Supply chain issues at the grocery store!? - YouLookFab Forum

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Supply chain issues at the grocery store!?

Runcarla

Veteran

Have you encountered any bizarre supply chain issues at the grocery store where you shop?

There have been a few things I have had on my grocery list for weeks, and even months, that I have been unable to get at my regular grocery store. I haven’t been able to find them at any local grocery store, and when I decided on a whim to check out some grocery stores in a town 1 hour away from my home town, they were conspicuously absent!

MIA are:

- my favourite decaf coffee (and there seems to be a shortage of other decaf coffees as well)
- my favourite spray oil for baking
- VH plum sauce (been looking for 3 months!)

Earlier in 2021 there were months without:

-cinnamon
-pineapples

I’m certainly able to live without these things (well not coffee, and I don’t want to go back to regular). The store asserts that the brands have not been discontinued, and that it’s just supply chain issues.

Any supply chain issues at the grocery store where you shop?

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40 replies

Latest reply was from doggeh lover

chewyspaghetti

Veteran

Yes, I am noticing it too. I feel like every time I grocery shop, there's something else out of stock. The only thing that I remember recently having a hard time getting was tampons. I had to order online and have them delivered.
I feel like we never know what we will be able to get when we go shopping. I have a feeling this is going to go on for some time. We live near the port here, and I know they are working on the backlog problems, but it seems ongoing.

Helena

Veteran

Yep, here too, although thank God there is plenty overall ...

- same issues with my PC brand of decaf coffee
- my tea costs a fortune now
- the meat section has been extremely depleted in general
- everyone once so often some random cereal is completely missing ... Weetabix for a while, and then bran flakes.

The most dramatic was the great Marmite shortage of 2020 though ... After a shop wanted $40 (!!) for a small jar, DH ended up importing a massive tub from somewhere in the Caribbean, St. Kitts I think but that could be wrong ... Fortunately it's now back on our shelves! (I personally don't like marmite but do like happy DH )

NancyW

Veteran

In North Carolina the produce, meat, and milk have been very spotty. Nothing we use regularly has been missing in action for more than a week or so.

JAileen

Veteran

My husband does the grocery shopping, but we make the list together. Two things we have had a hard time getting these past two years are De Cecco fettuccine and Nabisco mini saltines. Other types of De Cecco pasta have been available, and regular size saltines have mostly been available, too.

Most everything else has been available - meat, chicken, milk, cheese, fruits and vegetables.

At Christmas time our church adopted a needy school. I bought clothes and toys for several kids. One boy wanted a yo-yo. I was at Walmart and they didn’t have any, and I had to order one from Amazon.

rachylou

Veteran

Oh man. Marmite shortage! No! Not that I noticed. My marmite eating comes and goes. But I noticed the baking spray shortage and non-pareils were hard to get. Oh, and Stove Top stuffing. And full-fat milk and eggs are not always there. The veg selection seems narrower. No half and half Monday. And soda! Soda is spotty. I haven’t been able to get my emergency mini cokes for weeks (I always carry a can in case my blood sugar goes low). I went to 7-up and am now resorting to screw-cap 12 oz cokes (which leaves kinda a lot of leftover soda).

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

A friend was just complaining about the difficulty getting Tuna Florentine cat food (and telling hilarious stories of a neighbor trying to guilt trip her into giving her a box of it after she knocked herself out to find it)

Rachylou, would jolly ranchers work?

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Absolutely.

You have to grab what you can get at the grocery store when you see it. There have been shortages of most things at some point over the last two years.

slim cat

Veteran

"Soy milk from O organic" was absent for such a long time from Safeway that my daughter choose to do Lactose-free milk instead.
There were other things like my fav Reynaldo's Flan Pudding ( I think I've got addicted to it and looked for it in other Safeway stores besides my closest one - lol ).

Anonymous

Yes, experiencing supply issues with cinnamon and pineapples too. And beans, artichokes, peaches, sugar, spinach, cereal and crackers. I plan backups for the items but now need to have backups for the backups

SarahD8

Veteran

We eat a lot of kale around here, and our preferred Tuscan kale has periodically been out of stock so we've gotten curly kale instead. I don't like it as well and have taken to calling it "pandemic kale."

The height of first-world problems! I can't think of anything that has been out of stock for more than a couple of grocery cycles. We keep a more extensive pantry stock than we used to pre-pandemic and have been able to weather the blips well.

I really appreciate the work of food production/processing, distribution, and grocery workers throughout this time.

Runcarla

Veteran

@ Helena - is it the PC brand decaf in the green box? Does the shortage extend to TO?

@ JAileen - that reminds me! Bechtle noodles were Impossible to find November through December, and just came back in stock last shopping trip. They come from Germany.

Aquamarine

Veteran

Oh yes, lots of random items in and out of stock here. I never know if I will be able to get the items on my list when I go shopping.

Sal

Veteran

We have had lots of supply chain issues too....

Outside work (which is too frustrating) the ones I have noticed

- brown sugar (all supplies were contaminated so months without it)
- bread and baking flour
- canned beans
- meat has been erratic
- sometimes vege are erratic too
- toilet paper

My non negotiables are coffee, marmite and yoghurt...I will adapt on anything else. I like the caffeinated version of coffee and I buy beans.

Interested in people in North America liking marmite - I thought it was a NZ/UK thing (our versions are different) with Australians liking vegemite...........

I can send NZ marmite over if you need it - it is the most superior version......

rachylou

Veteran

Sadly, candy doesn’t work, SF: too slow

Sisi

Veteran

Very interesting ...
No issues here (Italy).

Sisi

Veteran

Oh, now that I remember ... For a certain period during the pandemic you would not find flour at the supermarket. Not due to supply issues, but because people who worked from home started to make home-made bread.

chewyspaghetti

Veteran

Oh, and I've been having a hard time finding Sudafed (or store brand equivalents). I have to go to multiple stores whenever I need some.

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

Brown sugar! I would *love* for soft brown sugar to be regularly stocked here! Sadly, that is not a pandemic-related issue; they just don’t use it. On a related note, I brought back lots of blackstrap molasses when we were in the USA recently, because I haven’t been able to find the iron content of what I’ve been using here.

Carla, I see those noodles at the grocery store all the time. There are a bunch of varieties. So I guess the issue there is in shipping, not production.

Something I haven’t seen since the pandemic started is frozen croissants. But I think that’s because the stores stopped carrying them. I haven’t tried searching other places for them. And of course TP was out at the beginning, as the whole world decided to stock up on it.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

A couple of weeks ago, it was strangely difficult to find half and half. Ended up buying a big bottle of heavy cream for our coffee instead — a little goes a long way!

Our decaf Nespresso pods have been hard to find lately too. I’m stocking up when I do find them.

My favorite not-unhealthy snack — Fig Newmans (NOT Newtons) — have been a bit scarce too.

Fash, we have a weird surplus of brown sugar here. I bought some for holiday baking and then my husband and his son bought two packages of it when they were making wine, so we have a small lifetime supply now, as I really don’t use much of it! Too bad it would be so pricey to send it to you.

Anonymous

Silk Brand Oat Milk. Earth's Own is always around but it has far more sugar and double the calories. Whenever Silk Brand shows up I buy at least 2-3 at a time. Also a specific version of a PC breakfast cereal I like . Hasn't been on the shelves in months. Oh well - first world problems for sure.

Laurie

Veteran

Yes, to most of the above here in MD near DC. I think I've mentioned that my older son is working P/T at Trader Joe's in Boston, so I actually get a running litany of what does and does not show up on the trucks! Apparently coconut and related coconut products (especially coconut milk, which I used in a fantastic coconut pound cake) have been stuck on a container for a long time. However, Giant (large regional grocery chain) has shredded coconut, so it's not a general shortage.

I was stunned a few weeks ago to go to TJ and see an almost bare meat and fish section. But then I thought, there are thousands of other items in this store (including very decent frozen foods)! Aren't we lucky, and we will literally never be hungry. Honestly, it's helped me out of the rut of rotating the same recipes and explore a few new things. (Stag -TJ has excellent frozen almond croissants next time you are stateside!)

Ginger

Veteran

Janet, I remember missing the half and half! I think it was in mid December for me, so I had to get cream instead. I use it in tea, and it stays good for 4 or 5 times as long as milk.

Other than that, the only thing that has really annoyed me is my current favorite coke: Diet Dr Pepper Cream Soda. For the last year it's been kind of a game, to see which store has it! Sometimes there are only a few but if I get to Walmart shortly after the stocker comes through, I can grab a couple of 12 packs. Once he told me that a neighboring store had some, which was nice.

In general there's been a lack of diet drinks available. I like the flavored ones, whether Dr Pepper, Coke, or Pepsi. I suspect that like with decaf coffee, the diet drinks have been lesser priority. For bottling I did hear there was a shortage of cans at one point, too.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Sal, Marmite's a UK-influenced country thing, so a lot of Canadians with UK family or history eat it, too. I grew up with it because my mother loved it, but haven't eaten it in years. I like it, though.

JAileen, we've been searching for de Cecco fettucine to no avail as well. Linguine, too! There's spaghetti and other shapes, but not those.

We've been really lucky -- there was the toilet paper shortage at pandemic's start, and there are occasional small non-important gaps in other areas (we couldn't find coriander seed except in massive bags from the Indian grocer, for example) but mostly food has been plentifully available. Most of our food for a lot of the year is local, so no real risk of supply chain issues there -- just stuff like lemons, limes, coffee, tea, spices -- and we haven't experienced interruptions in any of that.

There have definitely been other supply issues, though -- everything from gas to plumbing parts to lightbulbs of a certain kind to athletic equipment -- you name it.

kkards

Veteran

interesting read.
i have some very specific things that i shop for that have been hard to find and so when i do find them, i BOPIS them ASAP, even driving 20 minutes out of my way..i think Target must think i'm weird because i BOPIS 5 frozen meals, and driving all over the place to get them (side note, i eat the same exact thing for lunch every work day, and yes, i did just add that to the finds. LOL). i now have 2 weeks in reserve, and try to buy 1 weeks worth every week, but 2 weeks ago it was out of stock in all the stores in my market.
also individually packaged chicken breasts have been hit or miss. as has eggs sold as 1/2 dozen, and romaine lettuce last week was out of stock
can i find subs for all of this, yup, but these things just make my life run better

Evol Frozen Ziti & Meat Sauce Frozen Pasta Bowl - 9oz

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JAileen

Veteran

We had Marmite while on a trip to…Alaska! We were on a boat with eleven passengers. Two were from New Zealand and three were from Australia. They were in raptures, eating it. So I tried it. It was pretty good, actually.

Suz, it’s just so weird that other types of pasta were available but not the fettuccine. My husband would buy it whenever he saw it, so now we have a mini stockpile.

Helena

Veteran

Sal, my DH is Australian; he loves Vegemite but then my UK cousins sold him on Marmite when we were over there ... I can't stand either; I have tried but no luck!

Carla, yes - the PC one in the green box; I don't think it's particularly special but I like it because the pods are compostable. And yes, definite shortages in Toronto and surrounding, although for some reason the Loblaws brand stores seem to be worse than Sobey's or Longo's, not sure why?! (maybe just because they get more traffic).

The bright side of all this is highlighting how incredibly well the supply chain works the majority of the time; what a great blessing ... it's pretty amazing, and agreeing with Sarah that it makes me appreciate all the grocery workers, food processing workers, truck drivers, etc. all the more! (as I'm sure you all feel too! )

cjh

(website)

Veteran

I live in central Illinois in moderate size city. For over a year, I’ve done mostly pick up orders for groceries, and just went grocery shopping in person for the first time in a month. The last time was the Saturday before Christmas and I was pretty shocked on that day that the store was empty - of people! Goods were plentiful and shelves were full.

Today I spent a lot of money because our freezer meat was really low. I do like to select that myself. There was nothing I noticed as absolutely unavailable except Kellogg’s Raisin Bran Crunch and it hasn’t been in stock for pick up orders for weeks. Here and there a spot was empty, usually for this week’s sale items.

I found everything in every category I had on my list -not easily as they have apparently been going through the second phase of the store reorganization and now the rest of the stuff I knew where to look for has been moved! But it is amazing when you think that in the middle of cold winter, in the Midwest where many items don’t even grow, we can get fresh berries, grapes, bananas, potatoes and onions, green produce, tomatoes, seafood, canned and frozen anything!

Anonymous

Here and there- but nothing stands out grocery wise.
But- I checked 5 stores and didn't find lint rollers :/ I ended up ordering some from Big Warehouse.

Irina

Veteran

I haven’t noticed anything out of ordinary. Yes, once in a while a product might be out of stock but it happens all the time, not just during the pandemic. We shop for groceries every week, so we can check the inventory often enough.

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