COVID 19

[Brammy]

Yesterday I was visiting a friend at the Southington, CT BJ's Wholesale Club. He works in the liquor department. He said in Tuesday the club did more in sales than they did on Christmas Eve. When I went into the club itself it was chaos. Just about every register was open and all had very long lines. Quite a bit of empty space on some of the shelves.

ShopRite in Southington was packed yesterday.

My Mom's friend went to Southington Price Chopper and there was no toilet paper.

Went to the Southington Stop and Shop today. - No toilet paper or paper towels. Limited supplies of cereal, gatorade, stove top stuffing. The fresh meat department was low on meats.  They've done away with the fresh pick your own rolls, muffins, and bagels from the baskery. They've done away with the serve coffee that they put in after Dunkin closed 11 years ago. They've done away with the serve your own soup.

[TheFugitive]

Doing away with salad bars and self-serve food does make sense under the current situation.

The runs on toilet paper and hand sanitizer have been insane.
A fight broke out at one of our local Costco stores over the last few bottles of sanitizer.

[deerwrecker2017]

I was inside both the nearest Giant Eagle and Dollar General stores closest to my house last night and the shelves that you would find Hand Sanitizer, Toilet Paper and Anti Bacterial Soap were completely empty (What I have seen at both stores). And there was a bunch of customers at the Giant Eagle as well even I was waiting some time in the Deli and the deli meats in the display cases were nearing "Slim Pickings".

Fortunately I found some suitable Hand Soap (1 Gallon Jug of Dial Professional Microbial Hand Soap) and a entire box of Toilet Paper (Contains 80 1 ply 1,210 sheet rolls) from Amazon before everybody around here started buying it up and hoarding it.

I do think that it's completely pathetic that people are hoarding Toilet Paper when in the event that they are a massive amount of closures the stores that sell Toilet Paper alongside the pharmacies will still be the ones that will likely remain open as they are truly essential stores.

Maybe they should completely do away with buffets as well.

Fighting over Hand Sanitizer is completely low. I would not be surprised if someone got killed over something like that considering the way everything is going.

[Brammy]

2 or 3 days a week I go to ShopRite in Southington for breakfast. Sometimes I just grab an egg and bagel sandwich. Sometimes I get food from the food bar. I got there at 8:30AM today and nearly every register was open and they all had long lines! It wasn't even like that at Christmas.

This afternoon Mom said she needed a few things and we went to Stop and Shop in Forestville, Connecticut. (The one where I used to work)! The store is mostly out of food. I never seen a grocery store like that outside of a closing sale. They're also cutting their hours of operations beginning on Monday to restock the store. New hours will be 7:30AM-8:00PM.

I also have Price Chopper on Facebook. Effective this week the remaining Price Chopper and Market 32 stores that are open 24/7 will no longer be open 24/7 in order to better restock the stores. Temporary hours of operations will be 6AM-1:30AM.

[AmesNewington]

ShopRite in Southington came through for my family. We expected to get not much of anything, but they had enough stock for at least what we needed. They put limits on all the most sought items everyone is hoarding. They had a decent amount of bath tissue and paper towels. We got two towels and one pack of bath tissue in the beginning of our trip and when we went down the aisle later they still had a good amount. The meat department was half empty but they were getting whatever they could out, even ground beef. The employees said they were bought out of all the meat yesterday night. We do our weekly order every Saturday morning and we felt like we were buying too much despite the occasion but this is our only day out to shop. The customers were actually very decent and were making conversation with each other which I was surprised to see. I think everyone is aware of the situation and taking it seriously. Of course there are a group of idiots who will run you over with their carts to get to the items they want but it was good overall. The staff here is very efficient and hard working. The managers were stocking the shelves the whole time we were there and all other workers were working diligently and were friendly. The Drusts are lucky to have such a great team.

[deerwrecker2017]

Around here all of the Giant Eagle and Market District stores as well as the GetGo locations attached to those stores are temporarily setting their business hours to 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM every day of the week so that more time will be available for restocking shelves and sanitizing the stores while the stand alone GetGo locations will still follow their normal business hours at this time.

[shore72]

Friday night happened to be our regular shopping trip; we didn't need TP or hand sanitizer, thank goodness! We shop at Giant (the MD/DE/DC variant). When we arrived there were no carts left at the door (I've never seen it happen here) so I had to run back to one of the corrals. Now, I've seen this store busier but not at 4pm on a Friday, not even pre-snowstorm. Overall the shelves were well stocked but there were a couple surprises: plenty of apples and oranges, but no bananas at all. The salad bar was still open. There were some gaps in the meat counter, the worst being a total lack of pork chops (which was on our list.) No "Lysol" wipes, of course, and no TP aside from a small display of single roll generic & Scott 1000 on an end cap (where I think it may have been overlooked.)

My wife & I treated today just like any other Saturday; we needed to do some other shopping and it proved to be a great day for that. Our stops: 1) Tractor Supply, should have been very busy at 9am but there were maybe 6 shoppers. 2) Michael's, lighter than it should have been on a Saturday morning, no lines. Had a good conversation with the clerk who let us know that the Aldi down the street just got a fresh shipment of paper towels & TP. 3) Home Depot, pretty empty, I was in line behind someone buying a cart full of heavy duty cleaner. 4) Lane Bryant, they seemed surprised anyone was coming in. We were the only shoppers. 5) Ulta Beauty. One other shopper while we were there. From what I overheard I guess she wanted them to apply some makeup to her but they told her it wasn't allowed right now. I noticed they had a lot of sample makeup that anyone could come along and dab their fingers in. Something to think about. 6) HomeGoods, another store that way slower than it should have been, as was 7) Tuesday Morning with maybe one or two other customers. I think it was a manager who waited on us, and seemed glad to see us. From there it was on to lunch at 8) Red Lobster. Now, my wife has this thing about always wanting to be there right when they open the door at 11am but it was 10 after when we arrived. We were the first customer and they were actually excited to see us! They made a big fuss over us, very friendly, and the fastest service I've had at a restaurant like that. There were a couple other tables that filled up by the time we left. Our server said he would probably get sent home soon because of the low volume.

Later in the day we went out for supper at a local family restaurant, arriving at 4pm, same as we did last time we ate there. Then the place was bustling when we arrived and almost fully packed when we left. This time there were 2 other tables occupied when we arrived and they'd both left by the time we finished. There might have been one other couple in the restaurant when we left.

Prediction: lots of coupons and promotions coming soon for restaurants! And no coupons for TP for the for quite a while!

[Brammy]

Walmart's new hours for all their stores (including their grocery-only Neighborhood Market Stores) will be 6AM-11PM unless they normally operate with reduced hours. i.e. The one in Southington is open 7AM-10PM, so those hours will not change.

[Brammy]

King of Prussia Mall, Plymouth Meeting Mall, Valley Forge Casino are among other mall and venues in 3 counties in Pennsylvania that have shut down because of an order by the Governor of Pennsylvania. The Reading School District is also closed. I only mention that because I have a friend who is not only a Blackjack dealer at the VF Casino, but he's also a Math teacher in the Reading School Distric.

Also Urban Outfitters has closed all their stores worldwide due to COVID-19.

[mixedday]

Per the PA governor's mandate, all the malls in SE PA (Bucks, Montco, Chester, and Delco) are closed.

This includes anchor stores like Boscov's (which could have closed its mall entrance) in Plymouth Meeting Mall, as well as some free standing apparel stores like Kohl's Blue Bell PA (not near any mall) are closed right now too. However, the Marshall's of Conshohocken/Plymouth Meeting and Best Buy of King of Prussia are still open, so it doesn't apply to all retail. So, it's kind of strange and makes me wonder if Kohl's Blue Bell and Boscov's Plymouth Meeting were forced to closed or voluntarily decided to close while Best Buy chose to stay open.

I'd say there is probably greater risk catching a virus going into a Wawa, using their touch screens to order food. Their front door handles are dirtier, and one is more likely to be in closer distance to more people, than inside a Kohl's or Boscov's.

But the latter group of stores don't sell "essentials". As of now, though, Boscov's/Kohls in Central PA and rest of PA, and in NJ are still open.

[JimSawhill]

The same things happened here... Amazing... I got TP at the marina. Lots of stuff off the shelf in the paper products section. Publix,  Winn-Dixie, Walmart  no hand sanitizer...

[Brammy]

Connecticut update:

All bars, restaurants, movies theaters, concert venues, etc have to close by 8PM tonight.

Restaurants are allowed to be open for take-out and delivery only.

ShopRite of Southington is now closing at 8PM instead of 10PM.

Cost Cutters Hair Salon is now open 10PM-6PM. Not sure what their weekend hours will be.

Smash Burger's new hours will be 11AM-7PM.

Other notes: All Starbucks and Chick Fil A will be take-out and drive-thru only.

Urban Outfitters, Abercrombie and Fitch, Lulu Lemon, Nike, and Apple are among numerous retailers closing their stores until further notice.

As of Sunday ShopRite of Southington has shut down their Salad Bar, Hot Food Bars, and Mediterranean olive bar.

[mixedday]

Connecticut update:

All bars, restaurants, movies theaters, concert venues, etc have to close by 8PM tonight.

Restaurants are allowed to be open for take-out and delivery only.

ShopRite of Southington is now closing at 8PM instead of 10PM.

Cost Cutters Hair Salon is now open 10PM-6PM. Not sure what their weekend hours will be.

Smash Burger's new hours will be 11AM-7PM.

Other notes: All Starbucks and Chick Fil A will be take-out and drive-thru only.

Urban Outfitters, Abercrombie and Fitch, Lulu Lemon, Nike, and Apple are among numerous retailers closing their stores until further notice.

As of Sunday ShopRite of Southington has shut down their Salad Bar, Hot Food Bars, and Mediterranean olive bar.

Similar curfew now in place in New York and New Jersey as well.

Here in NJ, if curfew is 8pm, I'm surprised businesses aren't closing at 7:30pm latest, since it takes 5-15 minutes for a customer to drive home.

[deerwrecker2017]

Around here in PA

A Statewide shutdown of Nonessential businesses has just been ordered by Governor Wolf and all the Casinos that have not already closed statewide to close as well.

Prior to this order being given.

The YMCA's that have not temporarily closed have decided to close for 2 weeks (One of them in Southwestern PA had decided to close down after the School closures were ordered).

Fish fry's in the area had moved over to a take out only as a result of the events going on.

Hunters Safety Courses scheduled for the rest of March had already been cancelled.

A number of events scheduled at various locations have already been cancelled.

Even there are Private Clubs cancelling various events including their Membership Meetings.

Both Seven Springs and Hidden Valley Resorts have decided to close their ski slopes this weekend (They are said to be evaluating on a Week by Week basis).

[Brammy]

Stop and Shop has modified their hours again. Starting 3/19 they will be open 6AM-8PM, with 6AM-7:30AM being exclusively for customers over the age of 60.

Per Boscov's Facebook Page the following Boscov's locations are closed:

Boscov's Altoona
Boscov's Beaver Valley
Boscov's Berkshire
Boscov's Butler
Boscov's Camp Hill
Boscov's Colonial Park
Boscov's East (Exeter)
Boscov's Easton
Boscov's Erie
Boscov's Exton
Boscov's Fairgrounds (North)
Boscov's Granite Run
Boscov's Hazleton
Boscov's Johnstown
Boscov's Lancaster
Boscov's Lebanon
Boscov's Lehigh Valley
Boscov's Neshaminy
Boscov's Outlet
Boscov's Plymouth Meeting
Boscov's Pottstown (Coventry)
Boscov's Pottsville
Boscov's Providence Place
Boscov's Scranton
Boscov's Selinsgrove
Boscov's Wilkes Barre
Boscov's York

[Brammy]

McDonald's is closing dining rooms at all corporate owned restaurants across the country. They're hoping all franchise owners follow their lead.

[buzz86us]

Wal-Mart looks like it is going out of business

[Brammy]

I saw in the Record-Journal Newspaper that the Westfield Meriden Square Mall has changed their hours of operations.

Monday-Saturday 11AM-7PM

Sundays 12PM-6PM.

[Brammy]

The first hour of the business day at Dollar General is now dedicated to Senior Citizens.

[Brammy]

Macy's and Nordstrom are closing all stores coast to coast for 2 weeks.

[dmx10101]

Macy's and Nordstrom are closing all stores coast to coast for 2 weeks.

So are all Belk stores

[Brammy]

Per Boscov's Facebook Page the following Boscov's locations are closed:

Boscov's Altoona
Boscov's Beaver Valley
Boscov's Berkshire
Boscov's Butler
Boscov's Camp Hill
Boscov's Colonial Park
Boscov's East (Exeter)
Boscov's Easton
Boscov's Erie
Boscov's Exton
Boscov's Fairgrounds (North)
Boscov's Granite Run
Boscov's Hazleton
Boscov's Johnstown
Boscov's Lancaster
Boscov's Lebanon
Boscov's Lehigh Valley
Boscov's Neshaminy
Boscov's Outlet
Boscov's Plymouth Meeting
Boscov's Pottstown (Coventry)
Boscov's Pottsville
Boscov's Providence Place
Boscov's Scranton
Boscov's Selinsgrove
Boscov's Wilkes Barre
Boscov's York

The remaining Boscov's locations are now closed as well as of Wednesday.

Taco Bell has switched to drive-thru/delivery/carry-out only.

DSW has closed all their locations as of tonight.

[mixedday]

In NJ, all malls and entertainment complexes to close:
https://www.nj.com/coronavirus/2020/03/nj-orders-all-indoor-malls-to-close-starting-tonight-to-fight-coronavirus-pandemic-murphy-says.html

With macy's, boscov's and nordstrom self-imposing a closing, it leaves these big box chains possibly open:

TJX/Marshalls/HomeGoods/HomeSense/Sierra
Ross
Burlington
Best Buy/PC Richardson/Staples
Michaels
Other off price stores (Gabe's, Stein Mart)
Old Navy, GAP in outdoor centers

I assume JCPenney and Lord & Taylor dept stores attached to malls will be closed.

The SF area ban though is more restrictive requiring all those chains to close, as they would be deemed non-essential.

It's assumed Walmart, Target, Home Depot and Lowes will all stay open as they are essential or hardware.

I think Staples will try to stay open, as they might consider themselves closer to an essential like FedEx/UPS Store.

[deerwrecker2017]

The first hour of the business day at Dollar General is now dedicated to Senior Citizens.

I think that it's good to make sure that the Elderly and the High Risk groups (Ones that are most likely to contract COVID-19) have a chance to safely purchase the items that they would need safely without the risk of any of them being sickened.

Wal-Mart looks like it is going out of business

But it's not at all. On a weekend around the midday to early evening hours in normal times (Before the pandemic took hold) parking spaces were impossible to find.

On another note all of the Fine Wine & Good Spirits Stores here in PA and their website for online orders have closed down until further notice. There is one mall that has closed down that I know of (Beaver Valley Mall is closed until further notice), South Hills Village has cut it's hours.

[Brammy]

Connecticut Post Mall in Milford is closed.

Westfarms Mall is operating on modified hours.

Governor Lamont is proposing to lock down the entire state of Connecticut.  :mad:

If I get one of those stimulus checks the federal government is proposing to send out, I'm going to shred it.

[JimSawhill]

I was at Trader Joe's and Sprouts Farmer's Market yesterday. Some produce were out, but most were in stock. No Blood Oranges at Sprouts, but got a bag of Raspberry Oranges instead. TJ doesn't have coffee out, which I love to drink around the store.

[mixedday]

Just got an email from Barnes & Noble.

Here is some of the content:

-------

•    We are reducing operating hours in all stores, and are prepared to react quickly to decisions from local and national officials that impact our stores and cafés.
•    We are canceling all planned events in our stores through the end of April.
•    We are following all guidance from health officials regarding enhanced cleaning and hygiene, and are instructing our booksellers to practice social distancing and remain home if they feel ill.
•    We respectfully ask our customers to observe social distancing when in our stores, and to understand why we have removed the usual seating and similar furniture.

We understand not everyone may feel comfortable visiting a store at this time. BN.com is available for you to place orders 24/7.


-------
Kind of interesting that macy's is willing to close all stores for this period, but Barnes & Noble wants to keep its open. Could it be said B&N is not doing enough?

[Brammy]

All malls, amusement parks, and bowling alleys in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey,, and Pennsylvania must close by 8PM Thursday 3/19/202.

As a result of the take-out only regulations Target has shutdown their Food Court/sitting area, though their in-store Starbucks remains open.

Senator Murphy from CT is proposing giving everyone in Connecticut a stimulus check for up to 2 gran.

[BillyGr]

I think Staples will try to stay open, as they might consider themselves closer to an essential like FedEx/UPS Store.

Makes sense - those now at home working may find that they need supplies to do so, and while not the first place most would think of, Staples does carry some food and paper/cleaning type items, so if they still have any of those it would be sensible to make them available to those who may still need them.

There are probably a few other stores that might normally get overlooked that should also be exempted - one that comes to mind here would be Christmas Tree shops (as they have both a food section and one of those Harmon's sections with all kinds of personal and medical items), plus all the closeout chains (Big Lots, Ocean State, Ollie's), for the same reasons.

[Brammy]

Walmart changed their hours of all their stores to 7AM-8:30PM.

ShopRite of Bristol and Waterbury, CT will be changing their hours  to 7AM-9PM daily this weekend. They will also have a checkout lane for Senior Citizen's Only.

ShopRite of Enfield is offering a 5% Senior Discount Monday-Friday.

The follow ShopRite stores owned by The Garafolo Family (my apologies if I spelled the name wrong) will offer Senior Citizen Shopping 6:30AM-7:30AM daily:
ShopRite of Cromwell
ShopRite of Milford
ShopRite of East Haven
ShopRite of Hamden
ShopRite of Clinton CT
ShopRite of Orange
ShopRite of Stratford

People United Bank:

All branches inside Stop & Shop will be open 2PM-7PM Monday-Friday and 11AM-2PM on Saturdays. Apparently they will now be closed on Sundays.

All freestanding branches will be open 9AM-2PM Monday-Friday and 9AM-Noon on Saturdays.

All Barber shops, hair salons, and nail salons in Connecticut must close.