Loading ...Grocery Shopping in a Time of Global Pandemic
Regardless of where you live in the United States, your life is being impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Of course, each community’s experience of the virus will be different, and, individuals within each community will perceive and experience different issues. But certain things unite us regardless of income level, religion, color, ethnic background; namely, the worry around our health, our family’s health and financial well-being.
As is so often the case when we face a crisis, you encounter many stories that show humanity’s spirit: Neighbours singing to each other across balconies; young people organizing shopping for the elderly; countries sending their nurses and doctors to other frontlines in other countries; churches, mosques, and synagogues working to feed the homeless; companies – some of them anyway – continue to pay their workers when the business is closed.
However, we also see things that test our resolve. One issue that crops up time and time again is the hoarders – the panic-buyers stripping the stores of certain staple foodstuffs and necessities like toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Some are mercilessly doing this to enrich themselves, i.e. by selling the products on at a much steeper price. Others perhaps don’t have such a ruthless mentality, but might have thoughtlessly reverted to a “my family first mindset”.
Shortages are a self-fulfilling prophecy
Most observers agree that there has been no real need for stockpiling. In a way, it’s been a self-fulfilling prophecy: The shortages of certain products are apparent because people have been stockpiling, not because there have been problems with production. If everyone took their fair share, there would not be a problem.
The habits around grocery shopping are changing, however. It’s not normal to go to the grocery store and stand meters away from the checkout, nor is it normal to see other customers wearing surgical masks. There is also wariness, a fear of the other hanging in the air; something that hints at the trepidation felt by all of us in these unprecedented times.
The popularity of meal-delivery services soar
For many people, grocery shopping habits were starting to change before the virus, as seen with the popularity of meal delivery services. But that popularity has gone into overdrive now. Blue Apron and Grub Hub, for example, saw their stock prices skyrocket as other stocks plummeted.
Specialist meal-delivery companies, such as Freshly have also benefitted. You can see the minutiae of the details in this Freshy review at www.top10.com, but it’s easy to appreciate how such specialist services thrive when people are reassessing the dangers of going to the grocery store and restaurants.
Food delivery is obviously changing too. Take-out delivery companies are coming up with ways to carry out no-contact delivery to homes. Many people are ‘cleaning’ food, or at least the packaging it comes in, before consumption. Like the tireless grocery store workers, the guys and girls delivering food have become heroes, first responders in a crisis.
Perhaps the most pertinent question is if things will go back to normal once the crisis has been resolved entirely? Will people’s attitudes towards grocery shopping be permanently changed? It’s not abundantly clear what will happen, although meal-delivery services might retain a lot of that bounce as people become accustomed to their convenience.
However, we are learning lessons about ourselves, seeing both the good and the bad in society. Hopefully, by the time we are through this, we will see more of the latter.
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