Community Chat

[FiddleDeeDee]

@PA Mom-mom  Costco is one of those places that will have a TON of rice but no paper towels. Or a TON of canned (fill in the blank) but no toilet paper. I'm starting to think that businesses buy up the paper products (churches and schools do, I know that for a fact....they also hit up Aldi). Funny thing, we RARELY shop at Costco because they stopped selling the item/brand we liked. I order specific Kirkland items every few months and that's the extent now of our Costco purchases.

The regional thing has me wondering: why? Are drivers in short supply out West? New England? Compared to say, Florida, Texas, MD? Weather? Pay? Location? Food items (the ones I purchase) are made in USA so they're not stock off the coast on ships. It just makes me wonder why some areas and not others; why some products but not others. Someone had mentioned in another thread that a Sams Club employee told her turkeys would be hard to come by yet, isn't Sams Club a Walmart superstore w/membership? Walmart has no issue getting turkeys so why should Sams Club have problems? Wish I knew the answers, lol.

[RedTop]

My privately owned WV grocery store has done a great job keeping items in stock.  98% of the time, during the last 18 months, I have walked out of the store with everything on my list.   This is the only grocery store I shop in.   

I was in the store Saturday night, a few hours before closing, and saw quite a few bare or nearly empty shelves, but know that was due to high numbers of first of the month shoppers last week, not shortages.  

This area has a very large population who grocery shop once a month after they receive their check.   Many of these shoppers fill their carts with eggs, butter, flour, sugar, cornmeal, coffee, dried beans, pasta, bacon, sausage, lunch meat, hamburger, chicken, and bread.   

The owner of this store has drastically cut back on the number of brands they sell, which has resulted in more open shelf space.  They no longer sell Pet brand dairy products, bread means a store brand, Sunbeam, Sara Lee, and Heiners.  For canned fruit options there's a store brand, Libby, and Dole.  Their cookie and cracker section is half the space of what Dollar General has in their stores.   Meat is always well stocked, altho everything is at least $2.00 higher than pre-pandemic.   

[Roni18]

I guess it all depemds on where you are.  I was in my local Publix on Saturday.  I did notice those signs about Juice but the only ones they seemed short on was the little kid drink pouches.  I didn't notice any other shortages in my store.  

Just as long as I don't see anything like we saw around the Spring of 2020, when the stores were half empty, I think we will be fine.  

[x Hedge]

@FiddleDeeDee wrote;

Recently, there have been posts regarding not being able to find food, bare shelves, warning of food items not being found for the Holidays, etc. 

    . . .

Wow. I Must've missed all those posts.

No shortage here in the Great Lakes Basin. Shelves fully stocked, new items arrive steadily.

Aldi, Meijer, Sam's, Walmart.

[sweetee2]

I know your talking  Grocery items, but may I add a heads up about Christmas gifts and on line shopping.  I've received many warnings from retail sights I  frequent to start now with your purchases. Shipping is very slow and if you want to get them in time  START NOW. Thank you.

[Cumbercookie13]

I live in Northern Maryland, where people panic buy if three inches of snow is forecast. 

My local Walmart was never that great to begin with about stocking, but it has gotten a lot worse this year. I don't shop there frequently, but the last time I was in, many things were not there.

The Weis store in my town has also had stocking & delivery issues. Gatorade there has been pretty non-existent the last couple of months.

I've had luck with Shoprite, Food Lion, and Wegmans. They seem to be almost fully stocked all the time. Shoprite also puts tags on empty shelves letting you know what's out and when it may come back in, which is helpful. 

[gidgetgh]

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@Cumbercookie13 wrote:

I live in Northern Maryland, where people panic buy if three inches of snow is forecast. 

My local Walmart was never that great to begin with about stocking, but it has gotten a lot worse this year. I don't shop there frequently, but the last time I was in, many things were not there.

The Weis store in my town has also had stocking & delivery issues. Gatorade there has been pretty non-existent the last couple of months.

I've had luck with Shoprite, Food Lion, and Wegmans. They seem to be almost fully stocked all the time. Shoprite also puts tags on empty shelves letting you know what's out and when it may come back in, which is helpful. 

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@Cumbercookie13 - I read that on Gatorade shortages, they're having trouble getting the little plastic beads they make the bottles with.

[Gorgf]

@BornToShop  I only have Walmart and one other supermarket to shop at unless I go out of town. They only have one to two checkers so pretty much have forced people to use self checkouts. The ones in line have very full carts so a long wait. They did upgrade self serve and made it a little easier.

 I think our center would be overjoyed to have  a cleaning machine. A friend of mine over heard a district supervisor chewing staff out about the store was the dirtiest  store in the whole area. One of the Associates told him they can't get anyone to work. It is too bad that others could over hear. I  see the same staff and they seem to be trying. I asked one manager if she had a tent set up out back as always there and she told me she lives half an hour away.

They even reported people refusing to show up for interviews to unemployment this summer. Staff is trying to stock shelves and also do on line orders which takes time. This summer when I found produce that was bad I handed it to staff to help out a little and it was appreciated. 

Our area grocery chain  is hit or miss which means I have had to go in twice a week some times. They close at 10 pm and shut down the Deli and Meat  Dept at 6 or 7 pm. due to staffing . The Bakery no longer does cake orders. The liquor  store dept.does alot of business and well stocked.

[BornToShop]

I'm not going to stress out over gift buying this year.  I'm going to do gift cards.  It may seem a bit impersonal, but the state of what we are living with and going through is too unpredictable.  I'm not going to put myself through this mayhem.  

[tansy]

My husband likes inexpensive ginger snaps with his morning coffee. I've had difficulty finding those.

I took my g-daughter into the local toy store to pick out a Calico Creatures item.  Stock was very low.  Owner has been waiting ages for a shipment to arrive.