The once simple act of buying groceries is now difficult for many. Once taken for granted, the ability to easily find what you need — including staples like soap, toilet paper, eggs, milk and bread — is no longer guaranteed.

“Clearly things have changed,” said Dundas resident Abby Murray Wark. “With hoarding, reduced hours and limits on the number of shoppers in shops making it difficult to obtain even bare necessities of life.”

There are delays for grocery online order pickup and home delivery, when they are available. Lineups and detailed protocols designed to keep us apart make the grocery shopping experience more stressful — even if you eventually get what you need.

“The situation is exacerbated by the identified food desert that exists in this area,” Wark said. “Fewer locations necessarily leads to decreased supply and more shoppers attending each store.”

The University Plaza Metro grocery store closed last year, putting more pressure on remaining area stores and forcing some residents to travel further for groceries at a time where they are being told to stay home.

“Most certainly closing the Metro store at the plaza has made a huge impact,” said Sheila Ashcroft Shupe. “A negative one.”

A recent visit to the Main Street West Fortinos was difficult for Shupe and her husband, David. They arrived early, for the shopping hour set aside for seniors.

They didn’t know they were not able to go in together. As part of its COVID-19 safety measures, the Shoppers location implemented a cap on the number of shoppers allowed inside, with only one family member admitted at a time.

While shopping at the store, the couple discovered some items out of stock or close to their expiry date, requiring an additional trip to Shoppers Drug Mart — where they had to line up again.

She said not having essentials available means people have to make more trips when they are being told not to go out.

“We left feeling completely stressed out. Quite frankly, the whole experience frightened us,” Shupe said.

Gail Myers, 78, recently visited Fortinos during the hour set aside for seniors. But she never left her car.

“There was a lineup approximately two blocks down the front of the store,” Myers said. I just sat in my car to see how fast the line was moving.”

It was slow, so she went home.

“Groceries are very difficult for me,” Myers said. “The Metro at the plaza is surely missed, especially by people that have no cars.”

Catherine Thomas, senior director of public relations for Loblaws, said grocery delivery and pickup is available in Hamilton, but acknowledged there can be long waits for time slots. The supermarket company operates 11 grocery brands in Ontario, including Fortinos, No Frills and Valu-Mart,

“Demand for pickup, as well as delivery at our Fortinos stores has more than doubled in recent weeks,” Thomas said. “Wait times for online orders will vary between location depending on demand. We are doing our best to fulfil orders as quickly as possible.”

She said store employees are working hard to keep customers and staff healthy, and continue making changes to how stores operate — such as implementing capacity measures and one-way aisles.

“During peak shopping times there may be line ups, but we’ve noticed that at many of our stores, the evening hours are often less crowded,” she said. “This can vary by location. We ask that all customers do their part to keep each other safe by respecting and adhering to the new protocols and procedures.”

Melanie Bedore, assistant professor of geography at McMaster University, is an expert on sustainable food systems. She said it’s no surprise grocery store access is an issue. Bedore said North American grocery retailers are engaged in an aggressive battle for market share.

“In an effort to achieve cost savings, store formats have gotten bigger, while the number of stores have dwindled,” she said. “In Canada, retailers adopt store formats that work for an automobile-oriented society and the cultural model of large, weekly grocery purchases.”

Bedore said retailers compete by cutting labour, automating tasks, and expanding into nonfood products. For many Canadians, the grocery store is also their pharmacy, café, clothing store and more.

“This particular retail situation means that grocers in Canada have prepared themselves to succeed in a highly competitive global industry, but that marginalized people especially will struggle in the face of a crisis like COVID-19 when grocery shopping becomes more difficult than it already was, and store access becomes more limited than it already was for some members of the community,” Bedore said.

---

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: With one fewer grocery store in Dundas, we wanted to find out how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting grocery shopping in the area.