How are your supermarket shelves?

[amyx4]

I’ve never posted pictures 

If you look closely at the floor, you can see an aisle has been removed

[amyx4]

This was last week on a weeknight not the weekend.  There was no fresh chicken at all

[Faith-manor]

31 minutes ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

Occasional outages until the supply chain catches up.  I have never had to go without essentials.  And there are always other choices available at least so far.  But I think that this must be so dependent on location and conditions in that location (both weather as well as Covid). 

Right. Weather conditions, and omicron, and influenza together create quite the perfect storm. Here though distribution is a real problem because a ton of truckers retired, and no one wants to take their place. The pay is not great for the hours away from family, and it is hard on health. The younger generations are not interested. We need to get back to investing in railroad, and then short haul distribution. But the time to do that was 20 years ago, and now it is too late for the current crisis. It would be nice if leadership would actually lead and make some decisions with the long term in mind instead of whatever makes them an investment buck now! (staring at every politician being bribed by lobbyists which is just about all of them 😠)

[kokotg]

I just got back (north Metro Atlanta)....mostly normal, with occasional random stuff not available...the only thing I needed and couldn't get was shredded mozzarella--there was none, store brand or name brand, even though there were other kinds of cheese (but all the cheese was pretty sparse). Other than that there were a few things I couldn't get in the particular brand or kind I wanted, but there were plenty of substitutes. And I got the last two bags of almond flour, which is good because my dislike of Aldi's almond flour is the main reason I went to Kroger instead today.

[Arcadia]

1 hour ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

Occasional outages until the supply chain catches up.  I have never had to go without essentials.  And there are always other choices available at least so far.  But I think that this must be so dependent on location and conditions in that location (both weather as well as Covid). 

 

1 hour ago, Faith-manor said:

Right. Weather conditions, and omicron, and influenza together create quite the perfect storm. Here though distribution is a real problem because a ton of truckers retired, and no one wants to take their place. The pay is not great for the hours away from family, and it is hard on health. The younger generations are not interested. We need to get back to investing in railroad, and then short haul distribution.

For my area, farms are nearby and the freight train runs at least once daily. Its sunny here instead of cloudy for this time of the year.

[lynn]

I have not had an issue in my area but my sister lives 3 hours east outside Atlanta and said there are empty shelves every week of INE ting or other

[Shoeless]

Everything was available for my Walmart pickup, except they subbed bagels for croissants. Which is fine; they were a want and not a need. 

Hopefully my HEB order will be juat as good!

[KungFuPanda]

Around here, the Giant grocery store seems to have shortages that the rest of them don't.  I haven't noticed shortages yet, but I haven't really shopped in a few weeks.  I also try to get what I can at the ethnic market because it's the closest to my house.  They always seem to be fully stocked.  A lot of people here are too bougie to think of shopping there.  I think I will be extra intentional about my veggie garden this year.

Edited January 12, 2022 by KungFuPanda

[Shoeless]

HEB pickup was fine. They didn't have a flavor of soda DH wanted, but I expected them to be out of it. They generally only have a few cases of it at any time, so that one is always hit or miss. 

They didn't have small containers of baby spinach, so they gave me a big one instead. It's a LOT of spinach. Guess we are eating salads this week!

Same deal for ground beef. They were out of whatever size I asked for and gave me a bigger size instead. 

The only thing they didn't sub was a can of diced tomatoes. 

I do have to pop into HEB tomorrow because I forgot to order popcorn chicken, so I'll take a gander and see how the shelves look.

[vonfirmath]

25 minutes ago, MissLemon said:

HEB pickup was fine. They didn't have a flavor of soda DH wanted, but I expected them to be out of it. They generally only have a few cases of it at any time, so that one is always hit or miss. 

They didn't have small containers of baby spinach, so they gave me a big one instead. It's a LOT of spinach. Guess we are eating salads this week!

Same deal for ground beef. They were out of whatever size I asked for and gave me a bigger size instead. 

The only thing they didn't sub was a can of diced tomatoes. 

I do have to pop into HEB tomorrow because I forgot to order popcorn chicken, so I'll take a gander and see how the shelves look.

I have not seen small containers of greens at our local HEB in a long time. 

[Shoeless]

4 minutes ago, vonfirmath said:

I have not seen small containers of greens at our local HEB in a long time. 

Oh weird! I got a small container maybe a week ago?  Our store had mostly been back to normal. 

HEB should train other grocery chains in supply chain management and emergency prep. They really are rockstars at this. 

[vonfirmath]

I was at HEB tonight. I ddn't think to take a picture.  Paper products were decimated. Sour cream was pretty empty, But there was lots of meat. (even corned beef brisket, which we have not been able  to find for a while -- got gifted cabbage and potatoes today)  There was actually quite a lot of brisket -- HUGE things of brisket that we don't even have that size of pan. the cheese area and deli area had lots of holes too.

[vonfirmath]

2 minutes ago, MissLemon said:

Oh weird! I got a small container maybe a week ago?  Our store had mostly been back to normal. 

HEB should train other grocery chains in supply chain management and emergency prep. They really are rockstars at this. 

Absolutely. Heroes of the Pandemic definitely. Gems of Texas. I don't remember HEB when I was growing up but since I've moved back I have a great appreciation for them.

[Melissa Louise]

No loo roll! 

[freesia]

Our normal store had no chicken   last week. I’m hoping to find some today. I could get everything else. 

[YaelAldrich]

Boston here. Every week there are empty shelves in one section or another. Cereal (different brands out each time), French fries (ditto), jam, veggies and fruits (no blueberries!), paper goods. It changes every week as to what is missing. I had to substitute most of my elderly neighbor's grocery list last night. Mine was better but not like in the before times. It's getting past annoying to definitely concerning.

 

Edited January 13, 2022 by YaelAldrich

[HomeAgain]

5 minutes ago, YaelAldrich said:

Boston here. Every week there are empty shelves in one section or another. Cereal (different brands out each time), French fries (ditto), jam, veggies and fruits (no blueberries!), paper goods. It changes every week as to what is missing. I had to substitute most of my elderly neighbor's grocery list last night. Mine was better but not like in the before times. It's getting past annoying to definitely concerning.

 

I'm not sure what you have near you, but we found that Market Basket has a better supply chain than S&S.  The list of things I haven't been able to get at S&S is looooooooooong.  I have a sneaking suspicion the big difference is how big each chain is. S&S covers many more states (changing name, but same logo) and is part of a large conglomeration.  MB has 4 states. They have less disruptions from warehousing and shipping.

 

[TravelingChris]

6 hours ago, vonfirmath said:

I have not seen small containers of greens at our local HEB in a long time. 

We get our greens from our CSA and those are usually enough for us.  We started using the CSA in late April or early May 2020 because of meat shortages=they are primarily a meat CSA but also gives us veggies always.  Sometimes we get fruits, spice mixes, honey, cheeses, bread, or jams too.  

[YaelAldrich]

17 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

I'm not sure what you have near you, but we found that Market Basket has a better supply chain than S&S.  The list of things I haven't been able to get at S&S is looooooooooong.  I have a sneaking suspicion the big difference is how big each chain is. S&S covers many more states (changing name, but same logo) and is part of a large conglomeration.  MB has 4 states. They have less disruptions from warehousing and shipping.

 

My MB in Somerville is my main shopping location. I go to S&S as a last resort! 

[TravelingChris]

My report was for Publix. One item we haven't ever had any issues with was Jumex juices out of Mexico-- never any problems with those.  My Iced Mocha from International Brands has had on and off issues.  Boar's Head products have been iffy at times.  There have been no chicken issues here that I noriced.  But we were looking for whole chickens and chicken thighs and chicken breasts, not anything like wings or tenders- so I can't speak to that.  

 

[HomeAgain]

14 minutes ago, YaelAldrich said:

My MB in Somerville is my main shopping location. I go to S&S as a last resort! 

I have to pass two S&S to get to the nearest MB.  But man, if yours is that badly stocked I can only imagine what the S&S looks like! 

[YaelAldrich]

Just now, HomeAgain said:

I have to pass two S&S to get to the nearest MB.  But man, if yours is that badly stocked I can only imagine what the S&S looks like! 

I pass a Star Market and S&S to get to MB. I was in S&S last week. Not horrible but also holes.

[*Jessica*]

17 hours ago, Faith-manor said:

Right. Weather conditions, and omicron, and influenza together create quite the perfect storm. Here though distribution is a real problem because a ton of truckers retired, and no one wants to take their place. The pay is not great for the hours away from family, and it is hard on health. The younger generations are not interested. We need to get back to investing in railroad, and then short haul distribution. But the time to do that was 20 years ago, and now it is too late for the current crisis. It would be nice if leadership would actually lead and make some decisions with the long term in mind instead of whatever makes them an investment buck now! (staring at every politician being bribed by lobbyists which is just about all of them 😠)

And to make the driver shortage even larger, beginning next month all new drivers have to go to driving school to complete their training.  These schools cost a minimum of $3,000 where I live.  We’re about to have even less new drivers than we already were getting.  And the prices of everything will just keep climbing.  

[mlktwins]

I went to Safeway yesterday around 4 pm.  I got everything on my list except for a head of lettuce.  Both regular and organic weren't an option.  They looked fully stocked in the aisles I was in.  Lots of cheese, milk (I got the 5 I wanted), other dairy, eggs.  Produce looked good, except for lettuce (I think part of that is the bagged lettuce recall though).  Rice, pasta, etc.  All good.  I do not have animals so didn't check that aisle.  I was very pleasantly surprised.  

I am doing a pick up order for my dad's stuff in an hour from Giant.  Will see what that is like.  I am stopping back to Giant on the way home from his place to try and get my lettuce -- LOL.

ETA:  Just got dad's order summary.  We only had 1 sub for prepackaged deli meat and no Fritos :-).

 

Edited January 13, 2022 by mlktwins

[Serenade]

17 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

Around here, the Giant grocery store seems to have shortages that the rest of them don't. 

For me it's our local Food Lion that is like this.  I've really come to dislike shopping there because they are out of so much.  The other stores in the general area are never this bad, so there's more than supply chain issues here.  I would like to say it's poor management since other stores seem to have more goods on hand, but maybe it's just the Food Lion in my small town.  Anybody else living in central NC who wants to comment on the Food Lion in their area?  I'm very curious about this!

[Pam in CT]

Re Stop & Shop: I haven't gone *inside* my town S&S since mid-December, but when I've ordered online from them I've gotten very nearly everything.  (My standing instructions are no substitutions *at all*; I just figure out something else.)  In my area, the online/delivery service is physically packed up and sent out from a central distribution center in the small city 20 minutes south of me.  Perhaps they've got better inventory/ inventory management there, than in the retail stores?

The only downside is that very few items are sale-priced online, compared to the markdowns in the IRL store.  But I haven't really experienced any out-of-stock problems to speak of. If they list the item, they (nearly always) have and send the item.

[Pawz4me]

1 hour ago, Serenade said:

For me it's our local Food Lion that is like this.  I've really come to dislike shopping there because they are out of so much.  The other stores in the general area are never this bad, so there's more than supply chain issues here.  I would like to say it's poor management since other stores seem to have more goods on hand, but maybe it's just the Food Lion in my small town.  Anybody else living in central NC who wants to comment on the Food Lion in their area?  I'm very curious about this!

The Food Lion nearest me is pretty sad. I rarely go there except for something very basic or because they carry a brand of bottled tea DH likes. There's a current discussion on our local FB page about how bad their stock situation has been recently. This morning--trying to get ahead of the shopping rush for this weekend's predicted storm--I was at Lowes Foods and they were in very good shape. The only thing I wanted that they didn't have was strawberry banana V8 Fusion, but all the stores around here have been out of that for weeks. They had plenty of produce, meat, dairy, bread, etc.

[Arcadia]

Pop into Grocery Outlet on my way home from my MRI. Most shelves are well stocked. There was a pallet of boxes near the chips aisle waiting to be unpacked and the staff was pushing in another pallet of boxes as we were exiting. 

Edited January 13, 2022 by Arcadia

[YaelAldrich]

3 hours ago, Serenade said:

For me it's our local Food Lion that is like this.  I've really come to dislike shopping there because they are out of so much.  The other stores in the general area are never this bad, so there's more than supply chain issues here.  I would like to say it's poor management since other stores seem to have more goods on hand, but maybe it's just the Food Lion in my small town.  Anybody else living in central NC who wants to comment on the Food Lion in their area?  I'm very curious about this!

I'll tell you from north of W-S as of tomorrow. My parents have two in their town I go to.

Flying down early tomorrow morning to beat the incoming storm!

Edited January 13, 2022 by YaelAldrich

[TravelingChris]

2 hours ago, Pawz4me said:

The Food Lion nearest me is pretty sad. I rarely go there except for something very basic or because they carry a brand of bottled tea DH likes. There's a current discussion on our local FB page about how bad their stock situation has been recently. This morning--trying to get ahead of the shopping rush for this weekend's predicted storm--I was at Lowes Foods and they were in very good shape. The only thing I wanted that they didn't have was strawberry banana V8 Fusion, but all the stores around here have been out of that for weeks. They had plenty of produce, meat, dairy, bread, etc.

We don't have Food Lion here but I still remember those shows about how Food Lion was changing dates on expirations to sell bad food and never go to one if I am in the area with one.

[73349]

4 hours ago, Serenade said:

For me it's our local Food Lion that is like this.  I've really come to dislike shopping there because they are out of so much.  The other stores in the general area are never this bad, so there's more than supply chain issues here.  I would like to say it's poor management since other stores seem to have more goods on hand, but maybe it's just the Food Lion in my small town.  Anybody else living in central NC who wants to comment on the Food Lion in their area?  I'm very curious about this!

We've not had trouble getting things from Food Lion particularly more than other chains, but we don't usually buy meat from the grocery store. OTOH they don't carry a lot of items I want in the first place, which is why even though they're conveniently located, I do the majority of our shopping elsewhere.

My Wegmans pick-up order this morning was fine, except I had to either accept a family pack of peppers or none at all. (I chose the latter; I don't want to wind up composting $6 worth of peppers.) And apparently I forgot to order onions. Oops.

We're expecting severe weather on Sunday and likely diminished ability to drive places on Monday, so I think supermarkets will see a run on staples today through Saturday.

[Kanin]

On 1/12/2022 at 9:22 AM, MEmama said:

Produce has become shockingly expensive— like $2-3 for a single red bell pepper. I use a lot of peppers so when I find a halfway decent price I buy several and freeze them. Prepackaged bags have been least expensive per pound— normally I wouldn’t buy them but I’ve been giving in recently. 

I feel like most things are more expensive now than a year ago. Lots of things I buy all the time are $1 more each than last year. When there are 30 items in an order, it adds up! I wish I had some receipts from past months to compare. 

[vonfirmath]

Yes! $1 more when the original price was pretty low is shocking to the budget!

 

[MEmama]

14 minutes ago, Kanin said:

I feel like most things are more expensive now than a year ago. Lots of things I buy all the time are $1 more each than last year. When there are 30 items in an order, it adds up! I wish I had some receipts from past months to compare. 

I saved a receipt from February 2020, from a *massive* stock up at Trader Joe’s in the very early days of covid before we knew what to expect. DH thought I was out of my mind but quickly learned to trust me as grocery shelves started emptying around us but our pantry and freezer remained full. I hope the receipt is still readable—although maybe I don’t want to know compared to how much more we are paying now! 😳

[Kanin]

5 minutes ago, MEmama said:

I saved a receipt from February 2020, from a *massive* stock up at Trader Joe’s in the very early days of covid before we knew what to expect. DH thought I was out of my mind but quickly learned to trust me as grocery shelves started emptying around us but our pantry and freezer remained full. I hope the receipt is still readable—although maybe I don’t want to know compared to how much more we are paying now! 😳

Gah, I'm guessing it's going to be pretty different. 

I saved a copy of the paper from March 2020 that had a big headline about the state going into a 2-week lockdown. 🥺

[MEmama]

7 minutes ago, Kanin said:

Gah, I'm guessing it's going to be pretty different. 

I saved a copy of the paper from March 2020 that had a big headline about the state going into a 2-week lockdown. 🥺

Idk if I should laugh or cry…

Although, I remember being certain that schools weren’t going to reopen, that our April college tour trip to the UK wasn’t going to happen and that DH would be working at home for awhile. This board truly helped me see the situation pretty clearly, even if everyone around me thought I was nuts. Lol

[Pawz4me]

2 hours ago, Carolina Wren said:

 

We're expecting severe weather on Sunday and likely diminished ability to drive places on Monday, so I think supermarkets will see a run on staples today through Saturday.

DS works at a grocery store that gets truck deliveries on MWF. He says they're assuming they won't be able to get a delivery on Monday, so they've ordered extra for tomorrow. But here lately they never get everything they order even for regular deliveries, so who knows how much extra, if any, they'll be able to get. I suspect most stores around here are going to be very bare the first/middle part of next week.

[Spryte]

Our Wegman’s was almost out of fresh meats. No beef, no chicken. Just some hot sausage and ground pork. Very low on produce. No broccoli at all, no carrots. And lots of our allergy nice-to-have foods were gone.

Costco is out of hams, chicken tenderloins (fresh and frozen), and a bunch more.

[Ditto]

Shelves are definitely less full than they have been in a long time.  I would describe them as getting progressively worse.  Prices are also climbing at the same time as packaging is smaller.  

[Melissa in Australia]

Food delivery to shops  is meant to get worse here in Australia over the next few weeks. The message from the government is to try and buy 3 weeks worth of food to reduce pressure on the shops…… not sure how that makes sense when the shelves are already empty. 

so glad I have a large veggie garden. The weather has been so wet lately that things are going to seed prematurely. I just planted some Asian veggies as an experiment as they reach maturity very quickly and will hopefully fill the gap

[Shoeless]

HEB report today: a few odd gaps, but mostly fine. Meat cases were full/being restocked. Produce looked fine as I cruised by. Deli was full. 

Gaps I saw were baked beans, pasta, a blank spot in the Asian foods aisle. I didn't check dairy. There were no national brands of tomatoes, but the shelves were full of the HEB brand. None of the HEB frozen popcorn chicken. DS13 will be bummed 😕

[Lucy the Valiant]

Our grocery store has started stacking bagged ice in the freezers along the bottom row to distract from the empty shelves.

[WendyLady]

I am visiting my parents in Utah and because of a family reunion and this visit, I haven’t done normal shopping since Christmas.
 

On Tuesday I took my son shopping at a small Walmart for some groceries for his dorm. The pasta section was cleaned out, the only thing left was pasta made with chickpeas. I figured it was all the kids back from the holidays. So I went shopping at the big Walmart near my parents home, and again, the pasta section was empty. There were a couple boxes of no boil lasagna noodles, but no spaghetti or any other type of normal pasta - the entire section - about 3/4th of a row - was empty.

I haven’t done any other regular shopping so I have no idea how the other rows look, but I was really surprised! I feel a tiny bit like going to Costco and buying some giant boxes of any kinds of pasta… 

[Melissa Louise]

1 hour ago, Melissa in Australia said:

Food delivery to shops  is meant to get worse here in Australia over the next few weeks. The message from the government is to try and buy 3 weeks worth of food to reduce pressure on the shops…… not sure how that makes sense when the shelves are already empty. 

so glad I have a large veggie garden. The weather has been so wet lately that things are going to seed prematurely. I just planted some Asian veggies as an experiment as they reach maturity very quickly and will hopefully fill the gap

Such a dumb message. I shop every few days, because I don't drive and - surprise! - can't carry home 3 weeks worth of food. Plenty of people can't afford to buy three week's worth. 

I blame that advice for the lack of loo roll. People with cars and cash cleaning out the stores. (Nobody needs to do mammoth shops in the 'burbs).

I did get some chicken yesterday. Felt triumphant, lol. 

 

[freesia]

26 minutes ago, Melissa Louise said:

Such a dumb message. I shop every few days, because I don't drive and - surprise! - can't carry home 3 weeks worth of food. Plenty of people can't afford to buy three week's worth. 

I blame that advice for the lack of loo roll. People with cars and cash cleaning out the stores. (Nobody needs to do mammoth shops in the 'burbs).

I did get some chicken yesterday. Felt triumphant, lol. 

 

I got chicken today after not finding any the past two times. I paid double what I usually pay per pound, though 😞I’m glad the stores are having sales on canned beans bc we are going to be eating a lot of beans in the future!

[Garga]

Went inside Aldi today. Didn’t notice anything missing. Ordered pickup from Walmart. They had everything in my order except for the low-sodium spaghetti sauce and some decorative icing for some cookies I’d like to bake this weekend.

I was surprised that Aldi was so plentiful. Even had the chicken thighs I needed. 

Pennsylvania.

[MooCow]

1 hour ago, Lucy the Valiant said:

Our grocery store has started stacking bagged ice in the freezers along the bottom row to distract from the empty shelves.

At my location cal Sam's club they've removed several rows....

[Elfknitter.#]

This is the cold/ flu section at a CVS in Orange County, CA as of about 5:15pm tonight....

[Arcadia]

8 minutes ago, Elfknitter.# said:

 

This is the cold/ flu section at a CVS in Orange County, CA as of about 5:15pm tonight....

There was news about cold medication shortages in many areas. Honestly, if I have leftover money in FSA, I would be using them up on cold/flu medication.  Safeway/Vons, Grocery Outlet and Costco still have decent amount of cold/flu medication stock on the shelves. Target tends to be less well stock but not as bad as CVS. 

[vonfirmath]

4 hours ago, Melissa in Australia said:

Food delivery to shops  is meant to get worse here in Australia over the next few weeks. The message from the government is to try and buy 3 weeks worth of food to reduce pressure on the shops…… not sure how that makes sense when the shelves are already empty. 

so glad I have a large veggie garden. The weather has been so wet lately that things are going to seed prematurely. I just planted some Asian veggies as an experiment as they reach maturity very quickly and will hopefully fill the gap

Everyone going out and buying 3 weeks of food will put MORE pressure on the shops now.