Blogday 13(-5)_100days: 'How're you getting groceries?' (& some bi*ching & whining)

A team I'm on posted the q: "How have you been getting groceries". I started to answer, but once I got into it, and got personal, I opted to not post my very long answer to clog the thread, so I'm posting here. Most of the team did some form of online ordering.

I go in and shop, sometimes taking advantage of senior hours, sometimes doesn't work out w/schedules. Also, 4 times so far, my sister, who's an essential IT nursing home worker, and out and about for herself anyway would get us stuff, but she's very into meat and not great at veg.

{Okay...here's the bi*ching & whining}: I have no one else to tell, except my one sister (not the IT one, the ww one) and have already said after this is over I am leaving or not doing it anymore:

I'm very picky*/specific about veg as is mom about random stuff, and she's 80; I currently live with her (and dad, 85), and still get shouted at because nothing's ever perfect—but the whole fam knows that and there's a standing joke about not wanting to shop for her because of the shouts; she's of the 'if you want it done right ya gotta do it yerself' school, but now she can't, partly because dad's gotten very feeble and teetery, and I pointed out that if she got corona'd & somehow dad didn't she'd probably expire and dad would suffer, so I'm sure she feels dis-empowered, but she takes it out on us, mainly me, though it's stressful to be on the receiving end of it too. I've been thinking that maybe soon, now that cases are quite decreased here, we'd go in together during senior hours, let her do some pointing, as retail therapy, but & have her choose stuff but touch nothing and she can then go sit in car while I pay—a pop in & out for her, but still some control. Oth, she still does more than half the majority of cooking even though I offer and sometimes am taken up on it (but I was veg 25 years and not as great with meat, plus don't like most of it, especially touching it! BUT they do, and she also doesn't like most international foods, which are KEY in my cuisine, plus I lived in AZ and learned to like it HOT; she cooks mostly what I call 'Amish' / plain / midwestern / Slavic simplicity style.) Also, she is passive-aggressive about the kitchen...doesn't WANT to be doing all the cooking, but now that she's not shopping on the daily, which my octo folks used to do for their exercise, she sometimes has literally pushed me aside, but she doesn't always want to be doing it. I used to cook together in MANY situations—with exes, w/housemates and roommates, and before that with her and my sisters (all girls in my fam), but she's never shared a kitchen in a half century, and often leaves even herself only a quarter foot of free counter space; I've been removing some stuff when I clean but some of it finds its way back onto the counter.
{end bi*chin'}
I've thought about doing online, but when we had my sister shop for us (who knows, better than a stranger, what we particularly like/want/need) and the way she shopped and what she chose, even with a list, was so flawed that some of it was very problematic, partly because it was early in the pandemic and we let stuff sit for longer in the 'red zone'. We—really me—also divided the garage into zones, & the far diagonal corner was the red zone where stuff would sit for 3 days (in Feb & March when I started this, almost everything could sit in the bags/boxes okay because it was fridge temps or colder there then). Then the orange zone was where I would sanitize *everything* (except some very delicate freggies like raspberries), and the yellow zone would be sanitized stuff that normally stays in the garage (we use it for potatoes, sweet potatoes, onion, sweet onions, apples, sometimes pears, all citrus (& we're pretty much citrus heads) big boxes of greens when there wasn't room in the fridge (& I'm a HUGE saladhead; eat a 'big' salad probably 300 days a year), winter squash though we often decorate seasonally with them inside, green+yellow+red peppers (mom's discovered them roasted and is a huge pepperhead) Part of the garage use is that our fridge isn't that big, and the builder put it in an awkward spot so it's kind of in a thru-way and also and used to be PACKED all the time (so much that I couldn't find my specialty ingredients & would talk about something getting 'lost' in the fridge)...anyway...how are YOU getting groceries, and do you have new procedures?

*On Saturday when I shopped I bought canned fava beans from Israel, some Indian fast food pouches, a papaya, 2 kinds of seitan, a particular tempeh, baked tofu teriyaki, etc., etc., etc. along with some new running shoes (which I needed but may have not remembered if my feet didn't hurt)

Member Comments About This Blog Post

v IMPROVINGME
I feel your frustration! It's so good that you can get it all out on your blog and know that someone is listening and commiserating. Glad you were able to get some of your specialty foods and veggies and your new running shoes on Saturday.

I have been ordering online and using free Curbside pick up. Just open my hatchback from the inside and they load the groceries. That's the easy part. It takes a long time to go through the selections to place your order, and last month the pick-up times were two weeks out, with no chance of getting your order earlier. Now it's about three days. I could have picked my order up the next day or two days out, but they are already charging 3% more for each item, so I'll be darned if I was going to pay an extra $4.95 to pick up my order in two days.

Back to the ordering -- If I go in to the experience having no expectations and just being thankful that I have food to eat (which yes, I am, and things could definitely be worse), then I'm okay. But if someone (me) cares about brands of canned goods or anything that they've bought for many years, they're out of luck here. Most of the items available online at our local grocery stores are the store brand. And one of the reasons why there was a shortage on paper towels here is because you can't get just two rolls of paper towels; you have to buy 8 to 12 in a package and then figure out where to store the extras. So as a single person, I have too many, and the family of 6 who ordered later in the day probably didn't get any because I have more than I need.

My friend (who also lives alone) ordered 3 different onions -- red, white, and a favorite sweet onion here, the Texas 1015 onion. Imagine her surprise when she opened her packages and found 5-pound bags of each of the three onion varieties! That's a lot of onions! We're still laughing about that order. She said it was a good thing that she had good recipes for onion casseroles and pickled onions.

The ordering system at our store where I can get the Curbside pick up will either allow you to have substitutions for everything on your list -- or no substitutions for everything on your list. Not item by item. I have multiple food allergies, and this posed somewhat of a problem for my first few orders. Since I selected the no substituions option to cover the items that I couldn't eat if they had been substituted, I didn't end up with several of the other items. The time I allowed substitutions, I'm glad I like garbonzo beans because I ended up with 4 cans of store-brand garbonzos instead of pinto, refried, ranch style, and pork 'n' beans. Also glad I had purchased some tahini before the stay-at-home order, because I do enjoy hummus. When I bought the tahini, I had also purchased 2 cans of garbonzos, so I was suddenly the proud owner of 6 cans of garbonzos total. Too funny!

I am eating more frozen fruits and vegetables than fresh. It's good that you can use your garage to store some of your fruits and vegetables until you need them. With our temperatures in the high 90s here in Texas, that's not an option for me. I especially miss eating good avocados, but for the price of them, I don't want someone else selecting them for me. Same for bananas. I'm picky.

All in all, I'm glad to have the opportunity to stay at home and stay safe instead of actually going into a store. Even the 3% mark-up is probably saving me money from not doing any impulse buying. I've never been one to pre-plan my meals for weeks ahead of time like I'm doing now, so that's been a plus for helping me stay on my maintenance diet.

So, anyway, that's my long-winded answer to the question "How are you getting your groceries?"

433 days ago
v 1CRAZYDOG
It's hard, no matter what, to have someone else doing your shopping. I had my parents living w/us for 2 yrs and lemme tell you . . . . diametrically opposed tastes. Mom -- Irish bland, potatoes and oatmeal. Dad -- German/Bohemian, spicy. Me -- lots of veggies, some meats, spicy foods. Wow! Cooked many things each meal so everyone had something to eat. exhausting!

I feel for you!
433 days ago
v KPHEALTHY4LIFE
whoo hoo new shoes