I went shopping yesterday.
I acknowledge that that act in itself is not that exciting. In the last
fifty or so years, I have probably gone shopping thousands of times. But this trip was special - it was the first
time I had gone shopping since the world, or at least the rational world started
to take the pandemic seriously. It had been 19 days since I had been in a
grocery store. I was, I confess just a little bit nervous. That nervousness
became a little bit more pronounced when two employees coming on shift - hugged
each other just outside the store.
I went, I thought, early. I was at the Supercentre before
8:00 AM. The parking lot was surprisingly full - the security guard (something
new) at the front door told me when I asked that there were 72 shoppers already
in the store. Who knew so many people wanted to be early shoppers? They
certainly were not all senior citizens.
While there were some empty shelves - most notably in the
cleaning items aisle - there were lots of veggies, cheese, bread and frozen
items. With the exception of canned tomatoes without salt, there was nothing on
my list that I could not find. I also only got one small bag of brown rice
rather than the two I would have normally bought. I did, however, pay more for some
items as the lower price, store brand products were sold out. There were no
great deals that I saw, but perhaps I just did not notice them.
The store staff were great. Everyone from the security
person out front to the cashier were their normal polite selves. When I asked
how the cashier was - her answer was "I am glad to have a job". My fellow consumers were an interesting
mix. Most were single shoppers although
there were a few couples. Age is always hard to judge but maybe two-thirds were
over 55-60. A few had masks on, more (including me) had gloves on. Some were
very respectful of keeping a distance (which is almost impossible when you have
to pass someone), a few, quite frankly, did not attempt to avoid people. No one
spoke to anyone, but there was perhaps more polite eye contact than normal in
that we had to indicate who was turning which way or who was going down an aisle
first.
Checking out was well organized. Because the store was not
that (relatively speaking) busy it was faster than normal. It was interesting to note that some people
had a hard time understanding the rules about where to wait and when to put groceries
on the belt etc. I asked the cashier how many times she had to tell someone not
to put their groceries on the belt until the person ahead of them was done. She
just said that she said it so often it was just part of her routine.
I came home, followed whatever protocols about washing hands
etc. that made sense to me and then spent the rest of the day worried about
every sniffle and sneeze (it is allergy season here) and every tickle in my throat.
My anxiety/paranoia is higher than logic
says it should be. But it is there.
Will I go shopping again - of course. I am not about to
starve myself. I know that the odds of getting infected by the virus because I
touched a crown of broccoli are more than remote, I know that if I made sure
that my hands were washed, and that after washing them, I did not touch
anything that could have the virus on it, I am as safe now as I was 24 hours
ago. I just don't feel safe.
I do not like that feeling.
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