#Microblog Monday 291: Delivery, Ethics, and Covid-19
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I am eternally grateful to everyone who has continued to do their job through this crisis––for example, health care workers, but also grocery store employees, farmers, delivery workers, and cleaning staff. The people who are keeping the day-to-day going; making sure we have food and disinfected spaces and health care.
But I have been thinking of the ethics of it. And other people are clearly thinking about it, too. Wired magazine asked last week: “People are being encouraged to stay home to avoid exposure to the coronavirus. Should they ask others to bring them food?” Are we being kind when we ensure people have work to do? Or are we being cruel when we ask other people to take risks we’re not taking?
There is clearly no easy answer.
I will say that I truly love our Italian ice place. (Priorities, people!) They put out a call on Facebook and gave people a day or two to place orders for paid pickup (over the phone). Then they brought the pickup orders to our town so people could nip out, grab their bag, and go. It was a fantastic solution where we all met in the middle to disseminate dessert by making the transactions between people as brief as possible. Not perfect but an interesting solution.
Are you ordering out right now?
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12 comments
We will be ordering take out from our favorite restaurant(s) this week, and buy a couple of 10xcards (buy the lunches in advance, use within a year). We frequent this restaurant often anyway, just showing our continued support. (I think they know my voice/order by phone already.)
So far just groceries. I’ve been doing a $10 tip on top of the $10 delivery fee. Well worth it to us.
The way our grocery store is doing it is they drop off the bags at the door without any contact. I’m not seeing what is unethical about the delivery part. The picking out stuff part, maybe, but it’s marginally better for the workers who are already there and already intermingling with each other to do the bulk of shopping than to keep introducing new people. Ideally nobody other than the personal shoppers would be allowed in the grocery store and there would be free internet and free contact-less delivery for everybody etc. but we’re not in that world. Also where we are we’re not running up against constraints– there were plenty of slots for delivery day of, next day, etc. so I don’t feel like we’re pushing anybody who needs delivery out.
We haven’t. I wouldn’t mind doing it for a bit of variety — but dh is a bit leery — his concern is what germs the people making & delivering the food might be passing along. I’m not quite that paranoid (yet…!). That said, we don’t often order delivery or do takeout even in more normal times — we used to order in Chinese food back at our old house, but haven’t done so since we moved to the condo, and we used to have the occasional pizza delivered, before I developed my tomato allergy…! We do see lots of pizza delivery and UberEats/Skip the Dishes delivery people going in & out of our building, though…!
I am ordering out right now. Not only for my own convenience but also because I want to support my favorite local restaurants. That particular industry is taking a huge financial hit with the mandated closures, and if my takeout orders can help keep them from going out of business, I am glad to make them.
We’re only going into full lockdown tomorrow, so waiting to see what remains open and available.
It’s a real conundrum, honestly. I don’t know what to think. We’ve been doing the order online/pick up at store groceries thing for awhile and that’s what we’re doing now – minimal contact and not walking around near others. If we had anything delivered, we’d probably try to do contact-less delivery for our safety and the delivery person’s safety (plus, of course, tip well!). We’ll also probably order whole bean + drinks from our local coffee roasters who truly roast some of the best coffee I’ve ever had (same for my one close relative who is extremely picky about coffee). They’re doing a call-ahead/pay over the phone and then they’ll bring it to you in the parking lot, so as contact-less as possible.
But yeah, definitely not an easy calculus.
I haven’t been order out but I may order veggies and fruit from an organic farmer. He has slightly increased his prices, I am told, but I think it is only fair as he has to go out there, risking his health.
No ordering out for us. I’m a little [overly concerned, perhaps] about what might be lurking in restaurant kitchens.
Thank you. My husband’s work is deemed essential (auto repair) and I’m scared for him. He has a lot of contact with customer cars (inside—test drives etc). He’s been very sick (but not a celebrity so no testing for him) so he’s been off work. But when he gets better…no one seems to be worried about anyone but healthcare workers. Others need PPE too. And we are in the salad bowl—I worry about the farm workers who are still working so we can all eat produce. And last week, after our governor order to seniors to stay at home but before the state wide shelter in place, I went to a local grocery store where there’s a bagger there who’s got to be in her 70s. It made me sad to see that she was still at work.
I struggle a bit with the delivery/takeout. We’ve done takeout once since our restaurants were ordered closed, and I have the same thoughts. How is this helping? Is it helping? Is it good for anyone? It’s a quandary because at least one restaurant I know was already struggling and we love the place… this is likely what makes them shut down. I also have friends in small businesses who I worry about/for the longer this drags on.
Not ordering out. I would love to continue to support businesses but I just think going out to get groceries is a necessity, having take-out food isn’t. I would rather go and get take-out because at least I know that I’m the only one touching it, breathing on it or sneezing over it on the way home but I’m not doing that either.
Lots of cooking here. No delivery or to-go. Yet.
I am kind of enjoying the consistent family dinner time.