the bouquet of fresh flowers from two weeks ago up to my office (behind my laptop….left the just-purchased ones in vase on the breakfast table.