Ritual
Disinfecting Products from Stores

Jenni Jones
Kansas City, Missouri
2020

Informant Data:
Jenni Jones is a Caucasian mother of two. She lives in Kansas City, Missouri and does a significant amount of the grocery shopping for her family. With the recent coronavirus pandemic, she has become increasingly worried about inadvertently bringing the virus into her house via the items from the grocery store. She has concerns that the items could have been infected when shipped to the store, or by an infected person in the store coming into contact with the product. As a result, she has taken increased measures to ensure that the products she buys and brings into her house are clean.

Contextual Data:
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many restrictions have been placed upon the general public, such as social distancing measures and stay-at-home orders. However, people still need food and as a result, still must go grocery shopping. Concerns of infected products being brought into one’s home is quite high, so many people have begun making sure that they clean the products before bringing them into their homes with their families.

Item:
The coronavirus pandemic has been really scary. It’s really worrisome to realistically have no idea whether or not someone or something that you have come into contact with was infected with the virus. In an attempt to have peace of mind, and to help protect my family, we’ve started wiping down all of the things we buy at the store with disinfecting wipes in the garage before we bring them into the house. We also make sure to thoroughly wash any and all produce in the sink before putting it into the refrigerator. While it’s impossible to tell whether or not something is actually fully clean, it’s much more comforting knowing that we wiped everything down before it even got through the door.

Isaac Hanover, 20
533 Homestead Drive
Lima, Ohio, 45807
Dartmouth College
RUSS 13
Spring 2020