Shopping for essential supplies

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Thanks to the COVID-19 epidemic, people have started hoarding on supplies. Grocery shelves for rice, toilet paper, hand sanitiser, infant formula milk, and rubbing alcohol are empty for a few weeks already. The weekend before the shelter-in-place order was issued, Ate Maddie, JP, and I went to grocery shops to find the household items that they're in short supply of. But we ended up unsuccessful. CVS, Grocery Outlet, and Lucky were all out of stock for the items that they needed.

Then Anna and I went to Walgreens, Grocery Outlet, and CVS right after my OBGYN visit. We even ventured to Target. Still, we couldn't find the items that we were about to go short of.

The empty shelves at Target, illustrating the temporary disruption in essentials brought about by the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order.

With our toilet paper and rubbing alcohol supply dwindling (and because I used to be responsible for a continuous supply of raw materials and packaging materials—a short assignment while I was a quality assurance supervisor—otherwise the plant's operations would grind to a halt), I knew I had to order supplies in advance, I decided to buy online through Amazon.com. It was a good decision too; the high demand for household essentials has slowed down the delivery process from two to five days of shipping to four weeks!

So, just in case this shelter-in-place order gets extended well into June, we'll have a few weeks' supply... but they're arriving earliest in the third week of April. Thus, my immediate supply problem wasn't solved yet.

... Until I started browsing grocery and pharmacy online stores. And then I found gold! It turned out that the pharmacy in my neighbourhood (a 10-minute walk away from the house) still had supplies of toilet paper! I convinced Anna to go with me during the pharmacy's first hours after opening. A saleslady assisted me in finding the toilet paper stocks; and then I saw the alcohol bottles all lined up. After grabbing the customer limit for toilet paper packs (two packs) and rubbing alcohol (one bottle), I went to the cashier to pay... and then I saw disinfecting wipes. I grabbed a pack as well (one pack per customer).

With my recent purchases on hand, my family's supply has been bolstered to last until the shipment from Amazon arrives (I hope!). Whew! Not bad for a 35-week pregnant lady who doesn't go out of the house much these days.

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