Buying groceries during a pandemic is a complicated affair.
It’s super stressful to suit up like an astronaut and go out to an actual store, so we’ve been looking into delivery options. At first we thought that Amazon Prime would come thru but they are flooded with orders and unable to deliver anything for a month. Plus most of what we’d want to order is already sold out or unavailable. The supply chain is obviously effed up.
We considered going for something like a CSA. Most of the indies have waiting lists now, so we may go with a regular delivery service like Farm Fresh to You. The base delivery cost about $35 for a box with add ons (dairy, eggs, staples) easily totalling up to $100 every other week. I juice daily so we may go for this if the lockdown goes into Fall. Right now, my Victory Garden is providing a steady flow of produce.
Another service we considered is Elli Quark with focuses more on dairy and eggs. It’s essentially a milkman service. How retro!
While we make up our mind about long term options, we’ve gone with InstaCart. This has been tripping me out.
It’s weird to have a stranger do your shopping and then leave groceries at your door. This much lauded “contactless delivery” just feels so unnatural. A healthy society is all about interaction, intersections and interdependence. So what are we creating with all this separation? A fractured humanity? Will it be worth it?
This isolation and being served by unseen hands is surreal. It reminds me of Jean Cocteau‘s classic film “La Belle et la Bete” also known as “Beauty and the Beast.”
When Beauty arrives at the Beast’s castle she is greeted by a plethora of disembodied servants, who not only provide for her every need, but also inspire a great sense of isolation and loneliness.
Similarly, all this “contactless delivery” is making me feel hungry for human interaction.
Mexicat is taking the edge off my isolation today.
I love having my little tribe of pets here.
Beauties love Beasts.