Whole Foods senior hour is 8-9am.

Add Back-a-yard Jamaican Restaurant in east Menlo Park

Draegers needs to step up, too. Without the now-seniors who've supported this business since they were youngsters, would Draegers now have 4 stores?

Do seniors (or anyone) who per Draegers' new instructions must bring their own gloves & sanitizer, want to wait outside while Draegers monitors the number of shoppers allowed in the store at any one time?

Draegers looks quit tone-deaf again, as they have in the past when declining to contribute to various kids' school & sports fund-raising efforts.

Back-A-Yard
1189 Willow Road
Menlo Park

Siam Royal, a delightful Thai restaurant on University Street in Palo Alto, is also open for Take Out from 11;00 A.M. - 2:00 P.M. and from 5:00 P.M. - 8:00 P.M.

They have lovely and tasty food, and not expensive.

Laura,

Members of the local Nextdoor.com wish to support restaurants offering take-out, and restaurants have been posting that take-out is available. I started this Nextdoor.com thread to call attention to your column. You'll also want to browse Nextdoor.com for restaurants and other threads about take-out options. Thanks!

Web Link

Which Safeway are we talking about here? Anyone in particular or all local ones (ie. Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View)?

I can't answer specifically Bob. Call your local Safeway for more details and get back to us with what you learn. Thanks!

Safeway doesn't appear to have company-wide policy. I went to the one @ Sequoia Station @7:30 today, Thursday, & all age groups were there. The store'd been open since 6 am.

Across the street, Whole Foods was limiting access to seniors between 8-9 am.

Trader Joe's had a big line waiting to enter because, like Draegers, they allow only a certain # of shoppers inside at a time. Yawn. Unlike some stores, Walgreen's limits the number of paper towels rolls, TP, etc., to 2 of each item. Good for them! A woman behind me had 8 rolls of paper towels & the cashier let her buy only 2.

Note that Whole Foods senior-only access is one hour before the store's normal opening time. Some stores open earlier than others (Cupertino normally opens at 8am, many stores on the South Peninsula normally open at 9am). If you're not sure, go online to the Whole Foods website and look at the store locator. One may want to call the phone to confirm they have senior hours.

Piazza's in South Palo Alto does not have a special seniors-only time, but they are giving seniors priority at the check stand in the first hour, 7am-8am.

The point here is to CALL first. The situation is very fluid right now. Things are happening faster than the Internet can keep track of in a timely manner.

Hobee's is open 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM Web Link

Whole Foods is not opening earlier in Palo Alto. It is deferring general access to 9am. It is closing 2 hours earlier at 8pm.

I have a feeling that our grocery stores are major vectors for coronavirus. I was shopping early this morning and noted that, while the staff was all wearing gloves, they were happily transferring pathogens from one customer to another since there wAs -no- disinfecting going on between customers. The Pin pads were also not being disinfected. On top of that there were many people wearing N95 masks that do them almost no good, and take critical supplies away from health care workers. Want to bet that they reuse the mask multiple times thus re-infecting themselves?

We are NOT handling this well at all people.

Posted by Rick, a resident of Adobe-Meadow,

>> I have a feeling that our grocery stores are major vectors for coronavirus.

Agreed.

>> The Pin pads were also not being disinfected.

Wear gloves. Use your debit card in credit card mode. Avoid touch screens whenever possible. Stores should facilitate this better.

Thanks, great article, I've been trying to find a place to find this information out. A lot of companies have not integrated this into their web presence yet it seems.

Maybe beside every Pin-Pad or Touch-Screen should be a container of wipes and a small trash container.
Relying on trusting stores or individuals to do it right 100% of the time just put the power in the hands
or the consumer.

It's the grocery carts and baskets I worry about.

I agree CPA that the responsibility has to rest with us for best protection. The folks in the grocery stores are putting themselves at risk by just being there. We have to be supportive of them and do OUR part to insure OUR safety. I think e the grocery workers are superheroes. I wish we could get them masks, but we don't even have enough masks for our health care folks.

Just called the Safeway on First Street in downtown Los Altos.

No senior hours per se, but they posted a sign to please give seniors priority on Tuesdays and Thursday from 6 AM to 9 AM.

Hi Laura,
Thanks for the lists! Can you please also include information on what age they count as a senior (it's different from place to place)?

I would love to also know about Smart and Final and any other senior hours anywhere else. DH went to the WF senior hours and said it was much less crowded (thanks everyone!) Also, please can you leave some TP, we figured we had TP when things started so we were letting everyone else stock up, but it's never let up, and we're getting close to empty.

Trader Joe's senior hour is 9-10am starting today: Web Link

Which stores and restaurants have Contactless Payment options?