Are Grocery Shelves Empty By You?

[DeeBee3]

"Big box" stores around here (upstate NY) like Target and Costco definitely have empty shelves in certain items. At my local, smaller stores, I can't find odd things like a certain brand of pretzels and NO Honest Brand juice boxes. My mom was in another state nearby and saw them at Costco so I told her to buy away! Those big name stores also still have limits on paper products and other things like cleaning supplies.

Mainly I have noticed there are random things unavailable and we do have stores with signs up explaining certain items may not be available. For example, I wanted to get low-sodium deli ham and they were out of it so they gave me regular ham. That has never happened before. They also had a sign up that some of their cold cuts were unavailable due to shortages.

Basically I have to do a lot of substituting for certain brands, even with bread. I think it all depends on where you live.

 

[Planogirl]

It is spotty here. I went to a few stores to find Jiff peanut butter yesterday. I am stubborn about that brand.

We have had the most problems with pasta, milk, eggs and bottled tea. Plus beef is outrageously expensive.

We are in North Texas.

 

[neverlandsky]

it's hard for me to find most of my regular purchases there these days. i know they have some type of a formula they use on deciding to continue carrying a product b/c of the price point they want to maintain but between them eliminating many of the frozen items b/c of that and then saying that supply chain is causing issues with others-no matter what time of day or night our 2 local ones always look decimated.

We have a total of 5 local. Dolmas have been out of stock for weeks now. Spanish Olive Oil finally came back only to disappear again. Coconut oil is hard to find. Garlic fries which were a huge hit are no more and were eliminated in 2019. Something about deals with suppliers and/or contacts expiring.

Yet the last time I was there, I saw a few customers basically overbuying and stockpiling items as well. That is hurting as well.

 

[goofyernmost]

Not empty but a lot of normal stock has not been around for awhile. Just certain things like hobby foods (trail mix, etc.) and common things like eggs and margarine. Plenty of wine though, probably a necessity by now.

 

[RamblingMad]

Nope.

I couldn't find two things easily: TP and ground lamb.

I eventually found TP, but that's about it.

 

[dvcgirl67]

No empty shelves in my part of NJ....occasionally see some areas that look sparse.....canned soda seems to be in short supply (don't drink it...but noticed there's less of it than usual). The only time in this whole period I saw truly empty shelves was the weekend when "stay at home" was announced....so mid-March 2020. I was in Trader Joes and they were legit wiped out of almost all frozen food, canned foods, pasta and rice...etc. Other than paper products...again, closer to the beginning of the pandemic....haven't seen anything like that since. And I don't think we will again.

 

[fla4fun]

Florida here. My local grocery isn’t out of anything, at least not that I have noticed, but they aren’t fully stocked either. The shelves may be only half full instead of stocked all the way to the back. Paper products are well stocked, as are cleaning products. I am on a strict budget until I find a new job, so I am not overbuying. I have been buying items for Thanksgiving a little bit at a time, so I won’t have issues with those items missing. Planning on buying the bird this week if I can. I know it may go on sale later, but the little bit I would save isn’t worth the hassle of wondering if one will be available.

My Walgreens, however, only had a couple individual bottled soda/juice beverages in the soda cooler, and none on the shelf, but plenty of wine. That seemed odd, since I hadn’t noticed soda shortages at the grocery. There were a lot of other shelves empty, or with just one of something sitting on the front edge of the shelf. I don’t shop at Walgreens much, but was there for my booster shot and had to kill some time. It was obvious they aren’t getting everything they order.

 

[dvcgirl67]

My Walgreens, however, only had a couple individual bottled soda/juice beverages in the soda cooler, and none on the shelf, but plenty of wine. That seemed odd, since I hadn’t noticed soda shortages at the grocery. There were a lot of other shelves empty, or with just one of something sitting on the front edge of the shelf. I don’t shop at Walgreens much, but was there for my booster shot and had to kill some time. It was obvious they aren’t getting everything they order.

I've noticed the same in Walgreens, CVS and also at convenience stores....the soda/iced tea/sports drink coolers are very sparse. So that's definitely a thing here in NJ too.

 

[Southernmiss]

It's hit or miss and comes and goes near us.

 

[Lilsia]

I am in NE and am an online shopper at a local store. There are several things going on. Yes, there are shortages but not always the same thing at the same time. It seems to be that certain items are hard to get for a while, then they become available again. Then something else is short, or just a certain flavor of the item. Gatorade is a good example of that. The stores are ordering, but things are not always available at the time but then they will send a bunch a couple of weeks later. Today we were completely out of BelVita breakfast bars but had plenty of the other brands; out of pre-packaged broccoli florets but plenty of bulk broccoli, as examples. The supply chain is very inconsistent and that is why one brand of stores will have something but another is out because they have different suppliers. Another thing that has been happening is that factories are not making the variety that they used to pre-covid. Not to mention the strikes and labor issues some companies are having. Had a customer today that I was shopping for say that the manager should talk to the distributor because we were out of the flavor of Monster energy drink that they wanted. Like they are just not giving it to us for the fun of it. People are really not understanding the situation now because some people online are saying that it is all made up. The stores are just as frustrated as everyone else. They want to sell things, obviously. Every day we hear complaints and grumbling about how "you are always out of stuff", No kidding. Be kind to your grocery employees, it stinks for us too.

 

[Minnesota!]

Nope. All well stocked. Even found canning supplies well stocked tonight...

 

[sjberg79]

Ever since Covid first started, I have had issues with getting products we use at the Wegmans we frequent in a suburb of Buffalo, NY. Sodas we like come and go, my beloved Pepperidge Farm cookies I love are very seldom in stock since March 2020 (Lexington flavor. When they do have them, I hoard these like someone on that TV show and I don't care. If I could get them to load the pallet direct in my car, I would), the pepperjack cheese sticks are very rarely in, the sweet soy sauce hasn't been seen since last winter, we now buy applesauce on amazon because the flavor our kid likes was completely unreliable (mango peach), WHO KEEPS BUYING ALL THE WERTHERS ORIGINALS? I miss those. I could keep going. There's just a lot of things we either do without or we buy substitutes of or I look on Amazon for. Since this has been going on since Covid first hit, I don't know when or if it will ever end. Change is constant so I find I just need to adjust to it.

 

[Walt's Dream]

Has anyone seen Barber's frozen chicken Kiev? Plenty of broccoli cheese and ham and cheese, but not Kiev.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I was just quoting what a friend who is a truck driver and her husband is a truck driver said. True or not, I don't know I don't drive a truck nor do I play a truck driver on TV.

I think the point is more that it's not related to their occupation as a truck driver but is def. related to where they are getting their news information. You don't have to be at all into trucking to regurgitate information you read on FB

 

[jen7233]

Empty no. I mainly shop the Giant or Target (occasional Trader Joes or commissary). But, every time I go shopping there is some item down to its last, or missing. And it's always something different. One day it's no 1% milk or 2% milk, another day that I went in I remember it was the bananas all gone but a couple bunches and singles of very green ones. In summer it was the Giant brand mixed frozen fruit that felt I scored if I got a bag, now it seems like it's back. Or it's the traditional Ragu, etc. Target has been really interesting, parts of the candy aisle stock has been gone for a very long time, guess I don't need it anyway. Nothing bad, just very random.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I haven't seen shortages at least to the point that you're seeing shelves completely empty yet..but I've seen less variety for quite a while now. Also we noticed Costco's toilet paper is 380 sheets vs 425 and we can understand why but it sucks. While I haven't checked the Costco we normally go to the other one in town we went to last week and bottled water was up from 2.99 to 3.19. It's been that high before and it's been 2.19 before but has been steady for several years at 2.99.

I think sometimes when you're seeing empty shelves it could really just be due to restocking that hasn't happened yet particularly if they are waiting on a shipment not necessarily that a rash of shopping has cleared them out.

We just did a grocery order pick up Friday and things were fine in fact they gave us a heck of a lot more cube steak than we would have picked up if we had been in the store which is fine by us it's 4 meals versus 2 or so worth.

I heard rumblings a month or so ago about canned pumpkin. Haven't searched for that in the store as I have a few cans left over from last year (my mom bought some and then realized she wasn't going to need them so she gave them to us). Has anyone had any issues getting that? I remember that being an issue last Fall.

 

[dvcgirl67]

I heard rumblings a month or so ago about canned pumpkin. Haven't searched for that in the store as I have a few cans left over from last year (my mom bought some and then realized she wasn't going to need them so she gave them to us). Has anyone had any issues getting that? I remember that being an issue last Fall.

I buy canned pumpkin for my dogs and haven't had any issues getting it yet. But with all of the talk of shortages and store shelves being empty....etc, I wouldn't be surprised if we see some shortages of holiday meal favorites. My butcher told me last week that he's not seeing prices come down and expects that holiday meals will be more expensive. But he also specializes in organic meats/poultry from small farmers, so I'm not sure if the larger grocery chains will be as impacted. I definitely will order some extra canned pumpkin....my doggies love it and keeps things "regular" around here .

 

[tvguy]

I haven't run into empty shelves yet. We did our shopping yesterday. I always check the paper product aisle and at both stores because that is allegedly what Costco is limiting purchases of due to shortages. Walmart and and Local chain grocery store were fully stocked on TP paper towels and Kleenex. However, the Halloween candy aisle was mostly empty. It was full the week before, but it was also already on closeout with price cuts, so not sure if that was the reason.

 

[DLgal]

It's been a problem at Target, but not at any chain supermarkets near me. Shelves have been fully stocked for over a year with no interruptions.

 

[Lsdolphin]

Fully stocked where I am - Maryland. I shop at Giant, Shoprite and Wegmans. Also my mom in NYC hasn’t had any problems either. I believe her store is C-town. Hope it continues.

I will say though that for at least the last 6 months the Jimmy Dean section has been sparse for breakfast sandwiches in all 3 stores.

where is there a Shoprite in Maryland?