I went to the grocery store for the first time yesterday since the Coronavirus pandemic changed the way we will live for the next weeks or months. Being someone who actually likes grocery shopping (weird, I know), I felt uncharacteristically stressed in the grocery store. I had no idea what to buy and I wasn’t sure if being there was even safe.
So to help myself – and hopefully you! – I did some research. As of today, here’s how to grocery shop safely and (relatively) stress-free during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
JUMP TO:
How Often Should I Go to the Grocery Store?
What is the Best Time to Go to the Grocery Store?
Should I Order Groceries Online Instead?
How Much Food Should I Keep in the House At Once?
What Food Should I Buy During the Coronavirus Pandemic?
How Can I Minimize My Risk At the Grocery Store?
How Should I Sanitize After the Grocery Store or After Receiving a Grocery Delivery?
How Can I Help Those In Need?
Some Final Thoughts
How Often Should I Go to the Grocery Store?
As little as possible. Right now, it is our social responsibility, especially for those of us who are not in a higher risk group (older adults and those who have serious chronic medical conditions), to stay at home and away from others as much as possible. This means limiting trips to the grocery store.
Unless your family has been placed under quarantine, according to this article, the current Department of Homeland Security recommends buying enough groceries to last for two weeks at a time. The easiest way to make that happen – and to spend less time in the store – is to plan ahead. You can use this free weekly meal planner to sketch out your meals and write your shopping list before hitting the store.
If possible, go to the store alone (leave kids, partners, etc. at home) to reduce crowds and risk of transmission.
What Is the Best Time to Go to the Grocery Store?
Usually, the best times to grocery shop without crowds are early in the morning or late at night. However, because of the coronavirus pandemic, things have shifted. Earlier in the day seems to have more inventory, but longer lines. Later in the day (near closing time) seems to have fewer crowds, but emptier shelves.
The worst time (speaking from personal experience) seems to be early evening (5-8pm) when people head out to buy food for dinner.
Google Maps has a great feature that allows you to get a live look at how busy most grocery stores are at any given time.
Should I Order Groceries Online Instead?
Ordering groceries online is a great option right now with one huge caveat. Because of such increased demand, most online grocery delivery services are experiencing extremely low inventory, limited delivery time slots, and delays (of sometimes up to a week or more).
At the time of this writing (Wednesday, March 18th), the usual online grocery delivery service I use, Whole Foods Market on Amazon, which normally offers delivery within hours of placing my order, had no available delivery time slots until Friday afternoon. I was warned that items in my cart may be out of stock when they “shop my order,” which I would assume is highly likely being that the delivery date is over two days away.
To avoid the frustration of shopping for a whole cart of groceries only to find out that they can’t be delivered, I would experiment by adding just a few items to your cart and trying to checkout (without paying) to view delivery dates and times before spending the time adding everything to your cart.
Hopefully, as online delivery services are able to catch up with the demand, it will become easier to order groceries online.
All that being said, here are a few places to buy groceries online.
- Whole Foods Market by Amazon (if you have a local Whole Foods)
- Amazon Fresh
- Instacart
- Fresh Direct
- Thrive Market for natural food (10+ day delivery delay – a recent email from them noted that they were overwhelmed by orders)
- Butcher Box for quality frozen meat (orders won’t ship until 3/31)
How Much Food Should I Keep in the House At Once?
As mentioned above, unless your family has been placed under quarantine, the current Department of Homeland Security guidelines recommend buying enough groceries to last for two weeks at a time.
This is less daunting than it seems with just a little bit of meal planning. Again, here’s the link to download my free weekly meal planning printable.
What Food Should I Buy During the Coronavirus Pandemic?
As of now, there is more than enough food in the country.
Buying food in excess or hoarding items isn’t likely to be helpful for anyone and can make it more difficult for others to get what they need.
Also, there is no need to stockpile water since, according to the World Health Organization, the “presence of the COVID-19 virus has not been detected in drinking-water supplies and based on current evidence the risk to water supplies is low.”
If you’ve written out a rough meal plan for the next two weeks, buy the items on your shopping list, but be creative if the store doesn’t have exactly what you need. Think about easy substitutions (swap a protein for another protein, a green for another green, a type of beans for another type of beans… you get the idea).
For a full, printable list of ideas about what to buy, check out this capsule kitchen grocery list, summarized here:
PANTRY
- See the Capsule Kitchen Grocery List
FROZEN
- Vegetables (my favorites are broccoli & cauliflower rice)
- Fruit
- Quality Meat and/or Fish
- Pizza Crust
- Bread and/or Tortillas
FRESH (LONGER-LASTING PERSISHABLES)
- Eggs
- Quality Cheese
- Butter
- Lemons
- Garlic
- Onions
- Apples
- Root Vegetables (Carrots, Beets, Turnips)
- Sweet Potatoes and/or Potatoes
- Cabbage
- Brussels Sprouts
SNACKS
- Whole-Grain Crackers
- Popcorn
- Clean Snack Bars
How Can I Minimize My Risk At the Grocery Store?
As of now, the Centers for Disease Control, has not named food itself as a source of COVID-19 transmission. The virus spreads by human contact but can live on certain surfaces for hours, or even days. So while grocery shopping, keep these tips in mind.
- Touch as little as possible. It might seem silly, but having a plan and a shopping list before going into the grocery store can help you be more decisive, which means less picking up and putting back items.
- Bring sanitizing wipes (ones that promise to kill 99.9% of germs) with you to the store to wipe down the cart or basket handle.
- Use hand sanitizer (at least 60% alcohol) immediately after leaving the checkout lane.
- Leave your phone in your bag! It’s easy to forget to sanitize your hands before picking up your phone. And if you forget, clean your phone. Actually… do this anyway. 😉
How Should I Sanitize After the Grocery Store or After Receiving a Grocery Delivery?
Ok, so you’ve gone to the grocery store and now you’re home. Or you’ve received your grocery delivery. Now what? Here’s the play-by-play.
- Keep grocery bags on the ground instead of putting them on the kitchen counter. If you received your grocery delivery in a cardboard box*, keep the box on the ground.
- Wash your hands with soap* and water.
- Wash your fruits and vegetables with a little non-toxic dish soap (I like this one), rinse thoroughly and put them away.
- Wash nonporous containers, like glass, plastic, and metal, with soapy water and dry or – if that seems impractical – be sure to wash your hands really well after putting away all packaged goods and wash your hands after opening the containers and using their contents.
- Once your groceries are put away, wipe down or wash your reusable grocery bags or recycle the cardboard box.
- Wipe down high-touch surfaces, like cabinet and refrigerator handles, with a disinfectant that promises to kill 99.9% of germs. Here’s how.
- Wash your hands with soap and water… again.
*According to this article, the COVID-19 virus appears to survive the longest on plastic and stainless steel for 2-3 days after the initial contamination and on cardboard for up to 24 hours post-contamination.
*Soap breaks up the coating of the virus so that it falls apart.
How Can I Help Those In Need of Food?
Access to food is a huge issue in this country, not to mention in the middle of a pandemic. You can help food banks respond to the COVID-19 crisis by donating to Feeding America.
Some Final Thoughts
This is a weird, stressful time. And while there are a lot of unknowns, here’s one thing I know for sure: eating real, healthy food makes life better. And eating real, healthy food is a lot easier with a plan.
And since most of us are cooking more than usual these days, willingly or not, it’s a great time to try new recipes. So choose a few, sketch out the next two weeks of meals (use this meal planner!), get in and out of the grocery store with your streamlined shopping list, and try to think of the cooking part as meditative instead of stressful. A glass of wine can help ;).
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Emily says
This was so helpful! Thank you so much!
Ally says
So happy to hear that! xx