Kroger Pick-Up (Formerly "Clicklist") Is No Fee Right Now, Plus Posting this DIY Facemask Efficacy Chart Again

A second Walmart employee tested positive for the virus - this time here in Lexington (Hamburg location).

Thus, for those of you unaware, Kroger pickup (formerly known as Clicklist) rolled out about 3 years ago.

You pick your items online to a cart, pay for them, then pull your car up to a designated area, push the button and give the attendant inside your name/order number, and a staff member brings it out to your car wearing surgical gloves (which they've worn since the service began).

The fee is ordinarily $5 - but right now, the service is free.

Typically, you could get time slots within an hour -  but in our area, they are 3 days out at present - so plan on ordering items at least 3 days before you need them.  

If your items are unavailable or out of stock the day of pickup, they will email/text you that they're out and offer substitutions (unless you checked the "no substitutions" box upon ordering).

(Kroger also offers delivery, by the way, but with limited items. Whole Foods does the same through Amazon, with more options, but the items are much more expensive as they are organic.)

There is no evidence yet to support that COVID-19 contaminates food itself, just surfaces and skin/mucosal linings. 

The CDC still recommends washing off the surfaces of fruits and vegetables -  but not with bleach - either soap and water or just rinse them for at least 20 seconds. 

(The temperature of the water doesn't really matter - the truth is, we don't get water hot enough from the tap to kill viruses, we're just rinsing them off with a little boost help from antibacterial soap.)Mark and I already had a system down to a science, adding the stripping-at-the-door a week ago, and just adding face covering today  lol. 

So when he returns, he strips down immediately in the foyer door (which of course I don't mind;), brings the items in the house, with gloves still on, to a special table. 

I take off the bags, he throws the gloves in one of them, and I throw the bags out in a sealed bag that we set outside to take to the trash in 1 trip later.  

He jumps in the shower, while I spray the air with a disinfectant mist and wash the items - perishables as above, nonperishables with germicidal bleach and antibacterial soap dishwater.

I let the nonperishables sit to saturate the disinfectant and dry, then dip my hands in the antibacterial dishwater with germicidal bleach for a few seconds, then wash vigorously with soap/water for 20. 

Then I scrub that area of table with a the that dishwater with bleach with a scrub sponge for at least 20 seconds. 

Count to at least 20, people, when washing anything, right? 

Also, since the CDC is now recommending DIY facemasks (still leave N95s for hospital staff, please) - after they discovered droplets still lingered on surfaces on the Diamond Princess Cruise Ship 14 days after it was evacuated, as well as droplets still lingering in the air up to 4 hours after an infected patient had been in the area - we are now making our own for going into grocery stores or the post office to deliver items to family we've been able to pick-up - using this list below that I posted the other day as a guide, in case it came to that. 

At the moment, Mark is wearing his Detroit Lions bandana to Kroger  (which will go into a sealed bag and dumped in the washer immediately) to get a few necessary items - the rest are waiting until the next-available Kroger pick-up appointment, which isn't until Tuesday. 

I ordered HEPA filter vacuum bags from Amazon three days ago (along with thin shoestrings to attach to them to loop around the ears), and until those arrive, since tightly knit towels is third best, I have cut towels into strips to tie around. Luckily, it was pre-scheduled spring break at the schools anyway, so no one's there, but when he returns, being in IT, he may get called in for payroll/benefits computer issues that can't be resolved remotely. 

 No panic, no denial - but better safe than sorry, right? :)