PLOG 5: Chili

Personal Log (PLOG)
Summer Vacation: Day 5
Pandemic Emergency Day: 75

My guilty pleasure is eating some canned chili when I don't feel like spending 30 minutes cooking a meal on the stove. I used to think that my taste preference was chili with no beans, but - thanks to the pandemic - I've realized that I also love chili with beans. Back when SHTF (stuff hit the fan) back in the middle of March, I added canned chili and Fritos to my emergency grocery orders.

After the panic buying seemed to be wearing down, the deliver services for Wal-Mart, Target, and Amazon Fresh were still lacking most canned chili varieties, but I discovered Target offered a shipping option; Target was willing to ship things they had trouble keeping in stock in-store. That's when I ordered a bunch of canned chili. Side note: my new favorite chili is Hormel with Angus beef.

For a while I felt like a master of online grocery delivery options. I spent a couple of weeks obsessing over what groceries were and were not available from the different stores. I watched closely. I got frustrated that Wal-Mart would either cancel orders or only deliver half of what was put in the cart. Amazon Fresh, similarly to Wal-Mart, was out of delivery options for a couple of weeks. I eventually figured out that going online right at or after midnight was the best was to get delivery options. I spread the word.

Target's same-day delivery service was my favorite. They delivered, every time. And they mostly got you the items they said were in stock. They won me over, but I am still willing to use whichever one has the products that I want. Blind loyalty to a brand or store would be silly in an emergency situation. One of my friends, who is very brave, goes out in person and shops at places like Costco and tells me that food is mostly in stock now; but many of the options he has found are still not popping up for delivery from the other stores. And meat is still either unavailable or really expensive.

By the way, Wal-Mart's "Great Value" brand corn chips taste just like Frito's to me and make a great addition to some chili and shredded cheese as "Frito Pie" (even if it is "Great Value Corn Chips Pie" instead).

Peace!