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Here’s What I Saw When I Went Grocery Shopping This Morning

I left the Uptown store feeling more optimistic than when I arrived.
By Meghan Lally |
grocery

Sometimes I think I single-handedly keep the Amazon grocery delivery service in business. Every Sunday (and sometimes more throughout the week), I order groceries to be sent straight to my door, just for time-saving purposes. 

Yesterday was no different until I realized that Whole Foods Prime Now delivery is indefinitely booked, and this week I’d have to make the haul myself. For better or worse, I decided to save it for this morning, with the hope that on a Monday morning, things would be freshly restocked.

My grocery shopping experience is already a little different than other peoples’. For health reasons, I follow a variation of the Paleo diet, which means I eat primarily produce and meat. As I set out on my journey this morning, I was a little nervous. If there weren’t any vegetables left I would have to get pretty creative with the few nonperishable items I can eat. I was prepared to make a couple stops around town.

To my delight and surprise, I walked into the Uptown Whole Foods on McKinney to shelves filled with fresh greens—some of them overflowing. (If you haven’t ever tried fennel, now is a great time to give it a go. There doesn’t seem to be a shortage.) People were calmly shopping, and though it was more full than it would be on an average Monday morning, there were no manners lost amid the crowd. In fact, some even might say people were more polite—I witnessed three people say “excuse me,” and each person I smiled at reciprocated the action. Everyone seemed to be functioning with a “we’re all in this together” attitude.

Right by the apples, I caught up with Martha Sheppard. Originally from Chicago, her home base is now in Atlanta, but she’s currently residing Dallas as she does some training work with the Baylor Scott and White pharmacy department. 

“This is my first time coming out because I literally got back yesterday, and these are much more stocked [than in Atlanta]. At the Publix and Whole Foods there, the shelves are empty,” Sheppard says. “Even the vitamins are gone. No bread, no milk, no eggs, no vitamin C, zinc, no B12, lemons, oranges—anything they said on TV that’s going to help combat Corona is gone.” 

While lemons, oranges and vitamins all seemed to be accounted for, as I moved further through, I found more empty shelves. But for every empty shelf, there was a Whole Foods employee working double-time to restock. Eric Santa Maria was working quickly in the chip aisle when he informed me they ration portions as they stock in attempt to keep food on the shelves. It seems to be working.  

grocery
Shelves of vitamins are still well-stocked.

Then I got to the frozen foods. While its current status was a bit bleak, boxes littered the aisles, waiting to be unpacked. 

With 95 percent of my list successfully in my cart (really the only things I couldn’t find were fresh rosemary and some almond milk yogurt, so I think I’ll be OK), I headed for the checkout. There were some long lines, but with everyone patiently waiting, it felt less like the apocalypse and more like last-minute Thanksgiving shopping.

While we encourage you to stay inside your home as much as possible, grocery shopping is at times a necessity. (We recommend sending one person from your household to get the things you need, and while your representative is there, be sure to tell them to grab a D Magazine off newsstands. Not only will it provide superior content to immerse yourself in during this time, but there’s never been a better time to support local journalism.)

Although the frozen section was starting to dwindle, the Whole Foods employees were working quickly to restock.

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