I got yelled at.. at Lowe's.. was I wrong. I can admit to it

You're right of course. The Peas will respond differently depending on whether the thread is about some random person seen at Lowe's stocking up on non essential items, or about one of "our own" doing the same thing. The response will also often differ depending on who the Pea is - whether they are popular or not.

I'm not going to say that I wouldn't have done the same thing as the OP, if I passed other things I wanted. But I will say that if I went to Bunnings to get Drano, I wouldn't stop to get a cart FOR ONE ITEM. I wouldn't get a cart for one item in normal times, and I sure as hell wouldn't get a cart these days, when a hundred other potentially germ-ridden people have touched that cart today.

And anyway, all of our stores similar to Lowe's always have the gardening products right up the end of the store, nowhere near Drano and other cleaning products, so I couldn't have stopped to get an orchid on the way to the Drano even if I wanted to.

 

I feel you. We are at the tail end of our remodel, and it has made staying home so much harder and more complicated. The bank also won’t close our loan until the remodel is done, so it’s quite complicated.
We do have a kitchen, tho! I can’t imagine...
Hang in there!!

My next trip out is to get storage containers for my daughter’s stuff. Her bedroom is now our office. And at some point she is going to take all her shit with her.

She is excited because we will be buy a queen size sofa bed. No more twin bed for her.

Let's be honest -- It's entirely possible nothing you bought at the store was essential. The drain is working, albeit slow. Did you plunge the drain? Did you try remedies using items you already have at home? Is this the only shower in the house and if it doesn't work nobody takes a shower? If the answers to the second two questions are yes (and the first question if you own a plunger), then buying the Drano may have been essential. The soil, plant and wastebasket definitely were not essential. By going to the store, you introduced germs that you didn't need to to the people working in the store as well as to those who were at the store for true essentials. By staying in the store longer than it took to walk in, get the Drano, cash out and leave (and each additional item you added to your cart took additional time in adding it and in checking out), the more germs you spread and the more germs you inhaled. Are the items you bought worth the potential exposure, illness and possibly death your family and/or the other people you encountered? The fact that other people are doing the same (going out for non-essential reasons) doesn't justify our doing the same.

We are a spoiled society that has never had reason to determine what is actually an essential, are used to having what we want when we want it, and who and can easily justify why non-essentials are essentials. 

If someone in my family dies, it's certainly not essential for me to buy a plant for their grave or to buy one to cheer me up. Buying yarn because the happiness crocheting brings bolsters my mental health doesn't make yarn an essential. I don't need to be happy and upbeat every second of my life and it's certainly not essential to my health. 

The ability to justify non-essentials is a problem because the more we go out, the more germs and this virus are spread, the longer we will be asked/required to stay home and the more our economy will suffer. What we all should be doing is staying at home and only going out on the rare occasion for true essentials so that this pandemic can stop, people can live without fear, and we can enjoy the summer.

That said, I don't think it's anyone's place to be publicly chastising others. 

I agree with what you’re saying about getting in and getting essentials and getting out. And even if she had planned it to go down a certain aisle on the way out and grab something she needed, she had to walk towards the front down an aisle, why not that one? Get in. Get it done.

But this is a good example of how our assumptions can be wrong. I have a back issues and get a cart every single time I go into a store, even if it is literally just to buy one item. It helps me hold myself up and alleviates my lower back pain. It’s the difference between being able to shop or not for me. Same with driving. I do much better as the driver because my arms help me sit up straight.

I think you just did.

ahhh-  THIS is the reason my mother said she might not be able to go to the grocery store again, even though Illinois (where they live) already HAS a shelter-in-place order!!  She's been listening to the task force press briefings.  I gotta tell her to stop that, for her MENTAL health. 

eta:  I don't know how much I want to listen to someone who doesn't even practice the 6-foot rule ON CAMERA, ON NATIONAL TELEVISION.  

Yes that right? But they are testing and doing temperature checks now at least. But now there’s this report today that the FEMA/Supply Chain portion of the task force has a positive case and isolating now.

www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1178331

I needed to get things for my brother, especially eggs and other proteins for his dialysis diet, so I went yesterday - and I bought more than he asked for so I won’t have to go again for, I hope, at least two weeks. We can’t time everything perfectly, since the guidance can change every day, but I’m trying to minimize trips anywhere.

Yes, but this is a general thread about this situation, not specifically about this week.

Our local walmart just posted, advertising sidewalk salt on clearance. It's 77 degrees out and although it still gets cold in April, it's not likely that sidewalks will need to be salted.

Colorado squall is predicted in a few days.

But didn't you JUST do that here...PUBLICLY???