supermarket shelves and food prices

[KungFuPanda]

My mom gets a lot of groceries at Walmart and had a long conversation with a lady that’s worked there 20 years. The woman told her that the empty shelves were NOT a supply chain problem. It seems at Walmart Is currently obsessed with the exact placement of each item on the shelves and what they want the employees to do is time consuming. The stores are short staffed so they HAVE stuff in the back that is having trouble finding its way to its exact meticulous new spot. It’s a level of fussiness never seen before. 
 

The coke guy also told her (mom talks to everyone . . . small town) that Walmart doesn’t allow them to stock the full range of products but if she went to Kroger’s she could get caffeine free Coke there. 
 

it seems Walmart is being a little weird lately. 

[Garga]

36 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

My mom gets a lot of groceries at Walmart and had a long conversation with a lady that’s worked there 20 years. The woman told her that the empty shelves were NOT a supply chain problem. It seems at Walmart Is currently obsessed with the exact placement of each item on the shelves and what they want the employees to do is time consuming. The stores are short staffed so they HAVE stuff in the back that is having trouble finding its way to its exact meticulous new spot. It’s a level of fussiness never seen before. 
 

The coke guy also told her (mom talks to everyone . . . small town) that Walmart doesn’t allow them to stock the full range of products but if she went to Kroger’s she could get caffeine free Coke there. 
 

it seems Walmart is being a little weird lately. 

The stuff I can’t get at Walmart never seems to be a problem at any other store. 

[Clemsondana]

11 hours ago, Faith-manor said:

You get rotisserie chickens for $4.99? Here they are almost $12.00!

Even at Whole Foods, which is the most expensive of the grocery stores here, they are only $7.99. 

I had read that cooked chickens were one way that stores used chickens that were about to pass their sell-by date, so it's win-win - they get paid for something that they might have needed to toss and customers get a chicken that is sometimes less expensive than raw, and much more convenient.  That's how it started, anyway... at this point, who knows.  

[Carrie12345]

11 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

My mom gets a lot of groceries at Walmart and had a long conversation with a lady that’s worked there 20 years. The woman told her that the empty shelves were NOT a supply chain problem. It seems at Walmart Is currently obsessed with the exact placement of each item on the shelves and what they want the employees to do is time consuming. The stores are short staffed so they HAVE stuff in the back that is having trouble finding its way to its exact meticulous new spot. It’s a level of fussiness never seen before. 
 

The coke guy also told her (mom talks to everyone . . . small town) that Walmart doesn’t allow them to stock the full range of products but if she went to Kroger’s she could get caffeine free Coke there. 
 

it seems Walmart is being a little weird lately. 

My local Walmart has NEVER carried the range that my regular supermarkets do.  So while my supermarkets have some gaps, they still have 50 types of barbecue sauce rather than their usual 75, making it seem fine compared to WM’s 6, down to 3. I’m exaggerating, but that’s what it feels like, lol.

I’m not 100% buying the whole “it’s in the back” thing.  I’m sure there’s something to it, because I doubt an employee or distributor would just be making up stories. But there’s limited storage room even in “the back”, and truckers are saying the WM warehouses are pretty bare. 

They ARE being weird with placement though, that’s for sure.

[HomeAgain]

I thought I'd surprise the family and pick up a 12 pack of soda this weekend to go with our burgers and evening firepit. We usually only drink water, tea, or coffee with meals.  Um.....$9/pack! It hasn't always been this expensive, right??

I ended up making lemonade at home instead, which turned out to be an even better plan.  It quickly became "let's make Arnold Palmers!" and made everyone happy.  But $9 for soda..........ugh.  No thank you!

[PinkTulip]

1 hour ago, HomeAgain said:

I thought I'd surprise the family and pick up a 12 pack of soda this weekend to go with our burgers and evening firepit. We usually only drink water, tea, or coffee with meals.  Um.....$9/pack! It hasn't always been this expensive, right??

I ended up making lemonade at home instead, which turned out to be an even better plan.  It quickly became "let's make Arnold Palmers!" and made everyone happy.  But $9 for soda..........ugh.  No thank you!

I agree - I’m not a big soda drinker but I do like a Coke about once a week. I was going to buy a 12-pack at the store on Saturday until I realized it was cheaper per ounce to go to the McDonald’s drive-through ($1.08 for any size). 

[Carrie12345]

1 hour ago, HomeAgain said:

$9/pack! It hasn't always been this expensive, right?

Absolutely not!  I haven’t regularly purchased soda in a long time, but I’ve definitely seen 3/$10, or $12 sales in the fliers most weeks. (Rotating brands, of course.). Can’t say I noticed any in the most recent ones though.

[AnotherNewName]

1 hour ago, HomeAgain said:

I thought I'd surprise the family and pick up a 12 pack of soda this weekend to go with our burgers and evening firepit. We usually only drink water, tea, or coffee with meals.  Um.....$9/pack! It hasn't always been this expensive, right??

I ended up making lemonade at home instead, which turned out to be an even better plan.  It quickly became "let's make Arnold Palmers!" and made everyone happy.  But $9 for soda..........ugh.  No thank you!

I consistently still see sales for 12 packs at 3/$10 or 4/$13 here and in other areas I visit.  $9 for a 12 pack is an extreme outlier.

[Brittany1116]

My husband is a Coke drinker. A 12 pack is $6.49 here. A typical deal is B2G1. But hey have jumped a lot in the last 6ish months.

[BlsdMama]

On 4/24/2022 at 8:57 AM, Arcadia said:

It is Costco’s loss leader. 

And I love them more for it. 🙂

[QueenCat]

On 4/7/2022 at 2:09 PM, kbutton said:

In SW Ohio we are just now starting to pay what we paid for milk in PA thirty plus years ago, and often it’s on sale for less. 

Also in SW Ohio. It's currently $3.49 for a gallon of whole milk, Kroger brand. I think it's down a little bit from a few months ago? It's definitely less than we were paying in VA right before we moved. We moved here about six months ago.

[QueenCat]

5 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

I thought I'd surprise the family and pick up a 12 pack of soda this weekend to go with our burgers and evening firepit. We usually only drink water, tea, or coffee with meals.  Um.....$9/pack! It hasn't always been this expensive, right??

I ended up making lemonade at home instead, which turned out to be an even better plan.  It quickly became "let's make Arnold Palmers!" and made everyone happy.  But $9 for soda..........ugh.  No thank you!

I buy it when it's 4 for $13 or similar deals. It's been mix and match at Kroger with Pepsi/Coke for at least a month now.

[Carrie12345]

So, I’m watching a video right now that’s talking about the transcript of Coca Cola’s earning’s call that apparently details their decision to raise prices before a recession (that they’re at least somewhat anticipating) to bridge the potential gap between costs at production and cost at sale.

So that’s got me thinking about things I don’t feel like thinking about right now!

Edited April 25, 2022 by Carrie12345

[KungFuPanda]

7 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

I thought I'd surprise the family and pick up a 12 pack of soda this weekend to go with our burgers and evening firepit. We usually only drink water, tea, or coffee with meals.  Um.....$9/pack! It hasn't always been this expensive, right??

I ended up making lemonade at home instead, which turned out to be an even better plan.  It quickly became "let's make Arnold Palmers!" and made everyone happy.  But $9 for soda..........ugh.  No thank you!

I picked up coke products 3/$15 this weekend. We had company. Usually DH is the only soda drinker so I get 2 liter bottles. Brand name soda is outrageous so we’ve been experimenting with store brands. So far he really likes food lion and Wegmans, lidl and Aldis are fine, and giant is trash. They’re all less than a dollar. 

[kbutton]

3 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

I picked up coke products 3/$15 this weekend. We had company. Usually DH is the only soda drinker so I get 2 liter bottles. Brand name soda is outrageous so we’ve been experimenting with store brands. So far he really likes food lion and Wegmans, lidl and Aldis are fine, and giant is trash. They’re all less than a dollar. 

Lots of people like the Kroger pop that is made with real sugar vs. corn syrup for those in a Kroger area. 

2 hours ago, QueenCat said:

Also in SW Ohio. It's currently $3.49 for a gallon of whole milk, Kroger brand. I think it's down a little bit from a few months ago? It's definitely less than we were paying in VA right before we moved. We moved here about six months ago.

We've held steady at $2.70 ish for a long time. Sam's is usually within ten cents of that, so I stopped comparing and just get what is convenient. 

[QueenCat]

4 hours ago, kbutton said:

 

We've held steady at $2.70 ish for a long time. Sam's is usually within ten cents of that, so I stopped comparing and just get what is convenient. 

That's a huge difference for the same region. 

[ScoutTN]

My Walmart Neighborhood Market had lots of holes late this afternoon - no avocados, none of Dh’s coffee cream, lots of other items. But, there were stockers with full flats, working hard to get things out and on the shelves.
 

[Carrie12345]

Main gaps at my regular grocery store were chicken nuggets (almost none at all, and way too pricey), French fries (same), and frozen diced onions simply don’t exist anymore.   
Store brand frozen veg were $2 per 12oz and up. 
I did get fresh asparagus for less than $1/lb on manager’s special. 
I wasn’t shopping for meat, but the shelves appeared decent from a distance. At least compared to previous low points. 

[Happy2BaMom]

All Shelves finally - FINALLY - full at local major grocery store. Prices seem to be stable for last couple of weeks but I don’t track everything. 

[4everHis]

Walmart last night, tons of boxes EVERYwhere waiting to be stocked. Prices rising. Some a little, some a lot. Kroger today. Lots of meat but dang!😲 Most prices up. As I checked dates on things they seem to be mostly fall of this year. Our bread that was always $3.50 full price(I always got on sale for closer to $2) now has a sale price of $3.99😳

[Melissa in Australia]

Some Shops are doing that same trick here. A new higher price is marked as a special.. 

[Carrie12345]

I meant to share from this weekend…
The baby formula situation is breaking my heart.  This was Walmart’s entire section, and the majority of what WAS there was specialty stuff like sensitive tummies, soy, toddler, etc.
 

[Idalou]

54 minutes ago, Carrie12345 said:

I meant to share from this weekend…
The baby formula situation is breaking my heart.  This was Walmart’s entire section, and the majority of what WAS there was specialty stuff like sensitive tummies, soy, toddler, etc.
 

https://datasembly.com/news/out-of-stock-rate-in-april-2022/

Very depressing. There was also a voluntary recall of 3 popular formulas due to the death of one baby.

[Bootsie]

DD is in Austria and reported noticing things yesterday.  The shelves for cooking oil were bare; there were four bottles of only one type of oil.  Much of the supply comes from Ukraine.  She said prices are all inching higher and that city bus fares increased by 0.10Euros yesterday, which is very noticeable because public transportation is broadly used.