2020 shortages

[majorcatfish]

as we all know ever since covid showed up we had panic buying and stripped the store shelves bare,<the plus side ive seen is all the shelves finally got a good cleaning>. yes they are somewhat stocked again.

on the other side is many of the normal products that we could just drive to the store and get is now not stocked or you have to goto other stores in hope they have it...
we drove to 3 different stores yesterday in search of just little things. food lion, publix, bi-rite

heres a few things that has been missing.

applewood smoked bacon... use to purchase a 3 lb package of the food lion brand for 14.00 now only sells a 1.5 lb pack of another brand for 15.00, same at all the other stores. but they now sell a 3 lb pack of hickory. yes theres the normal 1 lb packages hickory, maple, turkey bacon.......... ended up coming home with sausage links.

spam... that never recovered you would be lucky if you find it we found 3 cans at bi-rite poof into the cart... for laughs went to spam website even they are sold out... wtf is hawaii getting all of it or anybody can find the key to the safe where the recipe is...

A1 sweet chili garlic sauce once again poof not on the shelves we drove 25 miles to publix in stock there, so we grabbed a few.

kikoman garlic onion sauce finally after 3 months being out food lion had some picked 4 bottles<yup theres a empty spot again>.

roasted chicken/ beef top ramen all 3 stores are out all of sudden , but of course theres the other flavors in limited stock.
somebody is hoarding it.....

yes you can find all these things on the net, but a ridiculous mark up.... can you say.... price gouging....

what is missing at your regular store...?

 

[flowerbug]

canning supplies still in short supply if you can find any at all.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Regular sized canning lids, but that's not what is so weird about it. About a month or two ago I started looking for regular sized canning lids. There were 3 widemouth packs on the shelf but no regular sized. I found some at Walmart so I have what I need. But we go to Wynn Dixie every Tuesday for our regular grocery run. There are still three widemouth packs there. I guess it's the same three.

That whole canning section is pretty empty. In that store it's a pretty small area. There are a few things there, like a box of rings with lids or a couple of boxes of canning jars, more jelly jar sized. Week to week it doesn't change, looks like they are not selling anything and not stocking anything.

The wife was looking for citric acid to use dyeing something she made but had to order it online. Normally it would be in that section. Nope. There is hardly anything there. Just almost empty shelves.

Since we like photos (and I like bragging on her) these are the bags she was dyeing. They are still in progress, working on the handles. She wove the material from raw wool yarn and is now making the bags. No @ninnymary neither is Fuchsia. She chose Raspberry and Magenta. But I'm sure you could see that.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I've been noticing the bacon thing as well. The local brand I buy has always been a little spotty in distribution (they don't give it much space at the market chain that carries it, and they make a LOT of products). But recently it's been even spottier. The first two branches I went to only had the uncured and the uncured flavored (they make a lot of flavors, honey, siracha, chipotle, herb, maple but as they are all uncured, they all don't really taste like bacon, or much of anything else.) The last place I was at DID have some regular smoked, but just the regular, none of the Canadian or Irish style I actually buy. And I don't think I've seen one of their smoked duck breasts for about a month.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

My freezer is full of everything including bacon. I now see foreign brands of TP, but I have enough of my beloved Kirkland tp to next year. Hand sanitizer is back in full stock but at 75% alcohol. Cannot find plain 90 - 92% alcohol yet.

Some renter stole some sanitizing wipes from the home that I manage. The owner saw them on the garage Arlo. They with the help of AirBnB got evicted by me anyway. Luckily those wipes are coming back into stock.

I couldn't find Fish sauce anywhere (for curry poached salmon) so had to go to a local hole in the wall Asian store. Hey! you might find the beef ramen there, Major. I like buying their Pho noodle packets for a quick somewhat salty lunch (or breakfast with a cracked egg on top).

Check the Indian (India) stores for unique items too. They typically run less expensive than in the grocery or specialty stores (Whole Foods, Trader Joes).

I would some day like to go to an Aldi's.

 

[majorcatfish]

since posting did some research some might be the truth and then some just might be a conspiracy about why some items are not fully on the shelfs...

needless to say grocery food chains are not wanting another panic/ hoarding like they saw back in february/ march where they were doing "just in time delivery" to their distribution centers to keep their overhead low rather tying up money in inventory.

found this on the wall street journal site.. interesting reading
https://www.wsj.com/articles/grocers-stockpile-build-pandemic-pallets-ahead-of-winter-11601199000

 

[ninnymary]

Regular sized canning lids, but that's not what is so weird about it. About a month or two ago I started looking for regular sized canning lids. There were 3 widemouth packs on the shelf but no regular sized. I found some at Walmart so I have what I need. But we go to Wynn Dixie every Tuesday for our regular grocery run. There are still three widemouth packs there. I guess it's the same three.

That whole canning section is pretty empty. In that store it's a pretty small area. There are a few things there, like a box of rings with lids or a couple of boxes of canning jars, more jelly jar sized. Week to week it doesn't change, looks like they are not selling anything and not stocking anything.

The wife was looking for citric acid to use dyeing something she made but had to order it online. Normally it would be in that section. Nope. There is hardly anything there. Just almost empty shelves.

Since we like photos (and I like bragging on her) these are the bags she was dyeing. They are still in progress, working on the handles. She wove the material from raw wool yarn and is now making the bags. No @ninnymary neither is Fuchsia. She chose Raspberry and Magenta. But I'm sure you could see that.

View attachment 37302

Love the top one. Looks pretty fuchsia to me. Does she sell them or make scarves?

Mary

 

[Zeedman]

since posting did some research some might be the truth and then some just might be a conspiracy about why some items are not fully on the shelfs...

needless to say grocery food chains are not wanting another panic/ hoarding like they saw back in february/ march where they were doing "just in time delivery" to their distribution centers to keep their overhead low rather tying up money in inventory.

found this on the wall street journal site.. interesting reading
https://www.wsj.com/articles/grocers-stockpile-build-pandemic-pallets-ahead-of-winter-11601199000

The article is behind a pay wall... could you give us a summary?

I couldn't find Fish sauce anywhere (for curry poached salmon) so had to go to a local hole in the wall Asian store. Hey! you might find the beef ramen there, Major. I like buying their Pho noodle packets for a quick somewhat salty lunch (or breakfast with a cracked egg on top).

Check the Indian (India) stores for unique items too.

I agree, it appears that the ethnic stores are often overlooked by panic buyers.

Spam still hard to find here, and other canned meats are just slightly more common. Aldi had some of the old-fashioned canned hams in Spring, I stocked up on those even before the covid panic started... DW likes them better than Spam. Needless to say, those hams are MIA now.

Most of the things that were in short supply have recovered, most notably rice and dry beans. Hand sanitizer is EVERYWHERE now, most stores locally have 5 brands or more to choose from. Masks & good rubber gloves are still nearly impossible to find... and if we find masks, they always turn out to be poor-quality "made in China".

 

[Carol Dee]

canning supplies still in short supply if you can find any at all.

We luck out and found lids at Farm and Fleet last week.
No One else has any canning supplies/

 

[Ridgerunner]

Love the top one. Looks pretty fuchsia to me. Does she sell them or make scarves?

Mary

She just made these for fun, her first effort. She does that, just likes to learn new techniques, use new materials, or make new things. I have no idea what she will do next.

She might give them as a gift or keep them for herself. No idea.