Grocery shopping has never deprived me of sleep before, and I have never considered grocery store employees to be heroic, but both mental shifts occurred in the past twelve hours. I was up at 3:00, 4:00, and 5:00am worrying about the grocery run and my last nightmare left me with the image of an empty shopping cart and one small bag of limp carrots in hand.
I decided to shop last night when I realized that we were running low on eggs and bananas and considered the thought that Colorado's governor might follow California's example and put the entire state in quarantine. We can still grocery shop in quarantine, of course, but I wanted to get it over with. I planned to be at our local grocery store (King Soopers - Kroger to the rest of the country) by the opening time of 7am today, and even persuaded my sixteen-year-old, William, to be my wingman.
At 6:45am I roused William with the novel phrase, "Get up, it's time to go grocery shopping." He mumbled something about never having heard that before and then we ventured forth in Rob's 4-wheel-drive vehicle since the driveway and local roads are iced and rutted with yesterday's 8 inches of snow Upon our 7:02 arrival, we joined a line of 10 - 15 people being held at bay by a cheery store manager who said she had worked ten days straight.
Standing in the chilly air, our frozen breath filled the gap between us and the next person in line. The mood was somber until a gentleman strode up alongside (but not too close) and asked what was happening. We explained that only groups of 3 - 4 people could go in at once - unless you were over 60, in which case you could go right in - and he chuckled and said that he was 63 but no one would believe it because he looked so young. William and I reassured him that he certainly did look too young but we wouldn't begrudge him an early start, so he chortled a bit more and headed up to get his eggs.
When we entered after twenty minutes in line, we were reassured to see produce on the shelves and flowers and Easter decorations in their usual spot. We bypassed these for the paper product / cleaning aisle, aisle 11, which had its very own guard and blockade. The petite employee standing guard allowed one or two shoppers at a time and people very civilly waited to procure their one Lysol wipe container, one paper towel, one package of toilet paper and so on. Prior to the pandemic I would never have thought that aisle 11 would contain the most prized objects - maybe the ice cream and frozen pizza in aisle 15 but never aisle 11.
Before we left the store, the Lysol wipes and rubbing alcohol were both gone, but we felt somewhat reassured that more would follow. All of the shoppers seemed similarly calm and thanked the cashiers and long-suffering store manager profusely for their help.
Then we cruised the rest of the store, William hooking some chips and frozen fruit for smoothies while I grabbed meat for dinners and even probiotics - on sale! When checking out we bagged our groceries in the reusable bags we brought since employees are no longer allowed to touch those. We both wore gloves that we threw in the wash at home, but otherwise things seemed almost normal - like last week, before Tom Hanks tweeted and the NBA canceled.
I am grateful to everyone working in the stores, including cashiers, managers and cleaners, and to the truck drivers and warehouse managers and everyone on the resupply lines. I will continue to value them long into the future, into a new normal that we cannot yet envision.
Stay well and safe,
Love,
Laura
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