Target achieved.
Thursday, March 26th, 2020
I rolled our pollen-coated car out of the driveway and went on a quick, efficient grocery/supplies run to a Target and Trader Joe’s here in intown Atlanta.
The streets of the city seemed not barren—without doing any traffic studies, I’d say there were maybe half as many cars as a usual weekday, which means that there were lots of cars, but no traffic jams, except where a construction project at Briarcliff and Rock Springs had one lane open, flaggers and cops running the traffic, and a big gaping hole in the center of the intersection (which seems to be related to sewers, or, y’know, pipes. Something.) Are people working from home? Boy, it’s hard to tell.
Target had a bunch of blue Xs spaced out along the floor from the cashiers to reinforce social distancing, and shoppers seemed to be playing by the rules, and giving each other the very definition of a wide berth while trying to remain cordial.
Trader Joe’s had a guy handing me a cart absolutely freshly wiped down (it smelled sanitizer-y) and admonished me that if I brought in our own bags (I did) then I should be prepared to do my own bagging (we always do.) The TJ inventory was very close to normal, and I scored the important things that we’ve made habitual in our normal intown Atlanta lives.
Target had absolutely no paper products—toilet paper or paper towels—but that wasn’t why I was there anyway (bags of coffee, mostly.) Groceries otherwise were hit and miss, but they did pretty much correspond to what the Target app said would be there at the store. As I rolled down North Druid Hills, I saw a big old Target truck turn into the lot. Paper?
Gas prices are absurdly low—$179.9 for regular. We have two vehicles with filled tanks and nowhere effectively to go, so, ok.
Workers at both places had smiles for me (and they are all working hard under crazy crazy conditions.) When the guy at Target asked “did you find everything you were looking for?” I just started laughing. He said “I know, we’re always supposed to ask.”
I got home and dragged the bags in and washed my hands and washed them again as Sammy looked over the haul.
