About Those Empty Grocery Shelves

[Arkansas Granny]

Remember the early days of the pandemic, and the worries about shortages of toilet paper, paper towels? (And, in my household, there was also worry about baby wipes and baby food.) Concerned about the slim pickings of the quick picker upper, I went to Restaurant Depot to get those paper towel rolls you see in restaurant bathrooms—the big brown ones that aren’t perforated. My wife won’t let me live it down.

Now, in year three of the pandemic, people are worrying yet again about food. Pictures of empty grocery shelves are popping up on social media, sometimes with a Russia-in-the-late-Cold-War feel to them. Some supermarkets are responding with a little trolling.

Which raises two big questions: Is this a serious national problem, or a local problem blown out of proportion by news media and social media? And, with the pandemic still not yet over, how can we expect this situation to develop in the weeks and months ahead?

https://www.thebulwark.com/about-those-empty-grocery-shelves/

[samnsara]

1. i bought a case of dental bibs and a case of the loose leaf paper towels for

..bathroom towel holders.... I am still using the for everything

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Depends on the distributors.

I work at Stew Leonard’s and the shelves in all departments have been consistently stocked since Day One.

[Scrivener7]

3. Lol! The article says one of the hardest products to keep stocked is alcohol!

Sign of the times.

[deRien]

4. In late December in Western Washington state

the passes were closed for days so trucks with consumer products were delayed. Also, getting deliveries to homes was impacted. So weather may account for some of the empty shelves...

[captain queeg]

5. I did see some empty shelves last time I shopped

Just in one aisle and it was the first time I’d seen that for awhile. Early the TP and paper towels were usually empty. The half aisle is just saw recently appeared to be dry foods, like top ramen. I don’t think it’s a wide spread problem.

[Freddie]

7. Spotty shortages here (Philly burbs)

Giant hasn’t had my favorite sparkling water or spaghetti sauce for months (first world problems!) Canned cat food is iffy but they seem plenty stocked with canned dog food. Yesterday for the first time they had a limit of 2 packs of chicken.

[iamateacher]

6. Our grocery store is almost out of frozen vegetables

And cat food. We pick up Fancy Feast for our spoiled kitties now whenever we see it. My husband stopped at Walmart in another town yesterday and bought kitty litter and the last 20 pack of pate.

[luvs2sing]

8. Frozen vegetables have been a problem here.

Also frozen potatoes, canned beans, rice and pasta, onions, potatoes, packaged broths, snack foods like chips and pretzels and, interestingly, hummus.

[Arkansas Granny]

9. FTR, I have been using grocery delivery service since the pandemic began, so I haven't seen

empty shelves. However, The local stores I use seem to have the items I need in stock. I might have to substitute a brand, now and then, but I haven't experienced much difficulty in getting the items I ordered.

It does cost a little more to have home deliveries made, but I'm really getting quite spoiled to it.

[Phoenix61]

10. If the first falls on the weekend that Monday after the first of the month

always had empty shelves. Between payday, SNAP, WIC, SS, and SSI etc…lots of people buying for the month.

[dalton99a]

11. There is a global pasta shortage

While North Dakota is the primary location for growing durum wheat in the U.S., Canada produces two-thirds of the world's supply, followed by Europe. Both of those areas have been hit hard by unusual weather this year, severely impacting the crop, according to the French outlet The Connexion.

Heavy rainfalls in Europe are affecting the durum wheat stash in France, where farmers are worried about dwindling supplies.

"We have about 12 tonnes left here, and with that we can make, depending on the type of pasta, between 15 days to three weeks' worth more or less," Gilles Reichstadt, the manager for the Usine Thirion factory in northeast France, told the news outlet. "We are supposed to be getting 25 tonnes delivered in September, so we're hoping that will arrive."

Canada, however, is facing the opposite problem. A huge heatwave and drought have knocked out 30% of the country's crops. Prices for durum wheat have already skyrocketed this year, up to around $350 per metric ton. This time last year, it was about $294, government data from Alberta shows.

https://www.yahoo.com/now/could-another-pasta-shortage-experts-143508850.html