Social Distancing Day 9: Costco Is Amazing

I managed to last an entire week without going grocery shopping.

With five kids at home 24/7, I was pretty proud of myself. I’m not sure I’ve ever done that.

I went grocery shopping last Saturday, and I didn’t go again until today.

And a lot has changed in the last week.

I buy most of my groceries at two places: a local grocery store, and Costco.

Today I met my dad at the local grocery store.

He gave me the shopping list my mom had made and an envelope of money, and I headed into the store while he waited in his car.

It was like an instacart drug deal going down in the parking lot.

I discovered something about myself today.

I don’t ever really get too frustrated when I’m driving in traffic.

Even with all the miles we drove to and from swim practice in the last two years and all the stupid and unnecessary traffic we experienced, I never really got my panties in a bunch.

But the grocery store is a different story.

Especially now.

I find that my level of frustration is increasing the more I witness people who are either totally indifferent to our current situation. Or totally ignorant.

I’ve never had road rage.

But grocery store rage?

I might have had a slight case of that today.

There was not much social distancing happening at all. There were entire families grocery shopping. There was a lot of rage inducing shit going on today in my local grocery store, and I was nearing the Michael Douglas level of madness in Falling Down.

The necessity for my parents to not step foot into any grocery store became crystal clear today.

After I finished my parents’ shopping, I brought everything out to my dad who was doing his Sudoku puzzles in the car, and he left.

Then I went back in to get the stuff on my list.

I didn’t have that much to get there. The bulk of my shopping was happening at Costco.

It’s no secret that I love Costco. 

Even when people don’t return their carts. Which is always.

I LOOOOOOOVE Costco.

Free Costco samples have fed my kids lunch on more than one occasion.

Their frozen yogurt has been a staple treat for us.

About five years ago when we had no money and I didn’t know how I was going to get Christmas presents for the kids, it was a gift card to Costco from an anonymous reader that changed that.

One of our all-time funniest family experiences EVER happened at the Costco food court.

(You can read that post here if you missed it)

Okay.

Now that my love for Costco has been established I can continue with the story.

When I got to Costco today, the parking lot was relatively empty. Especially for a Saturday.

When I got up to the entrance though, there was a line to get in outside.

I didn’t really know what was going on. Because clearly the place wasn’t packed.

And this was not going on last Saturday. 

Last Saturday Costco was a nightmare.

They had clearly made some changes.

Some really good changes.

What they are doing now is allowing people to go inside in groups.

Kind of like you are waiting in line for the Scrambler at an amusement park.

When the ride is over and all the people get off and exit the area, they let a new group of people on the ride.

So I waited outside for about five minutes while people who were finished shopping exited the building.

It wasn’t a bad wait at all.

There was a police officer outside along with a Costco employee.

They explained that the carts inside had been sanitized and to wait until you got inside to get one (I had already gotten one, but now I know for next time).

Then, when enough people had exited, they let you inside.

There were tons of signs inside.

The first one was right inside the entrance letting you know what was out of stock — toilet paper, bleach, wipes, chicken breast… the usual. 

Then there were signs reminding you of what items you could only get in limited quantities — milk, paper towels, water, etc.

And then they have a buttload of signs in all caps saying SOCIAL DISTANCING accompanied by pictures of two grocery carts with huge arrows between them and reminding you to keep 6 feet away from other people.

Since they were limiting the number of people inside the building at one time, it was not crowded at all.

When I got up to the cash register, all the employees were wearing gloves. Actually, every employee was wearing gloves. And the ones at the cash register were wiping down the conveyor belts after each person went through.

There was someone to unload your cart — they normally have that — but they were really doing everything they could to minimize people touching stuff.

I know rubber gloves and signs and people unloading your cart are not bulletproof.

Or coronaproof.

But they were really doing everything they could to protect both customers and their employees.

It was really impressive. And awesome.

And I REALLY appreciate it.

My grocery store rage disappeared in Costco.

I do not receive any free stuff or discounts or anything from Costco.

I don’t have a partnership with them. I’m not being paid to promote them or say good stuff about them.

I just really appreciate the lengths they are going through to keep people aware and to keep people safe.

I’ve always loved Costco.

But today I love them about a five million times more.

Need help? Get My Free Course!