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Grocery store shortages are back

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Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#51

Post by pixl97 »

syshum wrote: post #30

I have not been inside a grocery store for over a year... But I have not seen any major changes in my curbside pickup order, no major out of stocks, no major substitution.

Which store chain is this?

With Walmart and HEB curbside in the Austin area it's been very common for subs/out of stocks.

Going into the HEB over the last week has shown rapidly fluctuating stocks in many items. For example diet drinks of almost any kind were sparse in the store. Meat and cheese was well stocked, but bread was half stocked. Then I may go another time and the items that are missing are in stock and something new is missing. Very hit and miss.

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#52

Post by 01100011 »

nickvanw wrote: post #47

I live in the Seattle-area where we've been hit with some serious winter weather in the mountain passes, to the point that for a period of a few hours, there was practically no route to drive to a neighboring state, and the passes were closed for the better part of 72+ hours. Even with that, and the rest of the aforementioned issues, I have had virtually no problem shopping for what I needed with some small changes,…

You live in a major metropolitan area full of warehouses and featuring a major west coast port. You weren't cut off from anything. Other states were cut off from you.

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#53

Post by sbierwagen »

nickvanw wrote: post #47

I live in the Seattle-area where we've been hit with some serious winter weather in the mountain passes, to the point that for a period of a few hours, there was practically no route to drive to a neighboring state, and the passes were closed for the better part of 72+ hours. Even with that, and the rest of the aforementioned issues, I have had virtually no problem shopping for what I needed with some small changes,…

I mean, we also have a major deepwater port. It's not like inland Alaska here where shut down roads mean you're totally isolated.

In fact, just yesterday a new terminal came online with cranes that match the reach of Long Beach: https://www.nwseaportalliance.com/newsroom/ssa-marine-and-no... (This project was started in 2016, which is one answer to "why don't we just add more capacity to solve port traffic jams")

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#54

Post by SilasX »

pessimizer wrote: post #29

Aldi's distribution has been hit particularly badly. A couple of weeks ago, my local Aldi had run out of salt . I never would have imagined a grocery store could run out of salt.

Nor a post office to run out of stamps in their stamp vending machine, but it happened to the one near me.

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#55

Post by lotsofpulp »

allenu wrote: post #31
actusual wrote: post #22

The QFC (Kroger owned grocery stores in the PNW) by me had to close early this past Sunday because it ran out of people to run the store. I had been there earlier in the afternoon and the site of bare shelves and lines as long as the entire length of the store was actually unnerving.

Wow, do you know if it's because people quit or were sick at home with Covid? I remember the week after New Year's going into a grocery store (Ballard Market here in Seattle) and there were probably around 50% of the employees normally working there. I assumed it was due to people being at home sick, but didn't ask.

I would guess it is due to labor supply going down at the price grocery stores are used to and willing to pay.

I am seeing the same story play out at many other in person businesses used to paying low wages for in person work, especially at undesirable times of the day and week.

Daycares, hotels, restaurants, car rentals, healthcare, etc.

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#56

Post by sokoloff »

mauvehaus wrote: post #11

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 sele…

.22LR has been ongoing so long that it’s on its third presidential administration, isn’t it? 2013 start?

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#57

Post by CamperBob2 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #55
allenu wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, do you know if it's because people quit or were sick at home with Covid? I remember the week after New Year's going into a grocery store (Ballard Market here in Seattle) and there were probably around 50% of the employees normally working there. I assumed it was due to people being at home sick, but didn't ask.

I would guess it is due to labor supply going down at the price grocery stores are used to and willing to pay. I am seeing the same story play out at many other in person businesses used to paying low wages for in person work, especially at undesirable times of the day and week. Daycares, hotels, restaurants, car rentals, healthcare, etc.

I've also heard that parking-lot delivery orders are causing labor issues. If you order a bunch of stuff from the store for curbside delivery, an employee has to spend a significant amount of time doing the shopping for you, likely in addition to their other duties. This is apparently VERY disruptive.

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#58

Post by sdwr »

reaperducer wrote: post #24
hprotagonist wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it’s advertised as a kibble container but we all know it holds 25 pounds of flour juuust fine. (and we use it quickly enough, which is kind of shocking but also, pie crust is easy!)

pie crust is easy So is pizza dough! I make it about once a week, and every time I'm reminded of my younger generation boss who didn't know that pizza dough is just flour, water, salt, and yeast. She though it was some kind of magic plastic or something and refused to eat pizza because of it. People really are getting too far away from their food sources.

Flour is sugar, sugar is unhealthy!

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#59

Post by pjscott »

post_break wrote: post #9

We just went shopping after being out for a while. The prices were incredible. The availability was scarce. We’re stocking up on cat food since it’s harder to come by. Meat prices mean buying chubs and vacuum and sealing. Costco hot dogs for lunch is becoming an increasing thing for me.

It’s interesting that things differ so much from one region to the next. I’m in the Midwest and everything is abundant, the shelves are full, and you can get pork for $1-2 per pound, usually on the lower end of that range, and chicken at moderate prices. Is shipping the bottleneck here?

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#60

Post by totesraunch »

cdjk wrote: post #39
cableshaft wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I did the pantry thing after March 2020 (in the basement, the kitchen doesn't have a proper pantry) and wasn't careful enough about protecting it. It was fine for a year, but this winter we got mice in the house and now we have to toss what wasn't in cans or plastic containers already. We set some live traps and I've caught and released (several miles away) four mice already. Still a good idea, we just can't hav…

I think this is one of the best mouse traps: https://www.automatictrap.com/ Electric traps work too, but are a pain to clean. Snap tracks are effective, but when I had both mice and rats I found that a mouse trap could break a rats leg but let it walk away, and a mouse could eat from a rat trap without triggering it. Neither of those were good outcomes.

There's also the flip bucket traps which are pretty good. If you want to keep them alive you can otherwise you can put some water in it.
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