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Grocery store shortages are back

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Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#11

Post by mauvehaus »

When did they go away? We've got toilet paper labeled in English again here in VT/NH (Spanish is not widely spoken in this region, to put it mildly), but there's certainly been shortages of a wide assortment of things. At the grocery stores, they've been the limited to reduced brand choices and workaroundable sorts of problems.

Elsewhere, things have been weird. Target opened a new site recently and the clothing selection was slim. At various points I the last year it has been hard to buy all of the following:

1) a dish pan 2) car wax 3) shellac (now back in stock) 4) .22LR ammunition (ongoing) 5) cabinet grade plywood (recent development) 6) a roof rake (for removing snow from your roof, obvs. This was new for me too) 7) EN 417 fuel canisters for backpacking stoves (severe and ongoing)

The hiccups have been here all along, it's just that they're hitting things everybody buys.

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#15

Post by jonnycomputer »

willis936 wrote: post #5
jonnycomputer wrote: post #2

I haven't seen any, myself. And my anecdote is as good as theirs. It'd be nice if they actually pointed to, you know, data, for these kinds of stories. My pizza place was closed though. Everyone out with covid. And it wasn't the usual cashiers over at the grocery; I think they may have been temps, because they didn't know how to do anything.

A week ago I bought the last package of chicken in a supermarket. Someone had been to three stores and couldn't find milk. Your anecdote is as good as mine. Investigative journalism with many samples is worth more than either anecdote.

Ok, but checking in on twitter photos of empty shelves isn't investigative journalism, and the few people who might be in the position to know are saying its not like March 2020, e.g. "There are some issues with out-of-stocks, but it tends to be a situation where if you go to a store on a Tuesday night, maybe something's out of stock, but by Wednesday sometime it's back in store," Rose told NPR."

The point is, the article would be less sensational and more informative if it could point to some kind of systematic data source--even one they collected themselves. But they don't.

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#16

Post by reaperducer »

jonnycomputer wrote: post #2

I haven't seen any, myself. And my anecdote is as good as theirs. It'd be nice if they actually pointed to, you know, data, for these kinds of stories. My pizza place was closed though. Everyone out with covid. And it wasn't the usual cashiers over at the grocery; I think they may have been temps, because they didn't know how to do anything.

my anecdote is as good as theirs

They actually talked to the California Grocers Association, and quoted the CEOs of Albertson's, the nation's largest supermarket company; and Conagra, one of the largest food companies on the planet. Not exactly anecdotes. These are people with access to real data.

I haven't seen any, myself.

I've seen it.

I have a regular bi-weekly list, and a lot of the items are getting harder and harder to find.

I have to try two or three stores, and even supplementing with Amazon Fresh, I still can't get everything.

Two of the chain supermarkets near me have signs up apologizing for the empty shelves, saying they're stocking them as quickly as they can. Which tells me this is a staffing issue, not a supply issue.

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#17

Post by justinator »

jimkleiber wrote: post #10
justinator wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I certainly have. We literally LOST a place to buy groceries, as a good part of a town just burnt to the ground after (it seems to be coming to light[0]), a local cult decided to burn a railroad tie and left it smoldering while 100mph+ winds were being recorded. My King Soopers closed for renovations because of a domestic terrorist shot and killed a few people last year[1], And today, workers at King Soopers are star…

I used to live in that area, right near that King Soopers—I hadn't heard about the cause of that fire, thank you for pointing out the investigation into it. Regarding stores, this may seem a bit out of touch, as I assume their prices are probably more expensive and I also don't know what their stock is like, but a friend of mine recently opened a new (small) grocery store[0] downtown[1]. I'm no longer in the area so…

Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out - doesn't hurt to wander by and say hello!

Want to stress that the fire investigation is ongoing, but there's a lot of evidence pointing the start of the fire being on the Twelve Tribe's property. But I don't want things to become a witch hunt.

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#18

Post by WheatM »

jonnycomputer wrote: post #2

I haven't seen any, myself. And my anecdote is as good as theirs. It'd be nice if they actually pointed to, you know, data, for these kinds of stories. My pizza place was closed though. Everyone out with covid. And it wasn't the usual cashiers over at the grocery; I think they may have been temps, because they didn't know how to do anything.

No post body was provided.

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#19

Post by kyrra »

jonnycomputer wrote: post #2

I haven't seen any, myself. And my anecdote is as good as theirs. It'd be nice if they actually pointed to, you know, data, for these kinds of stories. My pizza place was closed though. Everyone out with covid. And it wasn't the usual cashiers over at the grocery; I think they may have been temps, because they didn't know how to do anything.

A writer at NR pointed out that most national papers haven't picked it up yet (this was on Tuesday), but many local ones had: https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/empty-shelve...

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#20

Post by skunkworker »

I was at a local Trader Joes on the 3rd of January, the store was much more barren than normal, and when I went up to the counter I asked if the truck was delayed, it wasn't. They had a larger rush on Jan 2nd and 3rd than they had leading up to Christmas and New Years. It was very odd to see.
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