I went to Costco today. They had the normal entrance blocked off and routed people through the cart entrance. (T-W-Th 8-9am are old people hours). They had the walk along the side of the building partitioned with pallets and carts. We had to walk down the sidewalk, around the end and back to the entrance. We got our carts but had to wait in line because they were limiting how many people could be in the store. They had TVs playing a PSA loop featuring Drs. Fauci and Birx, and Dr. Jerome Adams, the US Surgeon General, explaining why we have to keep six feet (or one alligator) distance between us.
We got to go in when some number of people exited. The meat counter was pretty much empty. No ground beef, save for a few packages of “organic” stuff: 4lbs that was going for about $21. Two packages of stew beef. High end beef going for $30/lb. Five six-packs of boneless chicken breasts. No thighs, no whole chickens. There was plenty of salmon and tilapia as fish doesn’t have the same processing plant issues (and likely because it’s too healthy for some people).
They had plenty of fresh Italian sausage in the pork section. I suspect they ground up what little pork they had left to stretch it out. I also saw a lot of the Kirkland bratwurst (which I think is better and bigger than Johnsonville’s brats). The freezer section had a lot of prepackaged stuff like beer battered cod, pulled pork, sirloin burgers and half a pound of blackened mahi-mahi for $20. Ouch.
Most people kept their distance, pausing at aisle intersections like 4-way stops, but some wandered aimlessly, oblivious to their surroundings and crowding the rest of us. One poor older woman was asking if Costco was handing out masks; the staffer said, “It’s OK for now; you don’t have to wear a mask until May 1.”
One Costco staffer directed people to the checkouts as they became available. The cashiers were behind 2×6 ft acrylic barriers and everything seemed to go smoothly. But everyone looked grim. As Walter would say, “Get your shit and get out!”
We are fortunate there are only two of us. We aren’t waiting for an unemployment check that won’t come anytime soon because the unemployment website is overwhelmed, and no one can apply (or was deliberately sabotaged by a cruel governor). We don’t have a houseful of kids that we have to home school while also working at home and THEN have to worry about feeding after a long day. We’re not in unimaginably long lines at food banks.
We’re the richest country in the world and our government is wasting $8,000 and 1,200 gallons of fuel per hour per jet flying twelve F-16s over cities filled with people who can’t go out of their apartments. If they do, they’re ignoring social distancing, so why bother mandating something people can conveniently ignore? It’s more of a tribute to a feckless leader than to the people risking – or taking – their lives. Bread and circuses.
Soon, we may have no bread, only circuses.
© Can Stock Photo / kvkirillov
Well said. We are in the same position. I will be paid through PPP, if it ever gets through the maze of the banks. His work is essential. Just been told that attorneys are also essential. The office can do business , but we are keeping with the shelter in place. I went in yesterday to take care of some time sensitive matters. Don’t know when I will go back. Drove down and stayed in “my bubble”
Thanks Dave, for this. Your account is so alive. Sorry if my response below is too long, but it is all your fault! Your posts trigger a good deal of (positive) rumination and response.
It has been interesting, to be sure. Isolation and distancing has been rather easy for us, here in very rural Washington County in northeastern, NY, about two miles from the Vermont border. Still, at first, we had a high rate of infection in the county, given the low population density. But people have been quite civilized and cooperative here, and the infection and death rate is in steep decline. No silly demonstrations etc.
I have been shopping for groceries at 6 a.m. — the special seniors’ hour, 6 – 7 — at the local Price Chopper. Much as I hate to be out and about at that time, especially shopping, I appreciate the low density of the store, and appreciate that they are doing this.
I am so, so lucky: though not wealthy, I have enough to live on: no need to go to work etc. And, I’m living in a beautiful, pastoral place, with room outdoors, wild turkeys in the fields beyond, and ducks and turtles across the road in the pond.
Yet I have been appalled at the response to this at the national level: the lies, the posturing, the unpreparedness, the rejection of science, the incompetence, irresponsibility, and finally the immorality. It feels like a third-world response, like one would imagine in say, Belarus, or as is now happening in Brazil, under the evil nincompoop there. I have been more than disturbed by the Neo-Nazi militiamen with their automatic weapons inside the legislature in Michigan. How can that be — how can than happen in a civil society?
Contrary to the boastful pronouncements coming from the mouth of he-who-shall-not-be-named, there is no testing here, to speak of. If you are referred to the hospital 30 miles away, and very ill and admitted in the belief that you have Covid-19, then, and only then, can you get a test.
The Governors (most, including ours) have stepped up and shown some backbone and leadership, thank goodness. And the American people themselves, as David Brooks in the NY Times has pointed out, have responded in a civil and cooperative way for the most part, which goes a long way to counter-balance the negatives above.
I miss seeing my friends, and I miss seeing my daughter and grandkids up in Toronto. But otherwise, all is well — a quiet time in a lovely place, with an amiable companion, a garden to tend, and many books to read.
I have ordered three books from our local bookstore over in Manchester, VT: one on the 1918 flu epidemic, and two on the Great Plague of London, 1665 — including Daniel Defoe’s personal account, published in 1722.
I want to understand better.
Thanks again for the terrific piece. Please excuse any typos.
Peter