How To Maximise Each Precious Supermarket Trip For Covid-19 Circuit Breaker

Browsing is the enemy of haste, which you must make in order to minimise your risk of potential exposure to the virus. So, plan your meals ahead of time, make a list of everything you’ll need for said meals, some snacks and necessities. Your mission is to get in and out of the store as quickly as possible. To do that, you'll also want to make a mental map of where everything you need would be and the most efficient way to navigate your way through the supermarket so you don’t have to linger. And please avoid going to the supermarket as a family. This is not the time for a family outing.

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It pays to buy a couple of extra items, if only to prevent you from making multiple runs to the supermarket each week. Buy double of the things you use often, such as two bags of flour or two trays of eggs, instead of one, so that they will last longer in your pantry. There’s no need to hoard — just because something you want is no longer on the shelf, doesn’t mean it has disappeared forever. It just means that the store hasn’t had time to restock their shelves yet. And even if something like eggs or flour is no longer available, think of it as a good time to get creative and flex your cooking chops with alternatives. This, dear friends, is how new recipes are born.

Rather than waste a trip, try calling the supermarket before making your way there to check if the items on your list are available. With everyone busying themselves with shopping and cooking these days, fresh produce like vegetables and meat tends to run out quickly. Alternatively, ask the supermarket staff when stocks of the items you use most frequently arrive, so you can shop more efficiently during those times.

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Human beings are creatures of habit. How else to explain why the supermarket is most crowded in the mornings and early evenings? Try to shop during quieter weekday hours to minimise your contact with people. This will, in turn, keep the stores less crowded during peak hours. If you can only shop on weekends and the stores in your vicinity are teeming with people, consider driving (if you have a car, of course) to a more deserted branch so you can shop more safely. When in doubt, call ahead to check if the store is packed before leaving the house.

Yes, two-hour deliveries are practically a thing of the past now, but some things can wait, like that 5kg bag of rice, the laundry detergent and floor cleaner. Fill your online shopping carts with non-urgent essentials, especially the heavier stuff, and find yourself a slot. Sometimes, online marketplaces close delivery options for several hours to catch up on their backlog and reopen them later. If you don’t get a slot immediately, check back again late at night or in the morning, which is when we’ve had success. Getting some items delivered will save you time and energy at the supermarket.

Making a list gives you focus at the store. Don't linger and finger everything you see on the shelves, especially the fresh produce. Nor manhandle the fruit with indecision. Let your eyes be the judge, pick a fruit and stick with it. The country will be more hygienic for it.

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Large recyclable bags make for more efficient packing at checkout. It’s also kinder to the planet. When you’ve unloaded your groceries at home, dump the bags into a pail of soapy water to clean them, dry and reuse.

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Covid-19 or not, this is sound advice. When we are hungry, our brains encourage us to find sugar to raise our lowered blood sugar levels. So eat a good meal before you head to the grocery store. That should stop you from picking up every sweet and salty thing you see on the shelves (which wastes time and also calories).

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Everyone has necessities they need to buy, so prepare yourself for a bit of a wait or a long queue, which may only seem long because of social distancing measures. Nature abhors a vacuum, but you are not nature. You are that person who needs to stand patiently in line, one metre away from the other person who is filling her cart with pasta or waiting for the fishmonger to scale his fish.

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You’ve made it to the cashier. Now as much as possible, try to use the self-checkout counter, which is usually more efficient (and remember to sanitise your hands after that). Also, use non-cash methods like PayWave where possible so no one else has to handle your card and you don’t touch more unnecessary equipment like the POS terminal. And (this bit of information totally blew our minds when we heard about it), now is not the time for penny pinching. Don’t wait for the cash-only self-checkout machine, which rounds down the total bill (so, if your bill is $10.64, you pay $10.60). Just use the till with the shortest queue. Waiting the eternity in the cash-only queue will only save you four cents, at best. Which leads us to the question: What price a clean bill of health?

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No idea what to get so you don't have to step out of your house to visit the supermarket more than once every fortnight? Here's our suggested list to follow:

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You’ll want veggies and fruit that last. Pick apples, pears, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and other root vegetables that will keep for at least several days. Also buy frozen vegetables like broccoli, spinach and peas, which are just as nutritious and will keep for a while in the freezer.

Besides your family’s preferred rice, buy a bag or two of other grains like barley (you can make pork rib and barley soup, or cooling barley water), quinoa and couscous for variety.

Dried pasta keeps well, while other types of noodles like soba, bee hoon and mee sua will ensure you have variety in your meal repertoire. Pasta sauce keeps things easy for when you want to whip up a quick meal on stressful days. Grab a couple of packets of instant noodles, too — so you can easily whip up this delish bak chor mee.

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Choose tuna or sardines over canned meat like Spam and corned beef (if you can resist it). They’re healthier alternatives.

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Yes, fresh tastes better, but in a pinch, frozen meats are a fine alternative. Buy some frozen chicken wings, minced pork and ground beef. If you have pets, you can share your stash with them too.

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There’s no need to go through the pain of making bread from scratch if you’re not a baker to begin with. There are lots of excellent frozen options that you can stock up on like baguettes, croissants, bread rolls, man tou and bao. Store them well and you’ll have a nice breakfast for weeks (you can freeze freshly baked bread as long as it's well-wrapped, too).

All useful for baking and will last the fortnight in your fridge and pantry (the flour will last a very long time if you refrigerate it). Buy a pack or two of UHT milk, which is more shelf-stable and great for baking. The corn flour will contribute to desserts like puddings, and you can add it to plain flour to make cake flour (used for fine-textured bakes).

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These are all useful for your bakes, and also for cleaning the house.

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Great for breakfast and for baking. Keep oats and nuts in the fridge and extra butter in the freezer for a longer shelf life. Granola or oatmeal and raisin cookies, anyone?

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Surely this needs no explanation.

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Not terribly nutritious, but they are better than candy and will help keep your kids quiet. Tetra pak coconut water is useful too, for keeping cool or making desserts like this jelly.

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We would add toilet paper, but it seems most of us are already quite well-stocked.