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My best friend and I are natural hermits. When this COVID thing really got hot and everyone around us started the "social distancing" trend (we do love trends, don't we?), the two of us laughed and called them amateurs!
I imagine that the idea of being quarantined is pretty stressful for most people. Listen, I was made for this time. I am someone who lives as if everything outside the doors of my home is just waiting to attack me.
I am sort of a 'herma-phobe'. I mean, I'm not extreme about germs or anything but I really am wary of other people spreading their colds and viruses to me. I so easily catch everything that makes me sniffle, sneeze, cough, or go into full-on body-aches. I am already dealing with this nasty sarcoidosis so I don't need to catch any other health issues. Plus, I have hermit tendencies.
Last week, when my neighbors and family were starting to take more notice of which stores ship or deliver, they were checking with me. I know where to get my prescriptions, toiletries, groceries, and cosmetics without ever going past the door to pick up my mail. And, no, Amazon is not the only game in town.
I am going to share a little condensed information with those of you who don't read my blog on a regular basis. For more details, you will have to use the search bar at the top of this blog. Don't you wish you'd paid a little more attention now? Ha!
Here are the places I use to shop from home:
Shopping online is the norm for me. I get over-anxious around even middling-size groups of people and shoppers can be the worst. For some of you, though, this new kind of protective living is overwhelming. I happen to think that we are being set-up to accept this as the "new normal" so you might have to get used to it.
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| from elbruno.com |
I imagine that the idea of being quarantined is pretty stressful for most people. Listen, I was made for this time. I am someone who lives as if everything outside the doors of my home is just waiting to attack me.
I am sort of a 'herma-phobe'. I mean, I'm not extreme about germs or anything but I really am wary of other people spreading their colds and viruses to me. I so easily catch everything that makes me sniffle, sneeze, cough, or go into full-on body-aches. I am already dealing with this nasty sarcoidosis so I don't need to catch any other health issues. Plus, I have hermit tendencies.
Last week, when my neighbors and family were starting to take more notice of which stores ship or deliver, they were checking with me. I know where to get my prescriptions, toiletries, groceries, and cosmetics without ever going past the door to pick up my mail. And, no, Amazon is not the only game in town.
I am going to share a little condensed information with those of you who don't read my blog on a regular basis. For more details, you will have to use the search bar at the top of this blog. Don't you wish you'd paid a little more attention now? Ha!
Here are the places I use to shop from home:
- Amazon (of course), for non-perishables, household stuffs, and all other courtesy-of-billionaire Bezo-supplied goods. Until Trader Joes and other Prime-Pantry suppliers start delivering dairy and meat, I can't use them but you might be able to. Check the Amazon full directory. By the way, Amazon has a cool Prime Wardrobe deal on certain items of clothing and accessories. I've used it once but the free returns were done via UPS drop-off. I don't drive so Amazon arranged a free UPS pick-up for me. I don't know if they would make a habit of that. I was told I could do free returns via Kohl's drop-off. That's better but, still, no car.
- Hyvee and Aldi's for perishable groceries because they deliver in my area. I use Instacart because I pay the monthly membership for free delivery on orders of $30+; I can go directly to Hyvee online for more variety via Aisles Online but the delivery and fees are upwards of $10 and they won't split the annual $99 membership into monthly payments.
- Speaking of Instacart - depending on your location, you might be able to shop from several stores. Hyvee, Aldi, Target, and Petsmart are available to my hick zip code. Target's offerings there are slim and it's better to go directly to their site (see below). Maybe more will be added because of this COVID situation?
- Dollar General is a new discovery for me and I love it. I personally like to get all my "ethnic" hair care goods from them but there are some good deals on lots of DG stuff. Shipping is reasonable and not too slow although the tracking sucks and using the website is weird (I couldn't even set up an account!) I prefer using the app (here you go, iPhone users, though I've never used that one) because it's better a set up than the website.
- Target is not a place I regularly shop (too highbrow! Haha) but I like checking out the site. I get my Target beauty box every now and again.
- Walgreens is currently doing free shipping with no minimum. I don't know when that started or how long that will last. I might have to check them out for my cosmetics and such.
- Walmart is where I get anything that's cheaper than what I can find on Amazon. I have to do some work comparing but it's worth it. Shipping is free on orders $35+. Searching and sorting what is available to ship-to-home is sort of a pain. Also, prices tend to be a little higher than in-store or store-pickup. By the way, you can even order your contacts from Walmart Vision.
- RiteAid is not a place I have ever shopped in person or online but I see they have the same $35+ thing as Walmart. The other day, I saw the FREESHIP being used but I don't know if it's still good.
- I happen to use a local pharmacy that does free delivery of my prescriptions. That's a service that other pharmacies might provide.
Shopping online is the norm for me. I get over-anxious around even middling-size groups of people and shoppers can be the worst. For some of you, though, this new kind of protective living is overwhelming. I happen to think that we are being set-up to accept this as the "new normal" so you might have to get used to it.
By the way, I do NOT understand the hoarding of toilet paper but because other people are, might I suggest getting a cheap little portable bidet. I did and I can't wait till I can get one actually installed on the toilet.
Don't you wonder if this is going to be the way things remain? I do. And I bet the retailers are going to figure out how to make it work. I would not be surprised if shopping, working, learning, and socializing is about to become more of an online thing than it ever has been.
I will update this with any new information I get about retailers cutting us some online slack. Hopefully, more of them will go easy on the shipping fees and return policies.
Peace
--Free
