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State of the stores: November 2020


prairiewindmomma
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4 hours ago, Arcadia said:

Costco ran out of toilet paper when we went after 3pm. We were at Novato and Richmond. There was a restriction of one per customer for toilet paper at Novato. People were stocking up on mineral water and baby wipes as well.

@sassenach@mathnerd

What's wild is dh was at my mom's in LA this weekend and she mentioned that the stores were running out, so he ordered a case from Amazon. I can't believe we're doing this again. We just got to the end of dh's March panic purchases.

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43 minutes ago, sassenach said:

What's wild is dh was at my mom's in LA this weekend and she mentioned that the stores were running out, so he ordered a case from Amazon. I can't believe we're doing this again. We just got to the end of dh's March panic purchases.

Safeway has restrictions on toilet paper 🧻 to two per transaction.

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30 minutes ago, kand said:

 

You guys have in store samples right now? (Oh, or do you mean they have nothing to do because they’re not doing samples? Just realized that might be what you mean.)

There are demo ladies/guys at Costco. One was manning the demo for the Roland piano keyboards while another was manning the demo for Zwilling frying pans.

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1 hour ago, kand said:

.

You guys have in store samples right now? (Oh, or do you mean they have nothing to do because they’re not doing samples? Just realized that might be what you mean.)

They have food ones out too but they aren't serving them. I think. I did see what appeared to be cooked food behind some plexiglass but maybe it was just for looks. I wasn't going to try a sample so I didn't investigate further. The lady I talked to just had closed up bags of chocolate and she could only tell you about them. She was bored stiff.

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I did a curbside pick-up at my local grocery store this morning.  For the first time since the spring, I didn't get my 4 gallons of 1% milk.  They did sub with skim, but that hasn't happened either.  Always got what I ordered in the amount I ordered it.  When the girl came out with the groceries, she said they are starting to impose some limits on things now - tp for sure.  I did manage to snag 2 containers (35 wipes each) of Lysol wipes, which I haven't been able to do in a long time.  I am worried about the milk.  My boys drink a lot and we also buy for my dad and my in-laws.  I may have to start shopping 3 days a week to keep up with our milk demand.

 

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6 minutes ago, mlktwins said:

I did a curbside pick-up at my local grocery store this morning.  For the first time since the spring, I didn't get my 4 gallons of 1% milk.  They did sub with skim, but that hasn't happened either.  Always got what I ordered in the amount I ordered it.  When the girl came out with the groceries, she said they are starting to impose some limits on things now - tp for sure.  I did manage to snag 2 containers (35 wipes each) of Lysol wipes, which I haven't been able to do in a long time.  I am worried about the milk.  My boys drink a lot and we also buy for my dad and my in-laws.  I may have to start shopping 3 days a week to keep up with our milk demand.

 

The milk limits would be an issue in our house too.  UGH.  I get it.  I do.  But it is hard for people with big families or if you are shopping for other people.   We go through at least 8 a week. 

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Governor is locking somethings  back down.  Apparently the stores were out of toilet paper within hours of the announcement.  We are camping my mom asked us to bring her some if we see it at the store here.

 

P.S. there is one of those Facebook things going around saying their is about to be a nationwide trucker strike.  It's not true but it's definitely not helping with the panic buying.

Edited by rebcoola
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I am doing a small Costco Instacart order this morning.  No parchment paper available - doesn't show up in the search bar.  I am hoping for saran wrap, tin foil, and napkins.  Will be good on that stuff for awhile if I get it.  Of the 11 things I ordered, quantity limits on bacon, frozen Perdue buffalo wings, the saran wrap and napkins.     

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On 11/15/2020 at 10:16 PM, kand said:

Wow! You guys are thrifty with the tp. Even with bidets and supplementing with cloth wipes, we go through it waaaay faster than that. I’m envious. I just ordered more cloth wipes to try to decrease our use more. 

You guys have in store samples right now? (Oh, or do you mean they have nothing to do because they’re not doing samples? Just realized that might be what you mean.)

Those are the mega rolls and disabled dd is a diaper wearer, so only 4 tp users. We're using one roll per bathroom per week (two users per bathroom).

ETA: I have my big shopping day planned for tomorrow. I'm off work, so I've planned for a couple of months that that would be my Costco run day, and since it's a Wednesday, I also need to do the regular grocery run. So I'll get to see the state of the stores then.

Edited by Ali in OR
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1 hour ago, mlktwins said:

I am doing a small Costco Instacart order this morning.  No parchment paper available - doesn't show up in the search bar.  I am hoping for saran wrap, tin foil, and napkins.  Will be good on that stuff for awhile if I get it.  Of the 11 things I ordered, quantity limits on bacon, frozen Perdue buffalo wings, the saran wrap and napkins.     

At least in my area, the Costco Instacart order inventory is not always the most accurate. If there is something that I really want, I usually message my shopper and ask them to check for it. Often, they will find it for me, so definitely ask.

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2 hours ago, mlktwins said:

I am doing a small Costco Instacart order this morning.  No parchment paper available - doesn't show up in the search bar.  I am hoping for saran wrap, tin foil, and napkins.  Will be good on that stuff for awhile if I get it.  Of the 11 things I ordered, quantity limits on bacon, frozen Perdue buffalo wings, the saran wrap and napkins.     

Costco Parchment paper is supposedly a seasonal thing and it should be there by now.  Ask your shopper to take a look.  I buy enough to get me through the year in January.

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6 minutes ago, SeaConquest said:

At least in my area, the Costco Instacart order inventory is not always the most accurate. If there is something that I really want, I usually message my shopper and ask them to check for it. Often, they will find it for me, so definitely ask.

I agree!  I have had great luck with that -- even got a 5 pack of Clorox Wipes that way this summer.  The shopper got mine and then said they were gone in a flash.

I don't need parchment paper.  I got my MIL's stash since she isn't baking anymore.  But...I was curious because people mentioned trying to get it at Costco.

 

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I got my substitutions list from WM for today’s pick up. (They were out of slots for yesterday, despite placing my order at my usual time.). Lots of brand substitutions, but all my ordered items are available, including parchment paper.

To be fair, I did choose some substitutions by default when placing my order, because items were marked OOS.

Frozen turkeys had very few available options and lots of OOS options.

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2 hours ago, marbel said:

Since parchment paper comes up in this thread - I haven't seen it at Costco but I have gotten some at Walmart, Aldi, and Vitacost. Smaller rolls, obviously. But I have been able to acquire it. 

What is going on with Costco's parchment paper? I use it daily and really miss it!

 

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1 hour ago, ScoutTN said:

Canned green chiles?! Where are all the green chiles?

Our Whole Foods has them (delivery, through Amazon). I saw them last time I was at Target, too.

So many shortages are regional, though. A lot of people on the board have had a hard time finding canned tomatoes but they’ve been fully stocked here this entire time. Distribution is weird! 

Edited by MEmama
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1 hour ago, frogger said:

Why oh why when there are supply issues are stores still having "buy 10 for a lower price" type sales?

It could be a printing/publication issue. My supermarket suspended flyers earlier this year, but not until a couple of weeks had gone by with shortages because everything was already out of the barn door. 

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Today we shopped for the next two weeks. While we’re not having a turkey, we did look to see what the prices are, and very few were available at any of the three stores we went to. No Coke Zero cherry (been looking for a few weeks). Decent stock of toilet paper and other such things.  Eggs back to being weird. 99 cents a dozen but the same brand 18 count is 2.50. And the dozens are regular price- it’s just that the 18 count prices are higher. 

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1 hour ago, Carrie12345 said:

It could be a printing/publication issue. My supermarket suspended flyers earlier this year, but not until a couple of weeks had gone by with shortages because everything was already out of the barn door. 

It just seems weird since we are in about 8 months into this thing depending on when you start counting. 

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I went to my regular grocery store today and didn't find anything amiss.  Shelves were normally stocked, there were plenty of turkeys in assorted sizes, toilet paper, milk, etc.    I walked down the paper goods aisle and saw rolls of parchment.  I don't really use parchment for my baking, as I prefer non-stick foil, but I decided to add to rolls of the pre-cut sheets to my cart anyway. 

The only thing I didn't find was So Delicious coconut milk, which is the brand I prefer.  I had to settle for Silk instead. 

The seasonal coffee creamers are really starting to look picked over, but if I think about it, that's fairly normal by this time of year.  They roll them out too early and then by the time the holiday arrives and you're wishing you had some peppermint mocha or cinnamon maple creamer they are out. 

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I just went to Target--for the first time since January.  I wanted to return my Soda Stream canisters and get new ones, but they were totally out of new canisters.  They were also totally out of toilet paper.  I didn't look for paper towels, but now that someone mentioned it, I didn't see any.  There were aisles and aisles of hand sanitizer and yoga pants.  

My local grocery store is one of the few places I have been inside recently.  I never see anyone at the grocery store that doesn't have their nose and mouth covered--it was a different story at the Target.  I saw more people with masks down around their chins in Target in one short trip than I have seen total at the grocery store over the past several months.  

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Last week at Aldi, I noticed a few items missing - heavy cream, almond milk, most of the bacon. They were back to limits on paper products and several other items.

I can't find Minute tapioca but I'm not sure if that is pandemic related. Canned green chilis were missing a couple of months ago but I have seen them since.

 

 

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I have my Target/Costco run planned for tomorrow, so I went ahead and tried my first night time Winco grocery run tonight. I got there about 8:15, and I wouldn't get there earlier because there were lots of people just leaving and when I was shopping the checkout line went down the center aisle--I think there was only one checker. But by the time I was ready to check out I was third in line--not too bad.

This was the least crowded I've seen the store--mornings are more crowded even at 8 am when they're still stocking. I was able to get everything I needed. They were out of Annie's Mac and cheese and shells and cheese which they have on sale right now for .98 a box. They were out of my brand/style of orange juice. Toilet paper and paper towel aisle had lots of empty shelf space, but there were still packages there if you're not picky about brand. I was able to get the small turkey I wanted--I was worried that there would be a run on small turkeys with no big family gatherings happening. And my turkey was free because I spent over $100 (when do I not?). I don't think I can do this every week. I'm worn out by this time of day. Tomorrow I don't have school so I was willing to stay up a little later tonight.

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Anyone noticed the shortage of glass items? I have not been able to buy my favorite glass pitchers at either Ikea or Target for months now. Same with Pyrex glass containers, like my favorite rectangular ones. So, I thought I'd check out the beer sections in different stores and even they seem to have smaller inventories of glass bottles. Hmmm. Is the glass going toward vaccine vials, I wonder?

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27 minutes ago, BeachGal said:

Anyone noticed the shortage of glass items? I have not been able to buy my favorite glass pitchers at either Ikea or Target for months now. Same with Pyrex glass containers, like my favorite rectangular ones. So, I thought I'd check out the beer sections in different stores and even they seem to have smaller inventories of glass bottles. Hmmm. Is the glass going toward vaccine vials, I wonder?

I can't say I've gone out of my way to look for any glass products but about a month ago, my favorite size of pyrex was on sale so I bought 2 4 packs of it.  They had a really good stash of them.  I found them on the end cap so I didn't look any farther.

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25 minutes ago, BeachGal said:

Anyone noticed the shortage of glass items? I have not been able to buy my favorite glass pitchers at either Ikea or Target for months now. Same with Pyrex glass containers, like my favorite rectangular ones. So, I thought I'd check out the beer sections in different stores and even they seem to have smaller inventories of glass bottles. Hmmm. Is the glass going toward vaccine vials, I wonder?

Beer bottles - I haven’t seen any reduction at Safeway, Cost Plus World Market, Trader Joe’s 

Pyrex - there are two Pyrex outlets near me and their inventory seems to be the usual level

I don’t buy glass pitchers so I have no idea on inventory levels. Plenty of OXO glass containers and Snapware glass containers on shelves.
 

 

 

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1 hour ago, BeachGal said:

Anyone noticed the shortage of glass items? I have not been able to buy my favorite glass pitchers at either Ikea or Target for months now. Same with Pyrex glass containers, like my favorite rectangular ones. So, I thought I'd check out the beer sections in different stores and even they seem to have smaller inventories of glass bottles. Hmmm. Is the glass going toward vaccine vials, I wonder?

Yes, I'm trying to replace my smallest Pyrex mixing bowl and can't find mixing bowls at all in our local stores.  But they did have Pyrex storage containers.

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