Are Grocery Shelves Empty By You?

Was talking to DGD’s mother this morning and she decided to send a turkey via Walmart thus making her daughter overjoyed. No idea what’ll cost but not my concern anymore; as long as I can roast it in my convection toaster oven it’s all good.
Envisioning T-Day dinner, lunch sandwiches, turkey soup and pot pies on the menu for December.
Guess the Porterhouse steak (I’ll be solo) will make for a nice Christmas dinner with tons of leftovers that way too.
 
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seems like more and more things are out in my area the past few weeks...not sure what's going on all of a sudden. I order all groceries online - and lots of stuff is out of stock.
 


Are people beginning to hoard again?

Good grief I hope not. If people start buying just a few of their normal items every time they shop rather than one.....I guess we could see that happen again. Still, I don't think it will be to the degree we saw here in the Northeast in the early months of the pandemic.

I haven't been to Trader Joe's in awhile...just shopping at a smaller market in my little town and also at my butcher. Prices up for sure, but not having difficulty getting what we need.
 
Good grief I hope not. If people start buying just a few of their normal items every time they shop rather than one.....I guess we could see that happen again. Still, I don't think it will be to the degree we saw here in the Northeast in the early months of the pandemic.

I haven't been to Trader Joe's in awhile...just shopping at a smaller market in my little town and also at my butcher. Prices up for sure, but not having difficulty getting what we need.

I don't think it's hoarding...I just think it's sporadic supply chain and labor issues. Not just affecting durable goods...it's also affecting transport of perishables like dairy and meats - logistics on perishable foods is fairly complex, time sensitive and heavily labor dependent.
 
Good grief I hope not. If people start buying just a few of their normal items every time they shop rather than one.....I guess we could see that happen again. Still, I don't think it will be to the degree we saw here in the Northeast in the early months of the pandemic.

I haven't been to Trader Joe's in awhile...just shopping at a smaller market in my little town and also at my butcher. Prices up for sure, but not having difficulty getting what we need.

I went to TJs yesterday and didn't see anything missing except for my much-desired Kringle.:(
 


I went to TJs yesterday and didn't see anything missing except for my much-desired Kringle.:(

Bummer...love their Kringle! Glad to hear they're stocked up....need to get there tomorrow to do a good sized order for some batch cooking. I hope we continue to see only spot shortages here and there...and that we all just buy what we need.
 
I don't think it's hoarding...I just think it's sporadic supply chain and labor issues. Not just affecting durable goods...it's also affecting transport of perishables like dairy and meats - logistics on perishable foods is fairly complex, time sensitive and heavily labor dependent.

I think you're right....we all just need to continue to buy what we need.
 
I don't think it's hoarding...I just think it's sporadic supply chain and labor issues. Not just affecting durable goods...it's also affecting transport of perishables like dairy and meats - logistics on perishable foods is fairly complex, time sensitive and heavily labor dependent.
Yeah it's just supply and manufacturing issues for the moment. People are also buying stuff earlier than they likely would have because of concerns over supply so you may be seeing shelves low just with the combination of that.
 
I went to Kroger this morning. I had a VERY long shopping list and although the shelves were sparse, I was able to get everything on my list except for 1 item. The item they were out of were the pre-made meatloaf they sell in the meat section.
 
Here in Arizona, went to the grocery store and lots of shelves half empty or missing lots of stuff.
 
I was in Walmart at 7:30 this morning. Hard to tell. They had everything I needed but there were open spaces however the aisles were filled with pallets of stuff because they were still stocking.
 
Would I say the shelves are empty? No. But are they even close to where they used to be? No. There are certainly less selections and more empty spaces on the shelves. But hey, this is becoming the new "normal." Car dealerships without any cars. Auto parts stores without any auto parts. Furniture stores without any furniture. Appliance stores without any washers, dryers, refrigerators. Restaurants with fewer items on the menu's and even fewer employees willing to work (not only the restaurant industry). Builder suppliers without lumber, siding, flooring and etc. And let's not even mention how much more $$$$$$ we are all pulling out of our wallets and purses to pay for it.

Welcome to the new normal. And the so called economic prognosticators are not painting a very rosy picture for 2022 either. I wish I had a 1981 Delorean DMC-12 with a flux capacitor so that I could go back to when life was a little more normal than this 2021 normal. :goodvibes
 
Wow. Things change quickly. Today TP and PT were very low at BJs. One big box of Fancy Feast cat food. Very strange. At Tops, several areas were low, though some items were being restocked when we were there.

Both Tops & Wegmans in the southtowns have been low on items for the last 2-3 weeks. You’ve been lucky you haven’t seen it before. It’s just my husband & myself. But I ended up buying the 240 ct paper plates a few weeks ago, because I didn’t find a smaller pack at Tops or Wegmans for the 2 weeks before that.
 
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My sister went to BJs today, said except for a few packs of their own brand, there was no TP, PT, napkins or tissues. Didn’t mention anything else being missing.
 
I don't think it's hoarding...I just think it's sporadic supply chain and labor issues. Not just affecting durable goods...it's also affecting transport of perishables like dairy and meats - logistics on perishable foods is fairly complex, time sensitive and heavily labor dependent.
Yeah it's just supply and manufacturing issues for the moment. People are also buying stuff earlier than they likely would have because of concerns over supply so you may be seeing shelves low just with the combination of that.


I agree. It's not hoarding, but two culturally imposed "deadlines" for people "needing" to have stuff that may not be in the stores in time. Those deadlines are Thanksgiving and Christmas. The ultimate of a first world problem. Otherwise, on Dec 26 would anyone really care if non-perishable (durable goods) items are going to be a couple months late? Or they can't get the exact item or brand they want? That has been part of the "pandemic normal" right now.

So it is affecting durable goods. If you were going to get it anyway and it's there now, get it now as it may not be there in a few weeks when people would normally shop for it. There might not be replacement shipments coming in time to re-stock the shelves.

There is also the fact that prices are going up and will continue to go up. Someone has to pay for all that time these cargo ships are sitting for months out at sea. The skeleton crew on board need to eat. Plus, their company lost the money they would have made for the one or two other cargo shipments they normally would have made during that time sitting dead in the water outside CA. Those expenses will be passed onto US. :(
 
I live in an area was impacted years ago by a pipeline shutdown. So for a few days it was harder to get gas. Ever since then, anytime there is any hint of a possible gas pipeline issue people are insane with hoarding gas.

During early covid, a neighbor showed the MASSIVE blocks of TP she got from Costco on her Instagram. It was so much TP that she had to store it in her garage. Literally it was more TP than we could use in a year.
 
So I went and did a bit of shopping this weekend, here is what I noticed:

*shopped in northern and central Delaware

Target - plenty of tp, paper towels and the like. Grocery area looked to be about the same

Costco - stocked up to the gills with everything. Admittedly I didn't even look at the TP or Paper Towels, although I meant to. Plenty of meat, with one exception, no chicken thighs. Lots of other staples like milk, eggs, butter, coffee and paper products, as well as soap.

Food Lion - stocked up, had no problem finding what I was in there for, and shelves were well stocked.

of note: My BIL is a manager at a particular grocery store in Maryland that often sells the most inventory on the east coast within that grocery store chain. He was over yesterday evening, so I asked him if I ought to really be worried about buying my Thanksgiving turkey (or anything else) now. He said he didn't anticipate there being a shortage of turkeys, BUT the powers that be have told them that unlike in previous years they are not allowed to take any special orders, nor are they allowed to hold any for anyone who requests it. As with many places finding employees is hard, he says that it's less inventory and more workforce that is their biggest problem right now. He said that is what is hurting them a lot right now, and it means remaining employees working longer hours, harder and doing more. Sure - many times folks might like a little extra overtime now and then, especially at this time of year but he knows that he can't work everyone like that indefinitely, so that means less registers open and less folks restocking as often as if they had more employees available per shift, in conjunction with a very busy time of year.

also: I went into the local JC Penny. Had two registers open in the ladies dept. No one in the mens, shoes, kids/housewares. Those poor two women were bombarded with ticked off people waiting in line. I felt bad for them. I was shopping for a few new things in the ladies dept. and noticed a huge amount of summer stuff still out and very little cold weather clothes or jeans/pants available. I then went to a Kohls where it appeared the store was only about 2/3 full of it's normal inventory. Clothing racks were spread out and sparse in the various departments as if they were trying to make it still look like they had plenty but really it wasn't nearly as much as usual. Home Goods & Marshalls were their lovely, cluttered to the rafters with tons of stuff places they usually are....and I scored 10 bowls from my china collection so I'm glad I stopped!
 
Went to Market Basket (Massachusetts) first thing this morning. Things are getting desperate in some areas of the store. They are trying to make it look like there is plenty of stock by filling the shelves with something, but it is easy to tell what they are doing. Today, there was absolutely no cooking oil. No vegetable oil, no canola oil, no other brands of oil. At least six feet of shelf from top to bottom were missing their various oils, so what did the store do? They brought in large, gallon cans of some kind of no-name olive oil and just lined the shelves with that. When you are used to seeing a variety of bottle brands and packaging, but then are met with a display that basically wallpapers an entire section with the same identical item, things start to look off. Same thing with canned tomatoes. We have a number of brands you can usually get (Hunt's, etc.), but today, they had a big stack of Pine Cone brand canned tomatoes that were in white cans with red letters reading, "Pine Cone Tomatoes" and not much else.

The other thing that we are short on in the stores again is pasta. At the beginning of the pandemic, they dialed back the pasta shapes they were making and stuck to about five basic cuts, lasagna, spaghetti, macaroni, penne, and one other one that I forget now. We just started getting a variety of pasta shapes in recently, then all of a sudden, we are back to the same five shapes again.

I didn't go up and down every aisle, but there were sections in the spice aisle where things were missing. I was able to grab the last bottle of Greek seasoning. I couldn't find marjoram at all. The romaine lettuce is still not good, and there were other "holes" in the produce section where items just have not come in. I wouldn't say things are dire yet, but I wouldn't be surprised to go and not be able to find certain items or brands that I am used to getting in the near future unless the items that are currently trapped on ships in ports get rolling soon.

I was talking to my mom who is Canada. She had gone shopping this morning as well and noticed similar issues with the oil. She also noticed that peanut butter and jam were in short supply, as were zip-top bags. Again, she didn't go up and down each aisle, but those were some of the things she noticed.
 

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