And now how do you go shopping? After the signature of the Ministerial Decree on 11 March Italy entered a new phase in the fight against Coronavirus. The imperative is to stay at home, to avoid further infections and manage the emergency more decisively.
Practically from 12 to 25 March all non-essential activities must remain closed and fines are provided for those who do not comply with this rule.

The decree provides for bars, pubs and restaurants to close and instead tobaccos, newsagents and above all food in all forms, from shops to hypermarkets, remain open.

THE grocery stores so they are open. Of course, the safety distances must be respected and, to move around on foot in his own city, the head of Civil Protection Angelo Borrelli has explicitly stated that he must always carry the self-certification form downloadable from the website of the Ministry of the Interior (you can find it here). The same goes for those who go to the doctor, the pharmacy and those who go to newsstand (where of course you will also find our magazines Sale & Pepe and Cucina Moderna): you need to have the self-certification form. If you are stopped you risk a fine.

Shopping online

And who has decided to stay at home entirely, how can he go shopping? The major supermarket chains have systems and apps for online purchase and home delivery.
Among the main platforms are Esselunga, Amazon Prime Now, Coop, Carrefour and Conad.

The first step is to verify that the supermarket makes deliveries in your area: on the sites there are special forms that require the postcode of residence, to check that the area is covered.

Then you proceed by selecting the products you want to buy one by one, indicating the type and quantity. They put themselves in virtual shopping cart and finally, you pay at the cashier online, using your credit card or other payment methods such as poste pay or paypal.

Platforms in difficulty

These days the platforms are under pressure and many supermarkets they struggle to manage orders: in some cases deliveries are suspended until a date to be destined. Unfortunately this is not discovered until you go to the virtual cashier.

Some explicitly report that the service is having problems due to the large amount of requests, as does Cortilia, specializing in fruit and vegetables and other fresh products. Already starting from the home page, they ensure that they are enhancing the app and the delivery service, to guarantee a smoother operation of the many requests as soon as possible.

Others, however, are not able to make deliveries now, but the discovery takes place only when the virtual shopping cart is full, to pay.

The practical tip is: before starting the actual shopping, do a test with a few items. Those who are used to shopping online, know that selecting products consciously, perhaps reading the labels and checking the cheapest price, takes time. Almost as much as wandering around the real shelves).

So select a few products and go directly to check out: if the service indicates the delivery date, then you can go back, really fill the virtual cart and finalize the operation. Otherwise … try again later.

Some manufacturers are making available services direct home delivery. In the next few days Sale & Pepe will try to find out for you who is able to guarantee the service and will report it to you.

Food delivery

For those who want to order ready meals directly there is food delivery. In this case, those who offer the service are clubs and restaurants of all kinds, from the sportiest to the most famous: they cook for you and, being unable to accommodate guests at the moment, pamper them remotely, delivering dishes and menus directly to your home. The vehicles of this system are Deliveroo, Glovo, Just Eat, Uber Eats and Social Food.

The sanitation rules observed, they assure, they are extremely rigorous. AssoDelivery is FIPE they wrote a document with the guidelines, which closely follow the recommendations of the Ministry of Health regarding the use of sanitizing products, interpersonal distances between those who work and between those who deliver the food and those who receive it.

In your neighborhood

And then finally there is the neighborhood solidarity: in any area of ​​Italy there are certainly greengrocers, greengrocers and small grocery stores that have always offered home delivery services. They are often reality to be rediscovered. And in this case we must rely on word of mouth and the local social network.

And here is that good communication between neighbors comes in handy. All that remains is to try!

by Barbara Roncarolo
March 12, 2020