Hygiene at supermarkets during Coronavirus epidemic

[guzzler17]

Apparently one bit of advice about hygiene when out shopping says don't touch anything that you don't want to buy.

 

Sensible but

 

I don't want to buy a shopping trolley or a basket.

 

I know that Tesco is providing stuff so that you can wipe trolley or basket handles but not all supermarkets are doing that.  Of course I could take my own wipes but due to panic buying I cannot find any in my area, not that I've been out too often to look.

[jcm@gwr]

Wear gloves, washing up type, they can be washed and re-used

[MR Chuffer]

And don't touch your face or pick your nose whilst wearing them....

 

[Pandora]

A neighbour, an NHS Hospital Doctor who is diagnosing and treating patients with the virus, is disinfecting   items the family  purchase from the shops and supermarkets, the advice makes sense,  the virus will live quite happily on a tin can  for a long period.   

[MR Chuffer]

A maximum of 72 hours, my doctor daughter informs me....

[great central]

1 hour ago, MR Chuffer said:

And don't touch your face or pick your nose whilst wearing them....

 

 

I'm guessing that means you've tried picking your nose..........

[Ron Ron Ron]

They were restricting access to supermarkets and disinfecting the shopping trolleys in Italy, almost a month ago.

Also, wearing disposable gloves is now mandatory.

 

It’s interesting to note that before this pandemic, most supermarkets in Italy, certainly in the north, provided flimsy, plastic bag type, disposable gloves at the fruit and veg counters.

They ask that you don’t handle non-wrapped fresh items with your bare hands.

I’ll have to check, but I think it’s a fairly recent thing that’s come in over the last year or two.

 

We’ve always washed all our fruit once we get it home after shopping and we even wash down milk and fruit juice containers, before storing them in the fridge.

It was the thought of who had handled it, when stacking the shelves....images come to mind of snotty lads wiping their noses on the back of their sleeves. The thought that a killer virus might be a threat, never entered my head.

 

 

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[rocor]

Andy Locked down the "Corona-virus - Impact of the Health Situation worldwide" thread around about an hour ago, like the virus itself, it is likely to mutate, such as this thread and several others.

[kevinlms]

1 hour ago, rocor said:

Andy Locked down the "Corona-virus - Impact of the Health Situation worldwide" thread around about an hour ago, like the virus itself, it is likely to mutate, such as this thread and several others.

Don't start then!

[brossard]

My local store was having people stand in line, limiting the number of people inside.  Staff were also asking if you had travelled recently.  When you entered you were told to wash your hands and the carts had their handles wiped down by staff.  I have to say I felt a lot better about that. 

 

I expect masks will start to be mandated soon.

 

John

[Baby Deltic]

Have a look at the video below. Its the Q+A video followup to a detailed video all about SARS-COV2 which causes COVID19. He discusses supermarket hygiene and the correct use of masks. His first video is well worth a watch even though its over 1 hour long because it goes into detail about the virus and how it works.

 

 

Edited April 2, 2020 by Baby Deltic

[raymw]

Went to local Lidl's . Marker tape on floor outside for spacing (and at till queue), guard on the door letting folk in, as folk came out - all very civilised. Plenty of room  inside. Got virtually everything I wanted for us. I think it would be nice if all shopping was as pleasant as this, everybody patient, no pushing, etc. Last week, the local co-op was the same, wrt distancing, numbers, politeness, etc.

Edited April 2, 2020 by raymw

[BoD]

My wife works on the till in one of the big supermarkets....

 

.... and you worry?

 

 

I do realise though, that there are a lot of others more at risk and really do appreciate their efforts.

Edited April 2, 2020 by BoD

[adb968008]

I wear gloves and a mask, if you have neither, wear winter gloves and scarf..

it might not offer much but it’s better than nowt.

 

I take my own shopping bags.

When I enter the store, I leave my wallet and phone behind, taking only the credit card (no accidental touching / handling).

 

Never touch anything with bare hands, place it into the bag myself.

 

I’m lucky in that my car can be unlocked by my foot under the boot (touchlees entry) automatically. Once bags are in the boot, I remove the gloves gel my hands, then remove the mask and bin the lot.

 

At home, I change clothes immediately, including shoes.

Then with fresh gloves, I remove each item with a dettol wipe, if its in suitable to remove exterior packaging I remove and bin it.

Everything wipes goes to a new bag and 3 days quarantine, fridge stuffs, I have three shelves used in rotation, 2  to use, 1 for quarantine stuff.

 

Am not buying frozen, for obvious reason.

 

Extreme... I thought so in Hong Kong in 2003 until I caught something very similar (suspect SARS)  to covid19... thats what my more careful fellow citizens were doing there then.

you take your own risks.

 

Edited April 2, 2020 by adb968008

[Nearholmer]

4 hours ago, raymw said:

Last week, the local co-op was the same, wrt distancing, numbers, politeness, etc.

I popped to our nearest co-op this afternoon because we desperately needed a couple of things and I didn’t want to do the whole ‘big supermarket’ thing.

 

Very poor SD, and I will avoid the place like the plague(!) in future.

 

Its a fairly small building, recently re-fitted to cram more stuff in, with very narrow aisles, so although there were only half a dozen customers and two staff in it, it was nigh-on impossible to avoid one another.

 

Auto checkout was OK, nearly 2m spacing, but the counter service was exactly as normal, so people face-to-face at about 750mm distance!

 

I wasn’t mega-impressed by the fact that the two customers ahead of me were a teenager buying two multipacks of crisps, and a desperate looking guy buying two cans of industrial strength cider, neither of which rank as ‘necessities’ in my book, but that’s probably me being judgemental.

 

I wear disposable gloves, quarantine the shopping, and disinfect hard packaging, but am still very twitchy about shopping, because my good lady is supposed to be ‘shielded’ and to me shopping is the chink in the otherwise pretty solid armour.

 

 

Edited April 2, 2020 by Nearholmer

[adb968008]

I should add with parcels, I dont let them in the house.

Let the courier leave them outside, open then with gloves place content to large Ikea bags and put them in the garage. The outer cardboard goes straight to bin.

 

my Hattons 66’s just came out of quarantine..first impressions they are great, but as Ive got to split cooking/cleaning three times a day, teach my daughter as well as fulltime work, plus with my wife working from home, my spare time has gone out of the window... ive been working from home for nigh on 22 years and right now Ive never had my spare time so consumed by domesticity !  -

 

I cant wait to have this passed so I can export the mrs back to her office, daughter to school and safely go back to having the place to myself during the day and the odd ham and cheese butty...

 

i’m thinking we need a room booking app to reserve bedrooms / my office for meetings during the daytime as every hour were all swapping rooms... even my 9 year old is having online socials with her class mates.

Edited April 2, 2020 by adb968008

[Nearholmer]

Oh, your approach, and life under lock-down sound nearly identical to mine!

 

I'm similarly careful with parcels and post, and have two children to attempt (rather unsucessfully) to home-school, while my other half and I both try to work from home . Luckily the job I'm working on has gone into a bit of a pause, because she is now mega-busy arranging for a mass of university exams to take place over the internet.

 

I have seen my toy train set recently, but only because it is in the utility room that is now the shopping quarantine zone.

[Nearholmer]

15 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

I cant wait to have this passed so I can export the mrs back to her office, daughter to school and safely go back to having the place to myself during the day and the odd ham and cheese butty...

 

Oh, yes, definitely!

 

Just between you and I, when theyre all out, I even sometimes eat a small pork pie for lunch.

 

 

[adb968008]

11 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 

Oh, yes, definitely!

 

Just between you and I, when theyre all out, I even sometimes eat a small pork pie for lunch.

 

 

 

 

we live near a really nice bakery... I remeber the days when if it was quiet, I could drop my little one at school, stop off for breakfast check emails,  bring home a loaf and have an hour on my layout before the US lot woke up and bombed my inbox...whilst eating a sly scotch egg... and still have hid the evidence before 6pm.

Now its like exiting the space shuttle for a supermarket walk, checking for moon dust before returning home and doing a post shop analysis for what you could get from the shopping trip, discover what your still missing,  what you might yet still find and adding it to the checklist for the next shopping mission.

 
right now finding eggs and moon rocks in Surrey have equal odds... scotch egg is but a distant memory.

 

 

 

Edited April 2, 2020 by adb968008

[andyman7]

I'm lucky enough not to be in a vulnerable category, not do I live with anyone who is. Apart from (necessary) shopping I have no contact with anyone else, so whilst I am following all the public advice (20 sec handwashing, don't touch face before washing etc) I will admit that I am not going to the further extremes with the infrequent parcels etc because I am taking the view that trying to prevent getting the virus at any cost is not nearly as important for me as not infecting other people should I acquire it, and that it why I am avoiding unecessary contact, keeping 2m away etc. 

[Nearholmer]

29 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

finding eggs and moon rocks in Surrey have equal odds

 

We had an egg famine here for about ten days, but a neighbour managed to get them smuggled across some invisible border and left on her doorstep at the dead of night by her father, who runs a farm about ten miles away. Now they seem in plentiful supply again, so my guess is that Surrey will see them soon.

[adb968008]

16 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 

We had an egg famine here for about ten days, but a neighbour managed to get them smuggled across some invisible border and left on her doorstep at the dead of night by her father, who runs a farm about ten miles away. Now they seem in plentiful supply again, so my guess is that Surrey will see them soon.

 

I too saw slight improvement, local supermarket had mushrooms and cucumbers... no other fruit or veg of any kind.
 

what can you make out of that ?

[Nearholmer]

No F&V !? 
 

Not something we’ve suffered. A bit less choice, but that’s about the worst of it.

 

I think some places probably now run out very quickly, because they haven’t adjusted their ordering levels.

 

Given that we’re nearly all eating every meal at home now, demand on shops, especially in the commuter belt, must have changed a lot.

 

I’d been expecting the F&V supply to become restricted, because so much of it comes from southern Spain, Almeria, and people there have been badly affected by the beast, so I hope you’re not seeing early signs of that happening.

[sharris]

9 hours ago, adb968008 said:

right now finding eggs and moon rocks in Surrey have equal odds... scotch egg is but a distant memory.

 

 

I'm in London on the border with Surrey - I don't know if they will deliver to your part, but check out some of the suppliers operating out of New Covent Garden, usually to the restaurant trade, but now to the public- SWMBO ordered a food box which arrived yesterday with some very nice looking fruit and vegetables, a selection of herbs and 30 eggs.

 

[Ian Hargrave]

10 hours ago, adb968008 said:

I should add with parcels, I dont let them in the house.

Let the courier leave them outside, open then with gloves place content to large Ikea bags and put them in the garage. The outer cardboard goes straight to bin.

 

my Hattons 66’s just came out of quarantine..first impressions they are great, but as Ive got to split cooking/cleaning three times a day, teach my daughter as well as fulltime work, plus with my wife working from home, my spare time has gone out of the window... ive been working from home for nigh on 22 years and right now Ive never had my spare time so consumed by domesticity !  -

 

I cant wait to have this passed so I can export the mrs back to her office, daughter to school and safely go back to having the place to myself during the day and the odd ham and cheese butty...

 

i’m thinking we need a room booking app to reserve bedrooms / my office for meetings during the daytime as every hour were all swapping rooms... even my 9 year old is having online socials with her class mates.

I have two “sheds”.One is an integral part of the house, that is to say a completely separate side entrance,

the other a proper garden shed. Perishable goods i.e delivered food such as from ParsleyBox ( check it out..useful in an emergency,doesn’t need to be refrigerated) go in the former whilst the rest ...wine delivery from Tanner’s etc. and soon for perhaps a delivery from a model railway retailer are consigned to the latter. Both are secure for a 72 hour quarantine.

 

With regard to egg supply plus fresh meat,milk,bread etc.we are fortunate to have access to a local farm shop “out in the sticks”  which offers an isolated prepaid collection area. On Tuesday we managed to buy a tray of 30 .Living near a market gardening area we can also access f&v at the moment.Again a grower’s shop.

 

I am currently awaiting a delivery of toothpaste via Amazon ( Hermes ) and a supply  of liquid washing machine detergent which was purchased online from a Norfolk based firm.But....the tracking shows it originated in Denmark on Monday,travelled via Venlo Netherlands (?) arrived UK this morning and should by delivered tomorrow by RM.

 

Shopping in all supermarkets is naturally tedious and attempting online home delivery is atm fruitless.Soon we shall need to bite the bullet and get in line to queue for such tinned/ dry goods as needed.We did try the alternative of a couple of smaller supermarkets yesterday. As a sincere caution to all,there were little or no social distancing measures in place and being small in design,the cramped conditions in the aisles left both of us frankly terrified.So that’s a no go.

Naming names,the first was the Coop and the second a Sainsbury’s Local.Far better and safer to queue with the trolley at the larger shops