This NY Times article looks at winners and losers in the world of online shopping during this era in which most of us are vacuum-sealed within our homes. Not surprisingly, online shopping is booming, even for Luddites like me who much prefer going into traditional, brick-and-mortar retail establishments where we can finger the merchandise and try on the clothing. Many of the traditional retail stores in strip malls, shopping malls and Main Streets have been deemed non-essential by various governors - and even if they hadn't, risk-averse Americans would have been avoiding them in droves over the last 2+ months. Sadly, the coronavirus may have hastened the deaths of a good many businesses.
Among the online goods-and-services winners during this coronavirus era: Instacart (grocery delivery, currently clobbering more-established services like Peapod), Target (general-purpose retailing, apparently taking market share away from Amazon), Doordash (blowing past GrubHub and Uber Eats in restaurant meals delivery), GameStop (delivery of video games, long a major time-consumer/waster for all my children) and LuluLemon (comfortable pants for women who have to sit in un-ergonomic chairs at home all day as they stare at laptop screens).
The only online shopping we've done was through Amazon, which worked out okay, even though it took a little longer to get the orders than usual.
ReplyDeleteSome not-online winners are garden centers and greenhouses. One owner said he had 4 times the amount of business he normally does. Hobby Lobby is back, after several weeks of being closed. It's a big indoor space, they shouldn't have trouble with distancing. Even before they closed, precautions were in place. I have not gone near Dollar Tree or Walmart since the quarantine. Both are on the east end of town not far from one of the packing plants that had quite a virus outbreak.
Gas is cheap, but we don't eant to go anyplace yet.
If we buy cat food from the animal clinic we have to call first and they bring it out to the parking lot.
I never wait more than 3 days for ANYTHING from Amazon and a lot I have gotten the next day. Somewhere along the line I somehow got signed up for Prime, but at no cost. I'm sure that helps. We here in the San Francisco Bay Area have more than one Amazon mega warehouse location nearby and I suspect that also makes a difference.
DeleteNot many hobby lobby stores in the dc area. I was horrified that the SC decided they, a profit making company, could impose their religious beliefs on their employees. So I wouldn’t shop there even if there was a store closer than 40 miles away.
ReplyDeleteI shop online at a couple of stores that have a brick and mortar presence for returns. This includes Amazon- returns at a local Kohl’s. When they are open anyway.
I have used instacart because they had delivery slots open within a day or two. Peapod is fully booked for two weeks straight so you have to go online every day to try to grab a slot as they open one day at a time. By two weeks later, half of what I ordered was out of stock.
The crowds are gone at my store now, everyone wears a mask, most follow the arrows and maintain a distance, so I’m back to in-person shopping once every two weeks.
One if the benefits of living in a scofflaw state like Michigan is that nobody but scaredy cat old ladies like me are using the pick-up services. They're all going maskless and schmoozing in the aisles inside to show their support for Trump. I can usually get Kroger pickup order same day. I did go to our local garden store and got some gerberas and geraniums. Wore my mask, got disgusted looks, but no one said anything, and the clerk was behind plastic as required.
ReplyDeleteLots of online sales going on, which are tempting, but I really dont't need anything. We are not ordering take-out meals. Too many people in prep and delivery process for me to feel comfortable with.
Sounds like the mortuaries in your area will be busy soon.
DeleteHearses with Trump stickers.
DeleteI should hasten to add that not all of Michigan is ignoring social distancing. Rural mid-Michigan where I live is notorious for militias, conspiracy theorists, white supremacists, anti-vaxxers, and other disgruntled groups.
DeleteWe have plenty of testing available, but our numbers of infected individuals remains very low. This feeds the notion that the pandemic is a hoax.
Being compelled to stay at home without much contact with the larger world has begun to take a toll on my mental health.
I feel safer living in non-trump country than I would living where you do Jean.
ReplyDeleteWe don't go out much. To the post office drive through now and then, to the grocery. my husband is very high risk and his favorite toys stores are Home Depot and Lowe's. He doesn't go. He even ordered fertilizer from Amazon. One local shopping center has a lot of cars though because it has mostly "essential" businesses - Safeway, drug store, bakery, liquor store, hardware store. I go to the supermarket in the strip mall across the street from it as it has very little open and the grocery store isn't a bit crowded these days. Far more crowded in late March just before the shut-down than now.
The nursery is open and I'm goingto go get some plants before they are all gone. I'm betting everyone is compliant - masks on, social distancing in lines and while picking out plants, etc. I will let you know.
Glad to know that your local liquor store is an essential business. Probably more active than your local church(es) would be anyway.
DeleteI have made a couple of trips to the plant nursery to get hanging baskets of flowers. One of the nurseries is actually from a place in Kansas, but they set up shop in different towns in the area, in spring. Virtually everyone was wearing a mask and keeping their disance at the nurseries in town.
DeleteJimmy, ALL the local churches have been closed since mid-March. No scofflaws that I have read about, even among the evangelical churches. DC area isn't Trump country and even though the evangelicals are, they seem less rebellious here. Maybe because they are a political minority around here.
DeleteHowever, in Maryland, part of the state is slowly reopening. The Gov is letting local counties make their own schedule though and our county is still closed. The worst outbreaks are in the counties that border DC in both Maryland and Virginia. The Episcopal Diocese of DC has announced it is not opening any churches yet, including those in the farther out counties that are reopening. They are closed until everything reopens in the EC diocese. The Archdiocese of Washington DC covers much of the same geography. Apparently the churches in the far reaches are being allowed to open. So there is not a single policy for ADW, unlike the Episcopal diocese churches. The Virginia suburbs are part of the Arlington Va diocese, not DC. Virginia is also doing a partial reopening, but the VA counties that border DC also remain closed. So not sure if the Catholics are reopening in part of the diocese in norther VA or if all are closed. Northern VA turned blue in 2016. The rest of the state, except for the city of Richmond, is red. Some of those rural counties have floated the idea of rejoining West Virginia! Of course, most of the funding the poorer, rural counties in Virginia get from the state comes from northern Virginia's taxes. West Virginia is already one of the poorest states - they don't need to take on the poor counties of Virginia also.
Haven't looked to see what the rules are going to be in the MD counties where the RC parishes will open this weekend.
Give me eBay or give me ……….
ReplyDeleteOur family achieved a dubious meal-delivery milestone the other day. I emerged from my work cave around lunch time and announced to that family that I was about to order a sandwich from Jimmy Johns, a local sub shop, and would anyone else care to get in on the action. One of my children sheepishly confessed that she had placed an order with Jimmy Johns 10 minutes earlier. So we ended up having two separate deliveries from the same restaurant to the same house within a quarter hour of one another. Another great communication triumph for our family ... :-)
ReplyDeleteMouths, throats and vocal cords are obsolete. Replaced by texting.
DeleteWe have gotten fast food a couple of times from Runza, which is a Nebraska chain. They've only been doing drive through since the quarantine. But they seem to be doing pretty good with following precautions. Want them to stay in business.
DeleteI've ordered disposable face masks from Amazon twice in the last 4-6 weeks. The first order took about two weeks to arrive, even with Prime. But the second order showed up within the requisite 2 days. I guess the supply of masks is improving.
ReplyDeleteI checked Amazon for N95 or KN95 masks today. They have lots of different masks but not those, or at least they didn't come up on a search. We got a package of KN95s a couple of weeks ago at a local pharmacy. I am re-using those after letting them sit for 3 days. I feel okay doing that especially since they aren't worn for more than an hour or so at a time.
DeleteKatherine, do the 95 masks protect the person wearing them as well as protect others? Safer in confined spaces for hours - such as a six hour plane trip?
DeleteThe surgical masks only protect others if I’m not mistaken.
Anne, N95 masks DO protect the wearer. If they have ports with valves, not so much others. The exhalation is not filtered but at least coughs and sneezes are not efficiently projected. N95 masks without the valve are more stressful on breathing but protect others more. Surgical masks protect the wearer against larger droplets and sloppy exposures but not as good as N95 and not very much others.
DeleteI personally have a respirator with P100 filters, better than N95 but, again, with an exhaust port. I'm hoping the downward directing of the exhalation helps if I am asymptomatic. I have been consistently practicing social distancing and isolation and assuming that my efficient masking is sufficiently protecting me and therefore ultimately others. I use as a guide the excellent Bromage reference you posted. It has been reported by CNN.
Our masks are the types which don't have ports. I would not want to wear them, for instance, on a several hour plane flight. I notice one does have to work harder breathing. Might not be the best for someone with asthma. But they would seem to protect both the wearer and others.
DeleteStanley, when I was working I had a respirator with the P100 filters. Too bad I still don't have it. The thing was no fashion accessory. I also worked with materials such as cyanide and concentrated acids in a fumes hood. Maybe we all need to be in a fumes hood.
Katherine, we definitely need to apply germicidal techniques to our commercial and home HVAC systems that recirculate air. I've heard of two healthcare workers that are severely ill but had spouses who got it and recovered. Other people in COVID units were ok. Breathing the same small reservoir of air seems to be the worst situation.
DeleteOur HVAC system has a UV light that shines on the air that is recirculated. That seems like it might be helpful with this virus.
DeleteI'm pretty sure that if one of us gets it the other one is screwed. There's no way you could isolate in this small of a house which only has one bathroom.
The one bathroom is a problem. Otherwise, a system like yours set with fan always on might do a pretty good job.
DeleteIf you're interested, go to kindle and search "ultraviolet germicidal irradiation handbook". The author is Wladislaw Kowalski. You can download a free sample and it is loaded with lots of information. This guy may have designed your system.
By the way, some kind of fume hood or negative pressure window exhaust fan for a room WOULD probably work well.
I think home design may change in the future. I don't think this is the last of these crossover pulmonary viruses.
I have always had good delivery within several days from Amazon even thought I don't have prime. Even during this time when I order several items that were in short supply at local markets.
ReplyDeleteMy grocery store, Giant Eagle has pickup orders within a few days, e.g. today Thursday it begins on Saturday. Pickup is no charge. They also have delivery usually for next day but there is a charge. I don't plan to resume personal grocery shopping any time soon. I have been pleased with the meat, vegetables and fruit their shoppers have selected.
In my case it is more business for places that I had already used.
I've been shopping for groceries in person and in mask since we shut down. And my rule for Amazon is "Browse Amazon and Order from Alibris." I suppose I should be nicer to Jeff Bezos since Trump hates him so much he wants to kill the Post Office for the crime of shipping Amazon packages. But Jeff didn't get rich enough to be worth Trump's hatred by being nice to his employees.
ReplyDeleteAmazon did, however, hire dozens of drivers to deliver to its Prime customers in gray Prime trucks. He got them by paying something like $7 an hour more than they could make driving school buses. It's as well that the schools had to close because if they were open the county would be having a busing crisis. So Alibris.
I wonder if doctors, if not patients, will benefit from moving activities online. I'm all for protecting doctors and nurses at this time, but I fear tele-visits will become the norm now that Medicare is accepting virtual visits. Most doctors are employees of big medical systems that want ever-higher productivity. Processing patients virtually will allow doctors to see more patients per day and save on costs associated with doctor visits. You can bet any cost savings will not be passed on to the consumer who gets less thorough and engaged care.
ReplyDeleteI've had one telehealth appointment so far, using the doctor's Zoom account. Apart from the privacy and security issues, which were dreadful (somehow they managed to join me into an existing telehealth consultation with a different patient) but fixable, my basic objection is: the doctor can't see the patient's whole body when the patient's laptop or cellphone camera is pointing at the patient's head. We may as well just talk on the phone if there is to be no useful visual check-up.
DeleteI had a telemeeting on .doxy (cute!) with my lung guy. I waited 15 minutes (just like an office visit) after logging in, and when he came on, he said, "This thing is in and out. Sign off, and I'll phone you." So he checked my lungs on the phone. A friend of mine who had a similar visit said it went well, end the doctor didn't come on until 30 minutes after the appointment time, which is par for an office visit.
DeleteThe first thing all my MDs do is have my temperature, pulse and heart rate taken. Then they wield their stethoscopes. Then we talk. If the first two steps can be done away with so easily to accommodate the latest thing, we wasted a lot of time back in the days of personal visits.
"This thing is in and out. Sign off, and I'll phone you."
DeleteThat's what happened to me, too!
Tom, I suppose you're familiar with the definition of the word "doxy"? I don't think that brand name projects the image that a doctor's practice would wish to project. Or maybe some sort of sardonic commentary about the medical profession is intended?
Emailing photos of what ails me is not my idea of good medical care. I lied and told the office I don't have e-visit capability and to figure out something else. Will be interesting to see what I get.
DeleteJim, You reminded me of the old seminary joke everybody here has heard: "You are guillty of heterodoxy. I am for orthodoxy." "Yes, everybody gets the doxy he deserves."
DeleteI can totally predict that they will try and get by on the cheap and treat Medicaid patients pretty much with telemedicine. Particularly with children this could lead to the practioner missing clues.
DeleteKatherine, from the virtual school to the virtual school nurse to the virtual doctor?... to the virtual undertaker?
DeleteSpeaking of whom, the one who will bury me told me the other day that he is stuck with a bunch of New Yorkers who can't be sent home for burial. He expects to keep them cool until Cuomo works off his backlog.
Katherine, no kidding. When I clerked in the ER and pediatrics, doctors and nurses were very good at spotting child abuse and neglect. Telemedicine would drastically reduce clinicians' ability to spot this.
DeleteTom, to paraphrase John 11:39, " By this time they stinketh." It might be the middle of summer before they get sent home. I'm surprised the undertakerdoesn't insist on cremation as a condition of undertaking them.
DeleteHe will do what the family wants. If there is no family, he will do better than what the family would have wanted. (I know of cases.) That's the kind of guy he is. It's why he has me on his to-do list
DeleteThe morticians I have known have been kind and caring people. I don't think you could be in that profession unless you cared about people and wanted to help them through a rough time. I always liked Joseph of Arimathea, their patron saint.
Delete