Us seniors, risking our lives shopping for our pets in the Covid-19 pandemic.
Have been confined to our home the past 20 days, since March 17, the first day of the covid-19 shelter-in-place in our area.
Before the shelter-in-place, used to drive to Costco, 5 miles away, twice a month. That was before parking became next to impossible especially in Mountain View, with up to 1 hour waits to get into Costco on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8am for people age 60+. They are the only store that uses age 60 and not 65 to designate seniors.
We have been emerging from hunkering down at home, to walk to get groceries at Sprouts (opens 7am), Safeway(opens 6am), and Dollar Tree (opens 8am). Haven't tried Smart & Final (opens 730am for seniors), as it is a 4 mile round trip walk. We can get food for us humans, but not for our 16 year old giant white cat.
Walked to Petco but they don't carry Friskies canned cat food anymore. And Pet Club in Cupertino, which sells Friskies elegant entrée for 59 cents or 65 cents, depending on the week, is a 5 mile round trip walk. Could take the car, but just for cat food?
Safeway carries Friskies elegant entrée, but charges 75 cents a can, and doesn't carry chunky turkey nor chunky chicken, my cat's favorites.
So we walked 20 minutes one way to Target in Sunnyvale. Store opens at 8am every morning, but Wednesdays 8am-9am reserved for seniors.
Line in the parking structure at the entrance to the stairs leading to the top floor where the store is. Social distancing 6 feet apart. 10 person line, nothing like the 100 person line at Trader Joe's, let alone the 500 person line at Costco.
Must be 30 stairs to climb to get to the store -the escalator is only for going down, although there is an elevator.
Get a basket, but didn't see any anti bacterial wipes, to wipe my hands, that you see at Sprouts and Safeway.
Clean, spacious, well lighted interior. One of the few places you can still shop in person for electronics or clothing.
CDC now advising everyone to wear cloth masks. Target doesn't even carry masks, as sold out in January by hoarders and profiteers, who resell them on the internet with 700% markups. And of course, shelves empty of toilet paper, anti bacterial wipes, and hand sanitizer, all of which are available at Safeway or Costco, if you get there when they first open.
Target has Friskies elegant entrée at 65 cents a can in person at the store. They even have chunky chicken and chunky turkey, my cat's favorites. You can order select Friskies elegant entrée varieties at 69 cents a can at the Target web site, for pickup at this store. Didn't see the chunky varieties on the internet.
We also pick up bananas at 29 cents each. Later weighed the bananas at home, and they were 89 cents a pound, far more than the normal 49 cents a pound at Sprouts.
Checked out their PF Chang's frozen meals, and it was $8.79 for a 20 ounce bag, compared to $7.99 elsewhere -ouch! Nob Hill occasionally has it on sale for $5.
We get in line at the check out, with the 6 feet social distancing standing spots clearly outlined on the floor. And wouldn't you know it, but end up in the line with the octomom at the head of the line - some person with the shopping cart filled to the brim, enough for the octomom family. No express line.
10 minute wait to get to the check stand: 8 minutes for the octomom,and 2 minutes for the other 2 customers ahead of me. Cashier wearing mask and plastic gloves, and runs each individual one of my 30 cans of my cat food through the register scanner. Only she drops one stack of 6 cans onto the floor. Well at least she didn't drop the bananas.
In the eras of covid-19, cashiers not allowed to touch customer's bags, so each customer has to bag their own groceries, or pay 10 cents for each paper bag.
After I leave, she wipes down the customer credit card keypad, not before I use the keypad. Guess she thought I looked like a potential covid-19 case. read more