Grocery shopping & the pandemic & sharing

May 11, 2020 4:37 AM

How can I time my intermittent large-scale grocery trips in a way that doesn't overlap with people getting fixed-income type funding so that I don't take the last jar of peanut butter from someone who can't shop for another two weeks, or a month?

Massachusetts. Just asking generally for guidelines about when people get SSI and food stamps, etc. I assume the first is a date that a lot of people get checks and avoid that. I avoid Fridays and Saturdays, because that's payday for a lot of people.

Anything else to be aware of so that my big shopping excursion isn't taking supply away from people who can't do it any time, or for whom the entire thing might involve taking a bus, loading groceries on the bus, and hauling them home?

Hope this makes sense. To be clear: we're not hoarding--trying to mitigate the impact of shortages on people with less flexibility.

posted by A Terrible Llama to Human Relations (16 answers total)

In general SSI and SSDI disburse
On the 1st and 3rd respectively unless those days fall on a weekend or holiday and then it is the Friday before. Some people get paid on different days though. Food stamps is state specific, so I'm not sure about that. You will also want to look into when and how unemployment dispurses in your area. Some states disburse food stamps on a rolling basis, based on birthday or when they applied or a variety of factors so that everyone isn't recieving benefits at the same time.

In general retailers are aware of the dates and try to stock specifically for those times.

Are you sure your even shopping at a retailer that caters to that population? There are plenty of stores where people who have limited income avoid because overall they are too expensive.
posted by AlexiaSky at 5:03 AM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

In MA, SNAP benefits disburse between the 1st and 14th of the month depending on the last digit of a person's SSN.
posted by mosst at 5:17 AM on May 11, 2020 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: Are you sure your even shopping at a retailer that caters to that population?

I am, yeah.

In general retailers are aware of the dates and try to stock specifically for those times.


That's really good to know!
posted by A Terrible Llama at 5:19 AM on May 11, 2020

You can shop at stores that don't accept WIC. If there's a Trader Joe's near you, I'd suggest them - they do accept SNAP, apparently, but not WIC.

There are lines (at least there have been at mine) but the lines mean the inside is manageable in terms of numbers of people. And the one near me at least has been doing a really good job of managing inventory and limiting purchase numbers, such that there is plenty of peanut butter (and even toilet paper and hand sanitizer - basically, everything but flour and yeast) for everyone who's shopping.
posted by pie ninja at 5:20 AM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

MA distributes food stamps over the first 14 days of the month.

(For what it's worth, assuming you're familiar with the clientele that each serves- up here in a fairly economically diverse area of NH, I've seen fewer shortages at Market Basket than Hannaford. I'm guessing it's some combination of their supply chain being better set up for bigger booms, and fewer of their shoppers being able to bulk buy.)
posted by damayanti at 5:21 AM on May 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

Regular Social Security retirement checks are issued throughout the month. Based on my birthday I get mine on the third Wednesday of the month. It doesn't take much to be over the limit for Food Stamps, I am.
posted by mareli at 5:55 AM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

You can shop at stores that don't accept WIC.

Or you could choose to support stores that do accept WIC -- just as a counterpoint.
posted by amtho at 6:54 AM on May 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

You could also avoid the WIC eligible items and buy products that don't quality for WIC.
posted by jabes at 7:00 AM on May 11, 2020 [5 favorites]

I would think that if you simply look at one of the apps that has sprung up that tells you when stores are most busy, you can probably do the largest part of this work simply by not shopping when stores are busiest. Grocery stores are constantly restocking things, and likely already have a pretty good handle on what COVID has done to their product demand. So staying out of stores at the busiest times means that the people who have no choice but shop during the busiest times -- who are often the same people you're trying to protect -- will have better access to both stores and products.

And then, if you're in the store and there's only a few jars of cheap peanut butter left, don't buy one. Or buy a more expensive brand of it if you can afford that.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:01 AM on May 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

This may be regional, but we grocery shop at two stores and they haven’t had any real shortages outside of flour, hand sanitizer and sometimes toilet paper. The talk of shortages are very temporary (labor and stocking bottlenecks) not “we are out of a thing.” I used to work in grocery years ago and my friends in that industry confirm this.

Go when you can go; it will not have a large impact on individuals on food stamps and other assistance programs.
posted by furnace.heart at 7:05 AM on May 11, 2020 [6 favorites]

I would think that if you simply look at one of the apps that has sprung up that tells you when stores are most busy,

Omg please name one...I have the same question as the OP and would love to go to a store when it is least busy.
posted by tiny frying pan at 7:09 AM on May 11, 2020 [5 favorites]

Call the store and ask them.
posted by Jacqueline at 9:01 AM on May 11, 2020

Google Maps will tell you about busy times, or at least it does for businesses in my area. Click on the location and scroll down the sidebar of information.

It only has data for each day of the week, so this wouldn't be a perfect solution to your question about which days of the month to avoid. But perhaps you could use it in concert with other information.
posted by MangoNews at 10:30 AM on May 11, 2020

Hmm didn't think of using Google. I'm curious about the app thing though since I can't come up with search terms to even find that in an app store.
posted by tiny frying pan at 2:32 PM on May 11, 2020

I realize this isn’t answering the original question, but I’ve seen this wait-time tracker, which seems to mostly be using Google data.
posted by nonane at 3:35 PM on May 11, 2020

Oh, maybe I am overestimating the availability of line waiting apps and they aren't available everywhere. There are two I use together. One uses historical location data from Google to predict generally busy times. The other uses current and historical data to estimate actual wait times at the moment. Between the two, with an added look outside at the weather, I can get a pretty solid idea of how long I am going to have to wait to get into my local grocery store.
posted by jacquilynne at 3:57 PM on May 11, 2020 [3 favorites]