Look, I don’t want to scare anyone but we’re quickly regressing to the “empty shelves” phase of the pandemic. Think about alternative supply sources for groceries and household goods. Some options:

1) Prefer local. This doesn’t necessarily work for everything but think about

going to places like a local bakery for bread and a butcher for meat. Also local markets like Mexican markets and Asian markets. You can support them and also find household staples like rice and TP when the big box stores are sold out.

2) Direct from farms subscription boxes: Moink, Butcher Box, and Crowd Cow are all excellent sources for meat and fish from small and ethical farms. Imperfect Foods is great for produce from local farms. Often your local farmers’ association will have a box program too.

3) Alternative online markets that may not be as heavily impacted as Target/Amazon: check out Thrive, which is kind of an online Whole Foods, and HungryRoot, which is more like Trader Joe’s. Those are really good options to get both fresh and pantry items.

When things start getting crazy like this, folks who rely on food stamps can get crunched and not be able to find what they need. It helps to leave essential items available at the grocery/big box stores for others and get yours from alternative places if you are able to do so.