4 ms·

There's been an article floating around that posits that the same thing is happening with toilet paper: plenty of "institutional" product is available (since ma

There's been an article floating around that posits that the same thing is happening with toilet paper: plenty of "institutional" product is available (since many businesses are closed), but not "home" product (since people are not only hoarding but also using the restroom at home more).

Xylakant 7y ago
yes, you can see that in quite a few categories of products: Canned Tomatoes, 2.5 kg cans available. 500g cans: out. Pasta, 500g Spaghetti? Forget it. 5kg bulk: Available. Yeast, regular cubes: no way. Ordering half a kilo of dry yeast: no problem. It's just that as a regular normal family, 500g of yeast will get you through a year or two, depending on how much you bake (that's about the equivalent of 75 packets of dry yeast) But that stuff is also impossible to repackage into smaller quantities without exposing it to spoilage. There's a few supermarkets in Berlin that sell unpackaged stuff (basically you bring your own reusable container and they fill it for you) and they're well stocked in flour, pasta and stuff since they solve the repackaging issue at the point of sale.
pmoriarty 7y ago
Why hasn't this institutional supply been redirected to the consumer market? Same question regarding all the food normally sold to restaurants and companies that are now closed.
- organsnyder 7y ago
  First of all, consumer preferences remain different. And some products (such as bigger rolls designed for specific dispensers) aren't ideal. More importantly, the supply chain and delivery models are very different. Retailers don't have arrangements with institutional suppliers, packaging is different (quantities, SKUs, etc.), and—most importantly, I think—everyone is scrambling and operating at reduced organizational capacity, so it's just plain hard.
- Xylakant 7y ago
  Institutional supply has different packaging, both in sizes and for example required customer information. For flour it’s often entirely different mills, resellers and delivery modes: most consumers cannot reasonably buy a 25kg bag of flour - let alone a delivery by truck intended to be pumped straight into your flour silo. What would you reasonably do with half a kilo of dried yeast? Repacking is entirely infeasible for a lot of products - re-canning 2.5kg of canned tomato concentrate is a bit of a mess. So supply chains will adapt, but that takes time. Some things may be out of stock for a while - I would not expect any substantial quantities of italian brand pasta to show up on the German market for quite a bit. We’ll probably have to rely on German pasta (different flour, often with egg unlike Italian) We’ll not starve, but we’ll have to live without some stuff we’ve learned to expect as part of our regular diet.

Xylakant 7y ago

yes, you can see that in quite a few categories of products: Canned Tomatoes, 2.5 kg cans available. 500g cans: out. Pasta, 500g Spaghetti? Forget it. 5kg bulk: Available. Yeast, regular cubes: no way. Ordering half a kilo of dry yeast: no problem. It's just that as a regular normal family, 500g of yeast will get you through a year or two, depending on how much you bake (that's about the equivalent of 75 packets of dry yeast) But that stuff is also impossible to repackage into smaller quantities without exposing it to spoilage. There's a few supermarkets in Berlin that sell unpackaged stuff (basically you bring your own reusable container and they fill it for you) and they're well stocked in flour, pasta and stuff since they solve the repackaging issue at the point of sale.

pmoriarty 7y ago

Why hasn't this institutional supply been redirected to the consumer market? Same question regarding all the food normally sold to restaurants and companies that are now closed.

organsnyder 7y ago
First of all, consumer preferences remain different. And some products (such as bigger rolls designed for specific dispensers) aren't ideal. More importantly, the supply chain and delivery models are very different. Retailers don't have arrangements with institutional suppliers, packaging is different (quantities, SKUs, etc.), and—most importantly, I think—everyone is scrambling and operating at reduced organizational capacity, so it's just plain hard.
Xylakant 7y ago
Institutional supply has different packaging, both in sizes and for example required customer information. For flour it’s often entirely different mills, resellers and delivery modes: most consumers cannot reasonably buy a 25kg bag of flour - let alone a delivery by truck intended to be pumped straight into your flour silo. What would you reasonably do with half a kilo of dried yeast? Repacking is entirely infeasible for a lot of products - re-canning 2.5kg of canned tomato concentrate is a bit of a mess. So supply chains will adapt, but that takes time. Some things may be out of stock for a while - I would not expect any substantial quantities of italian brand pasta to show up on the German market for quite a bit. We’ll probably have to rely on German pasta (different flour, often with egg unlike Italian) We’ll not starve, but we’ll have to live without some stuff we’ve learned to expect as part of our regular diet.