MF Dulock has transitioned to an order ahead only model. Orders being placed via ToastTab for pickup Thu-Sat. They bring your prepaid order outside if on foor, or directly to your car if you call, We really appreciate being to be able to get this fantastic quality meat for at home cooking. We roasted up a few whole chickens over the weekend, one for dinner and one for salads, etc. during the week. Dulock burgers are on the menu for this evening. Again, we feel very fortunate.
When placing an order, you can also donate right through ToastTab to their Feeding Neighbors initiative. Not to preach, but if you can afford Dulock meat, you can generally afford to donate. Mike makes sure every penny goes directly to feeding those in need beginning with his regular customers who are experiencing hard times.
Whole Foods in Arlington yesterday was well-stocked, but I was not impressed with peopleās social distancing. There was plenty of chicken and meat in general with no limits. There was toilet paper with a one package limit requested. I just grabbed dinner and will do a big shop at Wegmans Medford over the weekend, as the checkers did not appear to be following any wiping down protocols and were not wearing masks and did not have sneeze shields. The store was at about its usual capacity, which is to say not particularly busy as itās a small store, but there was not much effort for people or employees to give each other space.
They do better at Whole Foods on Washington Street in Newtonville. They limit the number of shoppers in the store and have shields in place at the registers.
Oh, good to hear. That sounds like an improvement over my last visit a couple of weeks ago. Do you know if they have sanitizer for the cart handles yet? Back then, the cashier said they had been out for a few days, which was surprising.
Same here. I carry my wipe into the store in a gloved hand, wipe down the shopping cart handle, then immediately dispose of the wipe and the disposable glove.
Some markets have spray bottles of sanitizer available because theyāve run out of wipes, but since many hands touch the spray bottle that canāt be good. In that case Iād go with an unsanitized cart handle because I hypothesize that fewer hands have touched the handle of any given cart.
I have also taken to wearing a washable cloth mask (non-surgical) into the store. It would never qualify as personal protective gear. My rationale is that it canāt hurt though.
The sobering thing is if fine aerosols are infectious, potentially meaning that you can could contract the virus from someone walking through the space minutes before you. The 6-foot āsafe distanceā was based on the assumption that droplets but not aerosols are infectious. We may need to be wearing masks to slow the spread.
There is so much we still donāt know ā¦ but (not an infectious disease professional) while the spread is higher than say the flu, it isnāt as high as other viruses that are known aerosol spreaders like measles. So wearing a cloth mask may still provide some protections.
Stay safe, wash your hands, donāt touch your face (so hard for me, having some eye itching from allergies so find myself rubbing my eyes a lot. Ugh).
So, as Iām sure some of you saw, your earlier comments were prescient and the CDC is now officially recommending cloth masks or face coverings for everyone out in public.
I attempted to go to the Medford Wegmans this morning, arriving right at 8am, and there was a line of shoppers at least 200 people long. It appeared they were only allowing people in as others came out from the 7-8am senior shopping hour, and I judged it roughly as a 1-2 hour wait. So I turned around and went home. Maybe I picked poorly- Saturday morning is often a busy grocery time, and I would usually avoid, but Iām in healthcare and still working regular hours and this was my first day off this week. Any thoughts from the group about where/when I should shop? Coming from Somerville, but have a car, and am a longtime Market Basket fan but canāt stomach the thought of the crowded Somerville store right now. I do have the whole weekend and Monday morning off, and we have plenty of staples to get through to Monday if needed.
Yikes, that is a long line. Iām not close enough to Somerville to offer a store suggestion within a reasonable drive for you.
So Iāll share some tactics that have helped me. Iād be interested to hear about tactics that prove useful to you.
Hmmm, perhaps Monday is worth a try since youāre not working then? I have been avoiding weekends and Fridays, because of crowding, probability of depleted stockāand not least because I have the flexibility at the moment.
Midweek timing has been best, roughly 30 minutes after senior shopping hours end and preferably in unpleasant weather: cloudy, precipitation, cold, or a messy combo. Worse weather = better shopping conditions for me.
I also changed to a store with a larger footprint to make distancing more achievable.
Our strategy has been to limit outings to once a week, take advantage of senior hours, and continue our meal kit subscription (weāre Hello Fresh fans). My SO and I have been shopping together but I think going forward only one of us will go in. Our provisions run starts with the early Market Basket senior hour (Waltham, this week it was not too crazy), then drive through the nearby Starbucks to fill the time until the Costco senior hour. Then we hightail it back to Newtonville to the tail end of the Whole Foods senior hour. Theyāve been very good about distancing. Our once a week splurge is to provision an indoor picnic from Formaggio Kitchen (Cambridge) where they will bring your order to the curb.
yeah, I think the lousy weather last Thursday/Friday might be the reason that Saturday morning was so busy. I went out on Friday to get some beers at Proof on Winter Hill, and there was almost no one out at all.
Wilson Farm sent an email this morning talking about additional changes that theyāve put in place:
Most Recent Changes:
Plexiglass installed at the checkouts
Mandatory glove wearing of all staff
Encouraging our staff to wear masks
Limiting the number of Senior Shoppers in the store to fifty (50) people during 8am to 9am, with the flexibility to extend if need be
Removal of displays within our retail stand to create additional space for customers to shop
And, in addition to the 8-9 a.m. senior hours, they suggest some times for less crowded shopping:
We continue to advise our customers that for a quieter shopping experience, we recommend WEDNESDAY AFTERNOONS and ANY WEEKDAY FROM 1PM TO 2PM AND 5PM TO 7PM. Most people think that they need to come shop right when we open, to avoid the rush. This is actually the busiest time of the day. Although every day is different, this is the pattern we have observed over the past weeks.
I havenāt been in a few weeks so I canāt speak personally to the shopping experience.
I tried this today with Wegmanās, thought that a rainy morning would be ideal. I was there a bit later than your thirty minute window (like 9:00 AM) and was appalled to find forty people in line. It looked fine, social distance-wiseāthey have put markers on the sidewalks to keep people apart and are certainly limiting numbers in the store. But I bailed out anyhow, since we are still reasonably well stocked and I had to do some work at home and didnāt feel like putting in the time on line.
FWIW, I have also recently gone to Taj Mahal Desi Bazaar on Winter Hill and Ebisuya in Medford Square and have found both stores completely stocked and very low in customer traffic. Local specialty grocers seem to be seeing much less traffic than the big box places, near as I can tell.
I just got back from my local TJs not knowing that it now closes at 7 PM. Fortunately Walgreens next-door had milk (albeit lactose-free) and potato chips. Therefore, both guys in my household are happy. Iām really bad at stockpiling and didnāt realize weād run out of our usual Crescent Ridge whole milk (in glass bottles, which is awesome and so creamy). Otherwise, thereās very little that we need. Itās more of wanting/craving these days. I can always seem to cobble something out of what we have.
heh, Iām certainly not blaming you for this fail! the tactic is sound in general. I saw a thing in Fortune about retail traffic in March being at its lowest ebb nationwide on Weds and Thurs mornings before 10 Am, so itās generally as good a time as any. I just wish I had shopped last Friday in that pouring rain when I know for a fact that the streets were extremely quiet. ah well, I donāt need anything I canāt do without at presentāI might give it another shot tomorrow and see what it looks like out there.
If you really need Scratch that itch, they usually have Crescent Ridge at Wilson Farms. Iāve not been there in the time of Corona so canāt say what itās like.
Iām not close enough to Somerville to offer a store suggestion within a reasonable drive for you.