A Sams Club Adventure

The Covid–19 crisis has added a new dynamic to what was once simple and sometimes arduous and annoying tasks.

I was doing a favor for my wife the other day which involved going to our local Sam’s Club to take care of some simple shopping that I knew she wouldn’t have time to do. Under normal circumstances she would use the app on her phone and order and pay for everything in advance. All I would have to do is show up at the store after the assigned time present my ID and pick up a card already filled with everything picked out and paid for. It’s times like this when one begins to realize just how spoiled we have become in this country, and how difficult these once simple tasks have now become.

As these simple photographs will try to show, this task of shopping and bringing home supplies became a much more complicated process because of this Covid-19 crisis.

One begins the process by sitting in the parking lot in your car and putting on your latex gloves and your facemask to cover your nose and your mouth. This, if you’re anything like me, is quickly followed by a simple but important prayer asking for protection from illness due to potentially infected shoppers, and preservation of my sanity due to the stress of trying to navigate such a potentially dangerous environment.

Once you exit your car, as I hope the photos will show, the front door is barricaded so that there is only one way to get in that is not either blocked by carts or guarded by a couple of gentlemen that I have called the gatekeepers. Please be aware that I in this case I’m not trying to suggest any negative connotation by calling these gentlemen gatekeepers. On the contrary they were professional and courteous and exhausted from the long hours of watching people exit and releasing people to enter. From the front door the line extends as you face the door to the left which in this case is south. I later did a Google Earth and measured the distance so that I can tell you that by the time I got to the end of the line I was almost a ¼ mile from the door. You have to keep in mind here that the line was that long because they were that busy and because to the best of everyone’s ability everyone was trying to stay about 6 feet apart from each other.

It’s interesting to watch the people. I think that’s one of my favorite things to do in cases like this. Trying not to be judgmental, it’s fascinating to hear the statistics of what this country is going through trying to beat this pandemic, and then watch the people that have absolutely no protection whatsoever and seem to have a problem with social distancing. And how some people are able to talk on cell phones for almost an hour about absolutely nothing of circumstance is beyond me.

All things considered the process wasn’t really that bad. Still being rather fresh off the operating table from knee replacement I took the opportunity of my standing to accomplish a little physical therapy: stepping up and down on the curb several times, doing knee lifts and leg lifts to stretch my joints all were very helpful in keeping me limber and keeping my new bionic legs in their top condition. So besides the fact that I had something to occupy my time even though it was almost an hour by the time I got to the door it really wasn’t so bad.

It was also interesting that the closer we got to the front of the line the clearer the process of how this whole thing worked became. As is tradition in some families, some people came to the store with their entire family. Mom and dad and older brother and little sister and God knows who. But as you get to the front of the line you very quickly realize that when one person leaves the store one person is allowed to enter. So if you got to the front of the line and you were in a party of five, other smaller groups and especially single shopping groups, that being someone that came on their own, would be allowed in before you. It was interesting to watch groups of older shoppers suddenly split off into groups of one with their own carts so that they could get into the store faster.

Now this point, I know that there are those naysayers out there who are listening to all this and saying to themselves: “this guy is obviously overreacting”. In this country were we are supposedly given the right to believe as we wish and to speak as we wish, this disagreement with my feelings on this matter is certainly your right. However, when you look at the statistics that over 40,000 people have died and over 750,000 people have been infected in the last 30 days, you might better understand my concern.

Compare this to the last confirmed data from the Center for Disease Control. This is collected data tracking the total deaths globally from influenza during the season of 2016 through 2017 at 38,000.

Comparing these two numbers it’s important to keep in mind that the 40,000 deaths from Covid – 19 is over a 30 day period whereas the 38,000 deaths from influenza is for the entire 2016 and 2017 flu season which I understand is about 8 months and represents a global total rather than just the United States. When you realize these important differences you begin to understand why many of us face each day during this crisis with little concern and trepidation.

In the end, my shopping adventure at Sam’s Club in Tinley Park was a success. And despite my own anxiety it was relatively trouble-free. In fact, not only did I have the opportunity to do a favor for my wife, but I was able to take part in something that I can later look back upon and say I remember the day when…

I think my favorite part of the entire adventure was towards the end. This not because the trip was almost over but because of the attitude and the professionalism of the people working at Sam’s. Throughout the store as I was doing my shopping I could see many dozens of employees all working very hard to keep things stocked organized clean and to assist customers as much as possible. I chose to go through the self-checkout aisle; this because I felt that it would allow less interaction with another person and less people touching the things that I’ve purchased. As I went to approach the empty checkout machine in front of me one of the employees excused herself stepped in front of me and took the time to spray down and wipe down every single touch point of the checkout device.

A simple job. In many ways an invisible and thankless job. More the reason for me to make a very proud proclamation, thanking her for her service.

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Article update:

The numbers I mentioned above, 40,000 dead in the United States, was the numbers that I found when I researched this article on April 20. Today, Wednesday, April 22, 2020 – just two days later – that number has increased to more than 46,000 people in the United States alone with over 183,000 people dead worldwide and more than 2.6 million people infected – All in about 6 weeks…