Grocery shopping list for April 2020

This post is the sixteenth in a series and the second with rona. Due to official restrictions on gatherings and visiting in this month I gave away no toilet paper.

2 April

Went to the pharmacy and the post office after leaving the car at Woolies. Then at the supermarket I bought bacon, eggs, bread, sundried tomatoes, sliced ham, avocado spread, banana bread, and flavoured mineral water (no-sugar). This time I brought with me a $1 and a $2 coin (known as “gold” coins), so I could use one to free up a trolley, which I knew I would need for my groceries. A security guard stood beside the automated checkout area, on its border near to the shop entrance.

4 April

Drove to Woolworths and bought pork chops, chicken sausages, salmon fillets, a Nile perch fillet, sliced ham, sliced pastrami, bean salad, couscous with cauliflower and cranberry, quinoa and tabbouleh salad, and flavoured mineral water (no-sugar).

Later, I went to the Feather and Bone Butchery website and ordered two packets of pork, veal and sage sausages, two of chorizo sausages, and some lamb chops. I was lucky to nab the snags (see image below) as most of the listed range had already sold out. Delivery due on Tuesday 7 April. Confirmation email arrived at 3.45pm.

5 April

Went to the Campos Coffee website and ordered coffee to be delivered (see checkout receipt below). I wasn’t yet completely out of coffee but was on the last bag from the previous batch ordered. 

A notice on the bottom on the company’s home page mentioned that deliveries would be delayed due to demand for product at the roastery stemming from rona, as well as due to the volume of packages being handled by Australia Post. “Please bear with us and allow additional time for your order,” it said. 

My building’s lobby would be completed by the next Tuesday, 7 April, I learned from a notice that arrived in my inbox on Friday. Once we reached this milestone, deliveries would be able to take place in the regular fashion without residents needing to go down to level two to meet a deliveryman. And instead of going to the post office to pick up a parcel, things could be left in the lobby, as they had been before renovation work started.

6 April

Drove to Woolworths and bought sliced roast beef, sliced ham, sliced Hungarian salami, lentil salad, coleslaw, minestrone, Thai pumpkin soup, bread, olive oil spread, Calbee “Harvest Snaps”, mustard (one jar of hot English and one jar of Dijon), and flavoured mineral water (no-sugar). I brought with me a gold coin for the trolley, and as usual used hand sanitiser from a pump bottle at the entrance where a staff member stood at a table.

7 April

At 11.35am I got a phone call from the deliveryman from Feather and Bone and I went down in the lift. He met me at the front door on the ground floor, as access to the lobby was possible. I asked him as he handed me the Styrofoam box if everything was there – it was smaller than it had been the last time – and he said, “I don’t pack them.” I took it upstairs and unpacked everything, bagging the sausages and chops and putting them away in the freezer. I finished this job at 11.50am then put the empty box in the garbage room off the hallway on my floor.

8 April

Walked to Woolies and bought flavoured mineral water (no-sugar). They had put up guides for shoppers at the entrance, to separate those entering from those leaving the store (see photo below). The signage was clear and people observed the new measures when I was inside.

I had to get a new battery put in my watch so later I drove to Broadway Shopping Centre and dropped it off at Mister Minit. I paid and promised to return in 15 minutes, then went up to Kmart and bought socks. On exiting the store I walked to Dymocks, bought two books (both published in 2019), then back to Mister Minit to pick up my watch, which not only now ran but had been adjusted by the friendly handyman to show the correct time and date. On the way back to the car I stopped at Harris Farm Markets and bought Hungarian salami, Danish salami, shortcut bacon, New Zealand Cheddar cheese, Spanish artichoke hearts, eggplant kasaundi (mustard sauce), lime pickle, hot English mustard, and taramosalata. Parking was free and no ticket necessary. 

9 April

An email arrived just after midnight saying the coffee would arrive on the 14th, but at 6.57am another email arrived telling me that the package would arrive on this day. At 8.48am the Australia Post deliveryman buzzed me on the intercom and asked to be let into the lobby, so I pressed the door release button for him. I went down in the lift, picked up the box off the floor, and took it upstairs. At 8.59am and email arrived confirming the delivery’s completion.

At about 9.50am I walked to Woolworths and bought sultana butter cake, milk, and flavoured mineral water (no-sugar). On the way home I stopped by the post office and collected a parcel that was waiting there from earlier in the month (the day before I’d called Myer to find out its whereabouts).

10 April

Drove to Woolies and bought bread, bean salad, Tim Tams, flavoured mineral water (no-sugar), and a box of tissues.

11 April 

Went to the convenience store nearby to get eggs but they had none in stock, so went up to the one near the light rail station, and bought them there. Then at the bottle shop I got two six-packs of Carlton Zero.

12 April

Went to Woolworths on foot and bought pork chops, sliced ham, sliced pastrami, a cos lettuce, Calbee “Harvest Snaps”, and flavoured mineral water (no-sugar).

14 April

Went to the pharmacy and to the supermarket. On the way there stopped and had a haircut. The barber said his business was down by 70 percent compared to normal times, and he’s got an arrangement to pay rent depending on his income. The following sign, warning about store population density, was on the A-board outside the pharmacy.

At Coles, they had put out witches’ hats and plastic rods to separate people going into the store from people coming out. A staffer stood at the entrance with a mobile phone in her hand, tallying up the number of people in the store at any one time (adding people who entered and subtracting people who left). 

Inside the store, I bought fillet steak, barramundi fillets, coleslaw, quinoa and tabbouleh salad, artichoke hearts, bacon, bread, cos lettuce, avocado spread, blue cheese, sandwich bags, and flavoured mineral water (no-sugar).

15 April

Popped out to run an errand and picked up six eggs at the convenience store.

16 April

Drove to Woolworths and bought a ling fillet, a Nile perch fillet, sliced pastrami, sliced ham, sliced salami, lentil soup, pea and ham soup, quinoa and tabbouleh salad, bean salad, some Bega cheese, a sultana butter cake, Tim Tams, and flavoured mineral water (no-sugar). The sign shown in the below image, which was made in the underground carpark, outlines rules the store had in place to limit the number of people who could enter at any one time.

17 April

Walked to Woolworths and bought canola oil, chicken soup, flavoured mineral water (no-sugar), and Schweppes no-sugar drink.

19 April

Walked to Woolies and bought bacon, sundried tomatoes, bread, milk, and flavoured mineral water (no-sugar).

20 April

I had an appointment locally, then was at the pharmacy and so I popped into Coles and bought bacon, Hungarian salami, eggs, lettuce, flavoured mineral water (no-sugar). When I got home I visited the Feather and Bone Butchery website and ordered sausages, sirloin steak, lamb cutlets, and some goat chops (see image below). Delivery due on the 23rd of the month.

21 April

Had to pop in at the pharmacy and while in the area I visited Coles and bought basmati rice (which had been completely out of stock at Woolworths; any kind of rice except for 5kg bags of the grain), flavoured mineral water (no-sugar), Schweppes flavoured drink (no-sugar), and mouthwash.

23 April

At about 10am the intercom buzzed and I told the deliveryman from Feather and Bone that I would let him in, then pressed the door release button on the console in my living room and got my phone, keys and shoes on and went down in the lift to the lobby. The guy was standing near the front door, which leads to the street, and he pointed at a white box on the floor near the lift doors. I said, “Thanks” and picked It up as he left to go back to his truck.

Upstairs, I unpacked and sealed everything in sandwich bags, then put the meat away in the freezer. By about 10.15am I had finished my task, then took the Styrofoam box and put it in the garbage room on my floor. At 10.30am I went out to the bottle shop and bought two six-packs of Carlton Zero.

24 April

Had to go to the pharmacy, so I popped in at Coles, and bought bacon, sliced hot sorpressa, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, quinoa and tabbouleh salad, coleslaw, banana cake, taramosalata, flavoured mineral water (no-sugar), Schweppes flavoured drink (no-sugar), and dishwashing liquid. Receipt in photo below.

25 April

Walked to Woolworths and bought sliced pastrami, sliced ham, eggs, bread, lentil salad, a cos lettuce, pea and ham soup, lamb soup, Tim Tams, Calbee “Harvest Snaps”, and flavoured mineral water (no-sugar).

28 April

Had to go to the pharmacy and while there I popped into Coles and bought taramosalata, milk, and flavoured mineral water (no-sugar). There was a bit of shopping news in the Sydney Morning Herald:

Woolworths has joined Coles in easing product limits as demand on essential items begins to return to normal amid COVID-19. 

From Wednesday, Woolworths will increase product limits from two per person to four per person on toilet paper, rice, hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes.

29 April

Drove to Bunnings and bought a plug for the laundry sink and a bottle of drain cleaner. 

30 April

I was in Five Dock to do an errand and stopped at a butcher’s and bought Scotch fillet steak, pork cutlets, and eggs. After I got home I saw a headline in the Sydney Morning Herald that, bizarrely, ran, "Woolworths trailing Coles in coronavirus panic buying race." As though we are meant to celebrate the rivalry between two retailers, in the face of an epidemic that will lead to an economic recession and that, globally, has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people.