Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Grocery store shortages are back

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 138 posts

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#31

Post by allenu »

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.

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#33

Post by WalterBright »

cableshaft wrote: post #7
hprotagonist wrote: post #3

"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. This describes about the “worst” i’ve seen, in new england. I had no trouble getting some fairly fussy ingredients for holiday cooking or my annual winter anti-depression baking spasms. Still, march 2020 d…

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…

Amazon sells galvanized steel garbage cans of various sizes. They have a lid that naturally seals tightly. They're varmint proof for anything up to a bear. Perfect for mouse-proofing your food.

My experience with mice is that they travel in 6 packs. If you catch one, there are probably 5 more.

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#34

Post by adolph »

cableshaft wrote: post #7
hprotagonist wrote: post #3

"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. This describes about the “worst” i’ve seen, in new england. I had no trouble getting some fairly fussy ingredients for holiday cooking or my annual winter anti-depression baking spasms. Still, march 2020 d…

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…

House mice and rodents that have lived in buildings for their entire lives will have a slim chance of surviving outdoors. If possible, relocate mice to an outbuilding like a shed or garage.

https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/what-do-about-wild-m...

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#35

Post by groby_b »

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.

Same thing here. I suspect that's due to the fact that

a) curbside services charge a nifty premium, and stores revenue share with them. I'd be surprised if that doesn't lead to prioritization.

b) this is demand usually known well in advance, which helps the stores deal with planning.

c) In many stores, it's strictly a shelving issue. If the curbside service has in-store pickers, there's a chance they can skip shelving and the need for shelving staff.

d) The curbside delivery workforce is a bit more elastic, so Covid shortages don't necessarily manifest the same way.

c

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#36

Post by reaperducer »

onecommentman wrote: post #28
reaperducer wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Would a Grocers Association or supermarket chain have any financial, political or legal reason to overemphasize that unusual or substantive shortages might be happening? Yes. (Though that doesn’t mean they are wrong or misleading in this case.) Which is why it is wise to look at actual objective nationwide data first. Anecdotes are useful in suggesting where to check real data (or gather real data if missing). Whoeve…

Would a Grocers Association or supermarket chain have any financial, political or legal reason to overemphasize that unusual or substantive shortages might be happening?

Contrary to what Hollywood and the internet would have you believe, not everything is a conspiracy. Inventing conspiracies any time something doesn't meet your worldview is just plain lazy.

As for providing the hard data, if that's what you're after, subscribe to the Wall Street Journal.

This is NPR. It's a radio network. It produces radio-sized reports. It just happens to also put those reports in text form on the web as a convenience.

It's great that you're interested in the data. Go find it. It's out there. NPR isn't going to hand it to you on a silver platter. That's not what NPR is for. That's not what radio is for.

Whoever is gathering supermarket pricing data on a nationwide basis

The federal government does this every month. The data is available. Go nuts.

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#37

Post by b112 »

adolph wrote: post #34
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…

House mice and rodents that have lived in buildings for their entire lives will have a slim chance of surviving outdoors. If possible, relocate mice to an outbuilding like a shed or garage. https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/what-do-about-wild-m...

Mice carry disease, and the hantavirus is extremely deadly.

I know, I've had it.

>50% fatality by some counts.

As mice in my area have it, I cannot in good conscience do anything but kill mice I catch. The risks are too high.

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#38

Post by b112 »

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.

Wha? How?! Plastic?? That's bizarre.

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#39

Post by cdjk »

cableshaft wrote: post #7
hprotagonist wrote: post #3

"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. This describes about the “worst” i’ve seen, in new england. I had no trouble getting some fairly fussy ingredients for holiday cooking or my annual winter anti-depression baking spasms. Still, march 2020 d…

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.

Re: Grocery store shortages are back

#40

Post by reaperducer »

pengaru wrote: post #27
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.

VONS normally sells Open Nature "hormone+antibiotics free" rotisserie chickens on the daily. It's been coming up on a month now that they've been unable to get any of these according to the deli clerk. "We keep ordering them, but they don't show up" in her words. Starbucks has been completely out of espresso beans on multiple occasions this past month too. It's unclear to me how a Starbucks even stays open without es…

Starbucks has been completely out of espresso beans on multiple occasions this past month too.

The Starbucks down the block hasn't been able to get the flavor syrup I like since before Christmas. Like with your chicken, the manager says they just can't get it.

The Starbucks store actually closed for a week not very long ago. I thought it was because of the 'rona. The manager said it was just that they didn't have enough staff and had to cover other stores.

Post reply on HN