For the past year, a bottle of Purell has been the Holy Grail for Diane and many of her friends. Stores were sold out, phony hand sanitizers from converted meth labs seemed to be everywhere at inflated prices.
But last week, Diane let out a gasp when she saw a display of real Purell in BJ’s Warehouse (limit One). Diane grabbed a bottle and placed it carefully in our shopping cart. The last time I’d witness Diane being so affected was when she found a 5-pack of CLOROX WIPES in BJ’s Warehouse a couple months ago.
How easy is it for you to find Personal Protective Equipment and sanitizing products? Is the Pandemic getting better or worse where you live?
It’s a crapshoot: sometimes items are available, sometimes they’re not. This is why people start hoarding—supply is so uncertain. I would certainly grab Clorox wipes if I could find them—right now I have two containers of Lysol wipes, no Clorox brand were available when I was shopping on Thursday. There’s plenty of off-brand sanitizer in the stores, but I haven’t seen Purell in a while.
Better or worse? It’s a balancing act here in Texas.
On one hand people are getting vaccinated. My wife and I had our first shot on Friday, and once teachers were added to the priority list on Thursday, our older daughter was able to get hers yesterday. Our younger daughter, who works in a medical office, has had both shots now.
On the other hand, our GOP overlords who run things at the state level are doing their best to raise case rates again. As a distraction from mismanaging last month’s storm response (among other crises), the governor announced the lifting of mask and occupancy limitations effective this Tuesday. This means the bars will be wide open again in time for spring break. Trump may be out of office, but his legacy of opportunism, denial, and divisiveness lives on in TX.
Fred, both Dr. Fauci and Dr. Osterholm warn against the UK Variant that sweeping the U.S. The next month will be critical to determine if infections increase again. I, of course, will continue to hunker down and wear a mask on the rare occasions when I go out of the house.
Deb, Purell could not be found in any form a year ago. Stores were completely out of it. Friends ordered it online, but wait-times extended into weeks before the Purell showed up. And, of course, the prices were inflated. I’m hoping this bottle of Purell is a sign that the distribution of quality hand sanitizer, wipes, and anti-viral sprays is improving.
I buy mine from Dan’s meth lab.
😉
No, we don’t buy much hand sanitizer. Now Clorox Wipes, on the other hand, was Jackie’s #1 search item for months. Like Diane, she went nuts when they first appeared in Costco. The first time, they told her they got them erratically, and you needed to be there early to get them, but as they didn’t know what days they were coming in, it was a crap shoot. Next time, we saw them in a customer’s cart, and after I restrained Jackie from stealing them when he wasn’t looking, we found out the people were on line to get them at 8:00. Curses! The next time, they had one cart of them on the side and a guy was handing out one five pack to a customer. Since then, they turn up occasionally, there is no one guarding them – though it is still one to a customer – and we have enough to last us for months, especially when added to the generic wipes Jackie picked up in the supermarket when nothing else was available. We have Clorox wipes out the wazoo now.
Early on, toilet paper was scarce to impossible. Fortunately, we had a 30 pack from Costco already. We were able to replenish that, and currently all paper goods are readily available. What else? Yeast? We don’t bake so haven’t bothered to look, though early on that was supposedly a problem. Generic versions of Tylenol and Pepcid were absent from the shelves for months at Costco, but first Pepcid (at one to a customer) and finally Tylenol returned. I can’t think of anything else that we use that isn’t available at the moment.
Jeff, I burst out laughing at the thought of you restraining Jackie from swiping those Clorox wipes out of that guy’s shopping cart! Distribution here is still spotty. Toilet paper is available, but certain brands only show up at random times. The same for pain relievers like Tylenol and Advil. Diane buys if items are available even if we have some supply.
I’m with Diane—I but paper towels every week, whether or not we need them. They are still in the “one package per customer” category, so I usually buy a six- or eight-pack. We tend to go through about a roll every one to two days. Toilet paper is back on the shelves, although again “one package per customer”—and I generally buy a large package (12 rolls) about once a month.
As for how things are going: I’m in Louisiana and our neighbors to the east and west—Mississippi and Texas—have both lifted all mask mandates, occupancy restrictions, social distancing protocols, etc., which means there will be a definite uptick in covid cases here in the next few weeks (we’re very close to the Mississippi border and many of my co-workers live there). I got my first vaccine (Moderna) last week when availability was extended to K-12 school personnel. My second shot is scheduled at the end of the month. I’ll be so glad when my husband and two youngest kids (my oldest works with special needs adults and has already had her first vaccine with second one coming up) qualify for vaccines.
Deb, I’m with you on Texas and Mississippi: big trouble ahead because of their unmasking policies. The new Variants will surge in those states!
We’re right around the one year anniversary of the point where toilet paper and other paper products disappeared from the shelves and, as well as I can recall, were gone until around mid-May. I had a plentiful supply when the shortage started, which lasted until well after the paper products returned. The paper product shortage is the only thing I recall people really getting into a panic about. I’d never before used hand sanitizer, and when people started using that instead of washing their hands umpteen time a day I attempted to join the bandwagon, but the only kinds of sanitizer I could find were either too watery or too sticky. So I moved on to anti-bacterial soap. A few months later Purell hit the shelves sporadically, and so far I’ve been able to find enough of that to get by. So right now there’s nothing I really need that I can’t find. Except for a good restaurant that’s actually open for business.
Michael, our restaurants are open, but with diminished seating capacity. The Take-Out places are doing a great business. We picked up dinner at Carrabbas this afternoon. Yum!
Haven’t seen Purell here yet, but off-brand sanitizers have been plentiful for some time. If you look carefully, you’ll see that those sanitizers are coming from firms (like brewers & distillers) that are licensed by the government to produce or purchase ethanol. Make up a 70% solution, add aloe and some gel thickeners and they’ve got a flies-off-the-shelves product.
Art, the hand sanitizers have a minimal effect on Covid-19. They tout that they kill 99% of bacteria…but the coronavirus…is a virus!
I don’t know how much Purell you really need it if this virus is airborne. I think regular soap and water is good enough most of the time , especially now that I have the shot.
Yeah, I just go with hand washing. I’ve never been a fan of hand sanitizers.
Jeff, I’m dubious about most hand sanitizers.
Patti, I agree with you. But, finding Purell was an obsession with Diane and her friends. Finally, we can put that to rest with this big bottle.
We have enough paper products, sanitizers, both Clorox and Lysol, which are equally effective, and those items are available at grocers and Costco. We’re not seeing shortages of anything we normally buy. The only thing we can’t seem to get is a vaccine shot, the new lottery system the State put in place makes it difficult, but we hope our turn will come eventually. As for hand washing, we do it often in addition to having Purell in both cars, Barbara’s purse and the house.
Rick, with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, millions of shots will be available in the coming weeks. Hang in there!
I made my own hand sanitizer: alcohol (has to be at least 70%, and aloe vera gel, I think the proportion is 70% alcohol & 30% aloe The aloe is so your hands don’t crack and let germs in. There is a warning to watch the country of origin, as brands from Mexico have some bad ingredients.
I had not really been a fan of sanitizer as I’d heard many places you build up an immunity to it. I had some around the house, and after I made it (right after buying alcohol, that began disappearing from all shelves. I still mostly wash my hands, but have a small bottle in the car, for after filling the car, checking out and shopping & picking up mail at the PO Box.
TP is avail, but not all brands, sizes types, same with paper towels. I saw lots of yeast at a store yesterday. I’ve noticed higher prices for TP and towels.
What I’m missing is flavored diet coke and diet sprite, pepsi has a diet wild cherry cola which is tasty Also totally missing is diet caffeine free dr. pepper. From the coke people stocking it, they stopped making all but big sellers due to the can shortage. (Possibly caused by shut down of recycling centers?)
Maggie, we went through a couple months in the Fall when diet sodas were in short supple. Various potato chip brands were had to find, too. But distribution seems to have eased back to Normal around here for junk food.
K. and I are pretty well-stocked anyway so we didn’t have trouble getting TP and sanitizers, etc.
There’s been limits on cleaning supplies but there are always plenty on the shelves.
Beth, for some reason hand sanitizer was always in short supply during 2020. Diane only struck “gold” (aka, Purell) last week!