Well it's started and this is my annual rant. F'in Costco and the grocery store were a zoo last night. I get most of my groceries at Costco for cost efficiency then hit the grocery store for smaller items. Parking lots jammed, lines, and general madness. I didn't wait until Wed night to do this, but did it on Monday as the weekends are, well I'd rather shoot myself then go into a Costco on the weekend. So this is the beginning of 6 weeks of utter and absolute madness. Traffic, lines, people cutting you off because their bird sized brains are in consumer product bonanza season mode. Everyone is on edge, heated, stressed, and I'm just trying to get normal day to day or weekly things done. I believe in God and thank God every day for every day, for every meal, for my existence. I'll never understand why people have to lose their fucking minds for 6 weeks every year. Time to hibernate now. For 6 weeks I stay close to the house and only drive for necessities. Fuck I hate this season. Won't be normal until mid January.

Agreed. I hate going to Wal-Mart and Sam's Club already, and it's the worst around the holidays.

I stocked up the "already-full" pantry and freezer to "overflowing" level in October and early November, in preparation for not only the holiday season but also some likely additional shutdowns. (Virus numbers in AR are currently skyrocketing.)

That'll allow me to limit my grocery shopping for the next 6 weeks to just a few brief curbside pickup visits for perishables like milk, eggs, and bread.

People still have plenty of spending money even with the lockdown. Wait till the next stimulus

Other than groceries, I wont go near a retail establishment between black Friday and January 7th.
Since we are shut down until 12-3, It will really be nuts after that date.

Could be you're going at the wrong time of day. Try it about 0800 or so. Seems the lazy (me included) tend to go at mid day or later.

Preach it, Brother!

I like da Yoop's plan - stay the hell out of town until the second week of January.

Unfortunately, we're gonna hafta do a major grocery shopping trip at least once in there somewhere. Sure as hell not THIS week tho.

One day next week, I'll take one of Mrs. PHPaul's Valiums and get 'er done and then it's hibernate time.

quote:

Originally posted by oldbill123:
People still have plenty of spending money even with the lockdown. Wait till the next stimulus

People will be buying new TVs, phones, game consoles and all sorts of electronic stuff... all made in China. So, in the end, we'll actually be stimulating China's economy.

quote:

Originally posted by rburg:
Could be you're going at the wrong time of day. Try it about 0800 or so. Seems the lazy (me included) tend to go at mid day or later.

Nope. I go at night a few minutes before close NORMALLY so it’s not me going in the middle of the day, sorry.

This is my favorite time of the year. I love the Christmas trees, I love the lights, I love the Christmas music, I even like some of the sappy Christmas movies.

To say I abhor going shopping this time of year makes it sound like I enjoy it. Costco can be pretty bad, but because it’s a paid membership you don’t get the bottom of the barrel pond scum. Now Walmart... that place is like a Tijuana donkey show. Horrific and something no one should ever see. There is nothing sold at Walmart that justifies my attendance in that store until mid January.

quote:

Originally posted by Beancooker:
Costco can be pretty bad, but because it’s a paid membership you don’t get the bottom of the barrel pond scum. Now Walmart... that place is like a Tijuana donkey show.

Well said, Beans. My wife needed something win Walmart yesterday. I sat in the car and listened to music. I was relaxed watching the show and listening to classic rock.

quote:

Originally posted by Beancooker:
This is my favorite time of the year. I love the Christmas trees, I love the lights, I love the Christmas music, I even like some of the sappy Christmas movies.

To say I abhor going shopping this time of year makes it sound like I enjoy it. Costco can be pretty bad, but because it’s a paid membership you don’t get the bottom of the barrel pond scum. Now Walmart... that place is like a Tijuana donkey show. Horrific and something no one should ever see. There is nothing sold at Walmart that justifies my attendance in that store until mid January.

LOL - I’m going to have to share this WM observation - it is spot-on.

I am also a huge Christmas fan but WM, at the height of the increasingly-early season, is quite a production.

If I must go, I try to make it as early in the morning as their adjusted hours will allow. I’ve been steadily visiting other outlets for my grocery needs.

The New Mexico goober-nator has order the shutdown of some grocery stores around the state, including several wallymarts and a food distribution warehouse due to the covidcrapitis, for 2 weeks.

There are verified reports of people waiting in line for up to 2 hours to get into some grocery stores.

It's bad enough to shut down groceries stores. That's bad especially considering New Mexico, other than the major population areas, is very rural and there are often times only 1 or 2 small grocery stores within reasonable driving distance.

What is especially bad is to shut down a food distribution warehouse. Talk about a rolling domino falling effect. Grocery stores do not have a warehouse in the back, they order and stock just in time.

I know we all detest shopping this time of year. If you don't have a well stocked home, you could easily be screwed soon.

Here's a LINK TO STORY
.

Don't expect the grocery store shutdowns to remain unique to NM - this will probably start happening in several other poorly governed states in the coming weeks.

So... I smugly posted earlier in this thread about avoiding the annual holiday insanity. Then I screwed myself. I bought a new Garmin GPS watch and my kid wanted my older one. So.... I need to ship the watch to him. Now, prior to shipping anything, I box it securely and seal it up tight.
Then, skillfully avoiding the Yooper Post Office and its associated incompetence, I rocketed off to the Yooper FedEx hub. I knew it could be crowded. Tis the season! But... there was only one car in the lot so I thought I skated. Wrong. Going inside, I discover the customer ahead of me is a pink haired chick and.... Her progeny. And they each had armload of festively wrapped Christmas gifts. Wrapped, but not boxed for shipping! And... The gifts needed to go to several far flung locations so they all needed to be separately boxed. I watched this yuletide horror unfold in front of me for nearly twenty minutes. And this included multiple payment transactions for each destination. While we often complain about shipping companies, the FedEx lady handled this mess with the grace of a saint. When this holiday horde finally vacated the place, I complimented the FedEx lady for her patience and dedication. Then I really made her day! I told her I would not be back until mid January.
Merry Christmas to all and to all, a good night!

I'm screwed.

I have to go to Sam's Club today to get my wife's tire fixed because she picked up a screw. It's really close to the unrepairable zone, so the tire may need to be replaced, otherwise I'd pay to have it fixed somewhere else. She asked me to pick up a few things because "as long as you are there". I swear she put the screw into the tire herself to avoid going.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
I'm screwed.

She asked me to pick up a few things because "as long as you are there". I swear she put the screw into the tire herself to avoid going.

So you’re basically telling us that you married a very intelligent woman.

Let's just say sometimes things work out in her favor.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
I'm screwed.

I have to go to Sam's Club today to get my wife's tire fixed because she picked up a screw. It's really close to the unrepairable zone, so the tire may need to be replaced, otherwise I'd pay to have it fixed somewhere else. She asked me to pick up a few things because "as long as you are there". I swear she put the screw into the tire herself to avoid going.

I feel for you. I got my weekly grocery run in last night at Costco. Kids in there throwing a football. Other people wandering around like zombies. It wasn’t too bad but I could tell the insanity season ticked up. Driving was bad everywhere. People cutting you off, speeding. I could tell it’s just the beginning for this week and was happy to get my supply run completed and get off the road. Sans my local gym, I’m not going anywhere for the next 7 days. And next week I will only go to the Costco just like last night, weekday, right before they close. This shit is just crazy. The celebration of Christ is used for everyone to just go fucking crazy and spend countless amounts of money. Mid January can’t come soon enough. Those streets are chaos.

About 10 days left and the madness is over!

I'm dreading the return lines. I've been busy with projects around the house over the last month. I have to return a network switch to Best Buy, an AirMesh node has to go back to microcenter, and a light bulb back to Home Depot. That's 3 returns. I'm just going to gut it out and get it done. Probably today. I had to redo my home network (wifi mostly) to hardwire a PS5 and upgrade my home router for better wifi coverage for my surveillance system (really just 1 single Ring Flood light cam, the rest of the cams are fixed or IP cams not wifi).
I added up to the stops I need to make. Home Depot (return light), Costco (this week's groceries), Academy (buy a new portable chair), and MicroCenter all in the same day, oh and Target for my protein waffles. First world problems but on a normal year I do not spend money from mid November until the end of January to avoid all this madness.

Closest big town to me is about twenty minutes away.
I try not to cross their city limits signs between thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day.