What a difference three weeks makes. That’s how long it’s been since I ventured out to my local grocery store to pick up some staples. What can I say, I’ve been doing lots of stapling lately.

The last grocery store experience was unusual in that many of the shelves were completely empty. This time around, the shelves were fairly well stocked. The big change today was the number of people wearing face masks. All of the employees were wearing masks, and I would estimate about 80% of the customers were wearing masks, including your humble correspondent. I didn’t make my own mask or even buy one. My neighbor procured some home-made masks and offered me an extra one. It has an American flag pattern. Very patriotic.

The other new aspect of grocery shopping was the restrictions in movement. There was one clear entrance and one clear exit. The loudspeaker played a steady cycle of instructions and reminders about social distancing. People were overly polite and stayed out of each other’s way. At the check-out lanes, there were large plexiglass barriers separating the cashiers from the customers. Good thing Sprouts accepts Apple Pay allowing me to pay without touching anything, although FaceID was thwarted by the face mask.

Grocery shopping nowadays is definitely an unsettling experience. It’s also probably going to be the norm for the foreseeable future.