Shinobi I think I can probably speak for everyone here that nobody is criticizing your actions.
However some of us may not understand what you’re doing and why. I think thats cause we don’ know the realities of living in a rural area or have been in a city so long we are taking some things for granted so we don’t quite ‘get it’.
Yes I’ll admit to that. I just assumed all grocery stores transitioned to curbside pickup and home delivery.
Down here it was a noticeable difference. Pre-COVID maybe a couple of large stores like Meijer, Kroger, and Walmart had those options. Now Aldi, Giant Eagle, down to the japanese store or the indian market store owned by mom and pop have curbside pickup and online/phone ordering.
My favorite one is the Mediterranean store I go to to get feta, olives, roasted peppers, and taramasalata. They don’t have the tech to support online ordering but you call them, give them your card info, and they bag it ready for you to pickup right by the entrance at an arranged time. I mean everybody got way more creative with ordering options so I assumed that was the norm even in the sticks. Now I feel spoiled. Sorry to hear that you’re having such a hard time getting necessities Shinobi.
Btw, this kinda dawned on me that it may be a good example of why we often seem to have two Americas that don’t seem to see eye-to-eye. A lot may be down to simply not facing the same issues and thus not understanding why some things are a bigger deal for others than it is for us and vice versa.
More infective strain appears to be due to a mutation causing the virus spikes to be more stable. It is now the primary version that people are getting.
Viruses with this mutation were much more infectious than those without the mutation in the cell culture system we used,” says Scripps Research virologist… The mutation had the effect of markedly increasing the number of functional spikes on the viral surface
More flexible spikes allow newly made viral particles to navigate the journey from producer cell to target cell fully intact, with less tendency to fall apart prematurely, he explains. “Our data are very clear, the virus becomes much more stable with the mutation,” Choe says.
In February, no sequences deposited to the GenBank database showed the D614G mutation. But by March, it appeared in 1 out of 4 samples. In May, it appeared in 70 percent of samples, Farzan says.
Shinobi, I would think a small town grocer might make an accommodation for pickup, at least just for you. Maybe tip a bag boy $20 to go pull everything off the shelf for you.
FYI healthdata.org has a new update to their model along with updated data (last data update was over a week ago). Charts out projections, easing, and projected with masks.
At 97% of ICU capacity in Houston.
Meanwhile, the new standard for corporate policies:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/25/tesla-plant-firings/
It almost doesn’t seem fair to single out tesla. We know it’s common everywhere with lax or no enforcement and fake official policies.
CDC saying asymptomatic cases may be 10x higher than those who notice they’re sick.
“Our best estimate right now is that for every case that’s reported, there actually are 10 other infections,” CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said on a call with reporters Thursday. “This virus causes so much asymptomatic infection," Redfield said. “The traditional approach of looking for symptomatic illness and diagnosing it obviously underestimates the total amount of infections.”
Isn’t that ~5% range where all the reasonable groups were estimating? (20M/328M = 6%).
Seems to further emphasizes that we’re a veryyyy long way away from “herd immunity”. 1-2 million deaths away from that, unless we mitigate until there’s a vaccine.
Not that I’d expect the CDC saying the total number already infected is that low will get Trump to stop lying to his base that almost everyone already caught it and got the “sniffles”, so no point in wearing masks.
If our testing and tracing capacity and overal handling of the pandemic were anywhere reasonable, we’d be seeing that “10 for every confirmed case” ratio go wayyyy down. Unfortunately we’re nearing record high “positivity” rates in many states now, meaning the exact opposite is happening.
Not sure I read this correctly but there were 2 fired employees; not all the employees that stayed home were fired. Me thinks there is more to the story than deciding not to come to work.
The corona virus never went away and did not subside, except in areas where there were restrictions. It’s the people not wearing masks who are nearly 100% responsible for the increasing spread of the virus, increasing disease, and increasing deaths.
It would be relatively easy to defeat this if everyone wore masks and took protective measures for a period of time but, unfortunately many people seem to think it’s a courageous step for freedom to refuse to take protective measures in the middle of a pandemic. Recently, a cofounder of ReOpen Maryland, an organization sponsoring rallies to open up everything, who said he never wore a mask, had to go to the Emergency Room where he tested positive for covid-19. He refused to reveal who he had been in contact with for contact tracing.
Around the world, America is being looked at as an example of how not to handle a pandemic.
I just don’t get all the hate on masking. It’s not hard to make or buy some masks, nor is it that inconvenient to wear them when necessary, It’s maybe an hour or less of wearing it per day for me, and might save someone’s life. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s easy and it’s better than nothing.
My theory is that people’s propensity to take precautions is sort of directly related to how many people they know that caught Covid. A sort of “I can’t see it, so it must not be real” cognitive bias.
I thought this was what we were doing.
But, I’ll have to admit, yesterday I ran into my small country bank, without my mask. The bank has 3 counter openings & I was the only patron. I keep masks & gloves always in the car. 
Really wish this dang virus would go away. My monthly schedule has gone to pot!
WalMart.com is becoming better at what they do.
I placed an order for food items yesterday and it arrived perfectly, out here in the sticks, delivered by UPS today.
That is overnight service for goodness sake!
Pretty good.
Sams Club has tweaked policies to encourage in-store shopping. Specifically, the 2% bonus cashback they award Plus members now only applies to in-store purchases (including online orders picked up in the store); before June 23 it applied equally to orders that were shipped.
Frankly, I’ve never understood how they get by with the costs of free shipping anyways, so I’m sure it is a sound business decision. But it’s encouraging more visits to the store none-the-less; it’s now going to cost you a few dollars to stay home and have orders shipped.
(No, Shin, Sam’s wont ship produce or refrigerated items. 
)
Relatedly, and maybe helpful for shinobi, I think they did officially add curbside pickup chainwide (on the 23rd? Or around there). So that’s a plus.
Previously it was just at “participating locations”, and they didn’t publish where those locations were.
! Wave !
Boy, nothing changed much since April, and I don’t mean the virus.
Thanks!! Appreciate the heads up.
While the cost is quite high, I am doing OK so far with the Staples produce shipments. For shipped produce Staples is at least close to being the only game in town. There are other “boutique” shipped produce suppliers where costs are not merely high, they are stratospheric. Those I have avoided.
Annoying to me is that there are so many produce items which could be shipped because they are not wildly perishable. OK, sure, shipment of lettuce or blueberries is not gonna work, especially not in summer. But radishes, carrots, potatoes, and maybe even celery? You can find shippers for those items in foreign countries; but not in the USA.
Heck, my Staples produce is arriving in two days. A fresh radish cannot take warmth for two days?!! Of course it can!
All the carping aside, I am grateful to have access once again at least to fresh oranges and bananas. I actually am feeling better being able to return to that much of my pre-pandemic diet, which was heavily focused on fruits and vegetables. Never did eat very much meat at all, so all the recent pandemic caused packing plant problems are a non event for me.
In California, it is now required to wear face masks in indoor public spaces.
I have no problem wearing one for an hour, but imagine all day at work (when we are re-opening on 6/29/20)?
I do carry mask’s & gloves in my car at all times. But yesterday I needed to make a quick run into Panda Express to pick up an order of which was paid… I could see my order sitting on the counter. I dashed out of the car & into the shop without the mask. I was actually almost attacked & asked to leave, but with a little sweet talk they gave me my order & I was on my way.
I understand that the mask’s are needed to help get rid of this hateful virus. Gotta be sure & wear!