Now is not the time to go to the supermarket, experts say. How else can you get food?
White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx warned Sunday against going to the grocery store to prevent the spread of COVID-19. So what are some other ways to get your food and meals?
Takeout
Your options for food delivery don’t have to be limited to pizza, Asian takeout or sandwiches. Through services like Doordash, Uber Eats, GrubHub and Postmates, you can place a food delivery order online to almost any restaurant still open. A worker from the company will then bring the food straight to your door. You only have to pay a small delivery fee on top of the food costs.
Some of them offer ways to have food delivered without contact, so you can still maintain social distancing.
A tool on Google Maps will show you what restaurants have options for deliveries and takeouts, if you want to order directly from the source.
Meal Kits
Perhaps you want to make your own meal. Hello Fresh, Blue Apron, Home Chef and Gobble are among the services that provide meal kits to its customers. You get to pick from a selection of lunches or dinners, and they’ll send you the exact amount of ingredients you’ll need along with easy-to-follow instructions for how to cook the meals.
The cost for the meal kits may be more than buying all of the ingredients at the store, but it certainly saves a trip to the supermarket and provides a hassle-free experience.
Grocery pickup and delivery
Many grocery store chains offer pickup for groceries. Walmart’s Grocery Pickup, Kroger’s ClickList, Target’s Drive Up and H-E-B and Publix’s curbside pickups are among the amenities some of the chains provide. Some of them also offer grocery delivery.
The catch with the grocery store pickup or their delivery services is the wait. Many stores are being slammed with customers due to the outbreak, so you may have to place your order several days in advance.
You can even try Instacart, a service where you place your grocery order, and a shopper will pick them up and deliver them to you. It announced last month it was hiring 300,000 additional shoppers throughout North America due to increased demand.
This story was originally published April 6, 2020 at 12:53 PM with the headline "Now is not the time to go to the supermarket, experts say. How else can you get food?."