Trader Joe’s in the Time of the COVID

We have always purchased the 1 gallon bottles of the Alpine water at Trader Joe’s 3 bottles at a time because it makes the coffee taste better.  I mean, not “always,” but ever since last summer (or was it 2 summers ago now?) that we lost our under sink reverse osmosis filtration system in the kitchen remodel and didn’t replace it with a carbon-based, refrigerator-mounted, in-door water and ice dispenser (both cubed and crushed!)

But this weekend, in a remarkably calm and well-stocked Trader Joe’s, they had implemented three policy changes:

1.     only 40 shoppers in-store at a time (although couples might or might not count as one depending on the doorman’s mood),

2.     peer-pressured-mandatory hand sanitizer sprays on all hands before they touch the cart the junior staffer had just finished wiping down with a hey-where-did-you-get-all-those disinfectant wipe,

3.     a 2-item limit on all merchandise. 

“What if I need 3 tomatoes?”

Doorman looked at me with a “I think you’re joking, but I’ve got to be here all day spraying sanitizer on people’s hands, which is not why I went to college” look.

I moved on.

We went directly for the water, found it, and grabbed our usual supply.

No panic shopping.

Much calmer than last week in the same store.

On to the produce.

I overheard one woman tell her shopping mate, “I heard the 2-item limit applies to any of the salads, not just the same kind, I mean only 2 salads no matter which kind.”

We usually get one Greek and one Pasadena, so I wasn’t worried.

I bagged 3 Roma tomatoes and thought about some basil and mozzarella. And 6 bananas, and 4 Granny Smiths, which is closer to what I should eat in a week than it is to what I do eat in a week.

Over by the bread, I overhead another woman lament, “They were out of tortillas at Target!  Tortillas!  How do you run out of tortillas in San Dimas?”

She grabbed one bag of corn (street taco size) and one bag of flour (burrito size).  There were plenty left on the shelves for other shoppers. I didn’t need any.

The freezer bins were full again with product that had actually been removed from its shipping boxes and arranged logically – meat pies, pasta, mini-tacos and tamales and enchiladas, pad thai and bimbibap and pork shu mai, vindaloo and masala, fried rice, chow mein, bbq, and vegetable trios.  Over there, frozen broccoli and cauliflower and carrots and spinach, and they even have our favorite baby sweet peas that they have insisted for years they “can’t get anymore.”  On the other side, fish, and buffalo patties, and hash browns, and ice cream and frozen berries.  None of those.  Don’t need ‘em.  No room in the freezer.  They’ll be here next week.

In the meat aisle, there was beef and pork, chicken and fish.  I paused at the Italian sausage, but Claro’s, so I left it all.

A package of uncured pastrami, a package of Swiss cheese, a package of Peruvian Inca Corn nuts, and on to the wine aisle. Skipped the mozzarella. Didn’t even think about it.  It will be there next time.

I overheard another woman tell her cart buddy, “I hear the 2-item limit doesn’t apply to the wine. Let’s get one for each day this week.”

On to checkout. Longer wait than last week, but the checker emptied the cart in the order I wanted to bag them in without me even asking, so I liked him.

“There’s some water in the bottom,” I said.

“Oh, right, no worries,” the Outside Voice said.

On the way out the door, another staffer sprayed our hands with sanitizer.