The pandemic has changed how we grocery shop, cutting down drastically on the number of trips to the store we make each week. In colder times, you could leave food from one store in your car while you ducked into another to grab a few more items, but summertime is different (as is shopping in perpetually warm climates).
Cooking Light recently had a piece on the dangers of leaving groceries in your car, you can read it by clicking here. One of the tips it suggests is something I’ve been doing for years – bringing a large cooler filled with ice or reusable ice packs.
I started that practice years back when Costco was still selling fat-free chocolate frozen yogurt in its food court and I would stock up on yogurt swirl cups every week. Costco stupidly cut chocolate frozen yogurt two years ago, something I wrote about in a rage, and now has almost no carryout items at its food courts because of Covid-19.
These days, I have an even larger cooler in my trunk than I did in the Costco days, today to hold meats, cheeses and other perishables.
My wife recently had major surgery that has necessitated driving her for physical therapy twice a week. So, I’m scheduling my food shopping for the time I would otherwise wait in the car for her (luckily there’s a large food store a block from where I drop her off).
I’m usually done shopping before she’s done working out, so I put all perishables in the cooler or in insulated bags we also carry in our car. If you’re a city dweller shopping on foot, an insulated bag is a good alternative to a cooler.
I bring ice packs from our freezer or when needed, will buy a bag of ice for the cooler. If you don;t open the bag, you can refreeze it when you get home and sue it on your next trip too.
The No Salt, No Fat, No Sugar Journal 
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