12 ms·

Grocery store shortages are back

132 points by nimbius 5y ago

jonnycomputer 5y ago
I haven't seen any, myself. And my anecdote is as good as theirs. It'd be nice if they actually pointed to, you know, data, for these kinds of stories. My pizza place was closed though. Everyone out with covid. And it wasn't the usual cashiers over at the grocery; I think they may have been temps, because they didn't know how to do anything.
- justinator 5y ago
  I certainly have. We literally LOST a place to buy groceries, as a good part of a town just burnt to the ground after (it seems to be coming to light[0]), a local cult decided to burn a railroad tie and left it smoldering while 100mph+ winds were being recorded. My King Soopers closed for renovations because of a domestic terrorist shot and killed a few people last year[1], And today, workers at King Soopers are starting their strike (which I support!). Given I also live in a unique enough geographic area where the land west of me for a few hundred miles includes mostly mountains, no groceries stores exist there - so the stores that are left are getting (to put lightly) hammered. And also Covid, shipping logistical problems, shortages with delivery drivers - pile it on. Affording to eat is getting more and more difficult. [0] I want to make clear that these are allegations, and no arrests have been made, but it's not looking great for the cult. https://kdvr.com/news/local/twelve-tribes-property-history-of-controlled-burns/ https://kdvr.com/news/local/twelve-tribes-property-history-o... [1] https://kdvr.com/news/boulder-grocery-store-shooting/records-king-soopers-shooter-had-look-of-pure-anger-during-2017-cold-cock-incident/ https://kdvr.com/news/boulder-grocery-store-shooting/records... [2] https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/workers-nearly-80-krogers-king-soopers-go-strike-talks-stall-2022-01-12/ https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/workers-nearly-8...
  - jimkleiber 5y ago
    I used to live in that area, right near that King Soopers—I hadn't heard about the cause of that fire, thank you for pointing out the investigation into it. Regarding stores, this may seem a bit out of touch, as I assume their prices are probably more expensive and I also don't know what their stock is like, but a friend of mine recently opened a new (small) grocery store[0] downtown[1]. I'm no longer in the area so I've never been there, but perhaps they will have some better in stock or better in price than some other options. Anyway, just wanted to pass along in case it may help you. [0]: https://nudefoodsmarket.com/ https://nudefoodsmarket.com/ [1]: https://g.page/nudefoodsmarket https://g.page/nudefoodsmarket
    - justinator 5y ago
      Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out - doesn't hurt to wander by and say hello! Want to stress that the fire investigation is ongoing, but there's a lot of evidence pointing the start of the fire being on the Twelve Tribe's property. But I don't want things to become a witch hunt.
      - jimkleiber 5y ago
        Oh for sure! > But I don't want things to become a witch hunt. And i appreciate the qualification on this...I'll just try to follow it more closely than I had been before.
  - Melting_Harps 5y ago
    > Affording to eat is getting more and more difficult. Boulder was never exactly a cheap place to eat, but you do have other choices: several Whole Foods, Safeways Lucky's and a Trader Joe's etc... I'm told Alfalfas went under during covid. Also, the Farmer's Markets Downtown when in season. Personally speaking, food costs have been artificially suppressed for far too long in the US; it has led to a situation in which food waste is abhorrently common. If this is what creates a paradigm shift, then so be it. Moreover, Boulder's community garden space is always an option if you can get in--right now you'd be limited on options with anything other than brassicas outside of a greenhouse. This is a much needed reset for Boulder in my opinion. It should live up to the values it supposedly promotes. Sidenote: I used to shop at that King Soopers in Table Mesa when visiting, too. Scary stuff... And that cult owns the Yellow Deli on Pearl street mall, right?
    - porknubbins 5y ago
      What do you mean by food prices have been artificially surpressed in the US? Most food waste I am aware of is to do with stores throwing out almost expired products, which bothers me but wouldn’t be helped by making things more expensive.
    - justinator 5y ago
      It's a squeeze - and I'm getting pretty close to making me feel bad for myself. But conventional grocery stores themselves are getting pretty expensive for very normal things. A Whole Foods is not a sustainable place to shop for me. I do live within spitting distance of the currently closed Kings Soopers, so that convenience is gone - as a cyclist, there's just so much cargo I can haul at one time so having a store close is a nicety. Safeway relinquished their ownership of Lucky's to the original owners! https://www.dailycamera.com/2021/06/09/lolitas-market-and-deli-in-boulder-sold-to-owners-of-luckys-market/ https://www.dailycamera.com/2021/06/09/lolitas-market-and-de... The Yellow Deli is indeed owned by the Twelve Tribes. It's currently closed.
- willis936 5y ago
  A week ago I bought the last package of chicken in a supermarket. Someone had been to three stores and couldn't find milk. Your anecdote is as good as mine. Investigative journalism with many samples is worth more than either anecdote.
  - jonnycomputer 5y ago
    Ok, but checking in on twitter photos of empty shelves isn't investigative journalism, and the few people who might be in the position to know are saying its not like March 2020, e.g. "There are some issues with out-of-stocks, but it tends to be a situation where if you go to a store on a Tuesday night, maybe something's out of stock, but by Wednesday sometime it's back in store," Rose told NPR." The point is, the article would be less sensational and more informative if it could point to some kind of systematic data source--even one they collected themselves. But they don't.
- reaperducer 5y ago
  my anecdote is as good as theirs They actually talked to the California Grocers Association, and quoted the CEOs of Albertson's, the nation's largest supermarket company; and Conagra, one of the largest food companies on the planet. Not exactly anecdotes. These are people with access to real data. I haven't seen any, myself. I've seen it. I have a regular bi-weekly list, and a lot of the items are getting harder and harder to find. I have to try two or three stores, and even supplementing with Amazon Fresh, I still can't get everything. Two of the chain supermarkets near me have signs up apologizing for the empty shelves, saying they're stocking them as quickly as they can. Which tells me this is a staffing issue, not a supply issue.
  - onecommentman 5y ago
    Would a Grocers Association or supermarket chain have any financial, political or legal reason to overemphasize that unusual or substantive shortages might be happening? Yes. (Though that doesn’t mean they are wrong or misleading in this case.) Which is why it is wise to look at actual objective nationwide data first. Anecdotes are useful in suggesting where to check real data (or gather real data if missing). Whoever is gathering supermarket pricing data on a nationwide basis (secret shoppers) would objectively know what’s happening, if anything, and if it is local or regional or nationwide. An actual news agency would have contacted them and paid for the general non-proprietary regional/national info. I agree with your take on this being a staffing issue where you are, if they are posting those sorts of signs and actively hiring.
    - reaperducer 5y ago
      Would a Grocers Association or supermarket chain have any financial, political or legal reason to overemphasize that unusual or substantive shortages might be happening? Contrary to what Hollywood and the internet would have you believe, not everything is a conspiracy. Inventing conspiracies any time something doesn't meet your worldview is just plain lazy. As for providing the hard data, if that's what you're after, subscribe to the Wall Street Journal. This is NPR. It's a radio network. It produces radio-sized reports. It just happens to also put those reports in text form on the web as a convenience. It's great that you're interested in the data. Go find it. It's out there. NPR isn't going to hand it to you on a silver platter. That's not what NPR is for. That's not what radio is for. Whoever is gathering supermarket pricing data on a nationwide basis The federal government does this every month. The data is available. Go nuts.
- WheatM 5y ago
- kyrra 5y ago
  A writer at NR pointed out that most national papers haven't picked it up yet (this was on Tuesday), but many local ones had: https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/empty-shelves-disprove-bidens-supply-chain-boasts/ https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/empty-shelve...
- d23 5y ago
  We have seen it too. And they did point to data: a rise of posts about it on social media. They also interviewed experts about the issue and why it's happening.
- snarf21 5y ago
  You may not have seen it yet but you will. I'm on the east coast and I see it at every store, even Dollar General.
  - taude 5y ago
    Weird, I'm on the east coast, too. And haven't seen any empty shelves in the grocery store.
- pengaru 5y ago
  VONS normally sells Open Nature "hormone+antibiotics free" rotisserie chickens on the daily. It's been coming up on a month now that they've been unable to get any of these according to the deli clerk. "We keep ordering them, but they don't show up" in her words. Starbucks has been completely out of espresso beans on multiple occasions this past month too. It's unclear to me how a Starbucks even stays open without espresso beans, but apparently not all their beverages actually contain freshly pulled espresso... I've only ever gotten shots of espresso. Walmart has been out of some multivitamins for over a month now too. I don't buy much stuff from these vendors, this actually amounts to a large portion of crap I consume that isn't just organic produce and canned sardines which I've fortunately not had trouble acquiring. The above is kind of the luxury junk I can do without, but there's clearly problems.
  - reaperducer 5y ago
    Starbucks has been completely out of espresso beans on multiple occasions this past month too. The Starbucks down the block hasn't been able to get the flavor syrup I like since before Christmas. Like with your chicken, the manager says they just can't get it. The Starbucks store actually closed for a week not very long ago. I thought it was because of the 'rona. The manager said it was just that they didn't have enough staff and had to cover other stores.
- nonford150 5y ago
  The only store in my area which doesn't seem to be affected by massive shortages is Whole Foods. Guess the Amazon supply chain is fairly robust.
hprotagonist 5y ago
"There are some issues with out-of-stocks, but it tends to be a situation where if you go to a store on a Tuesday night, maybe something's out of stock, but by Wednesday sometime it's back in store," Rose told NPR. This describes about the “worst” i’ve seen, in new england. I had no trouble getting some fairly fussy ingredients for holiday cooking or my annual winter anti-depression baking spasms. Still, march 2020 did make the point that maybe having a pantry of staples in rotation at home is a real smart idea.
- cableshaft 5y ago
  Yeah I did the pantry thing after March 2020 (in the basement, the kitchen doesn't have a proper pantry) and wasn't careful enough about protecting it. It was fine for a year, but this winter we got mice in the house and now we have to toss what wasn't in cans or plastic containers already. We set some live traps and I've caught and released (several miles away) four mice already. Still a good idea, we just can't have anything mice could possibly get into next time.
  - hprotagonist 5y ago
    it’s advertised as a kibble container but we all know it holds 25 pounds of flour juuust fine. (and we use it quickly enough, which is kind of shocking but also, pie crust is easy!)
    - reaperducer 5y ago
      pie crust is easy So is pizza dough! I make it about once a week, and every time I'm reminded of my younger generation boss who didn't know that pizza dough is just flour, water, salt, and yeast. She though it was some kind of magic plastic or something and refused to eat pizza because of it. People really are getting too far away from their food sources.
      - b112 5y ago
        Wha? How?! Plastic?? That's bizarre.
prawn 5y ago
Meat shelves have been cleaned out at the supermarkets in Australia the last couple of visits. Hopefully encourages people to try their local butcher instead.
- ravenstine 5y ago
  Freezing meat when it's available is an option too.
  - prawn 5y ago
    Haven't checked this time, but last time the shelves cleared, the chest freezers were all sold out or expensive in second hand marketplaces. The used market went from people struggling to sell cheap to 4-5x the price and virtually none on offer.
- hffftz 5y ago
  The fresh seafood was completely empty at my local grocery today
post_break 5y ago
We just went shopping after being out for a while. The prices were incredible. The availability was scarce. We’re stocking up on cat food since it’s harder to come by. Meat prices mean buying chubs and vacuum and sealing. Costco hot dogs for lunch is becoming an increasing thing for me.
- pjscott 5y ago
  It’s interesting that things differ so much from one region to the next. I’m in the Midwest and everything is abundant, the shelves are full, and you can get pork for $1-2 per pound, usually on the lower end of that range, and chicken at moderate prices. Is shipping the bottleneck here?
mauvehaus 5y ago
When did they go away? We've got toilet paper labeled in English again here in VT/NH (Spanish is not widely spoken in this region, to put it mildly), but there's certainly been shortages of a wide assortment of things. At the grocery stores, they've been the limited to reduced brand choices and workaroundable sorts of problems. Elsewhere, things have been weird. Target opened a new site recently and the clothing selection was slim. At various points I the last year it has been hard to buy all of the following: 1) a dish pan 2) car wax 3) shellac (now back in stock) 4) .22LR ammunition (ongoing) 5) cabinet grade plywood (recent development) 6) a roof rake (for removing snow from your roof, obvs. This was new for me too) 7) EN 417 fuel canisters for backpacking stoves (severe and ongoing) The hiccups have been here all along, it's just that they're hitting things everybody buys.
- sokoloff 5y ago
  .22LR has been ongoing so long that it’s on its third presidential administration, isn’t it? 2013 start?
  - 83 5y ago
    Prices have been high since 2013ish on .22LR, but you could generally still buy some. It wasn't until the 2020 summer of covid and George Floyd protests that it became almost entirely unavailable, regardless of price. That is just starting to open up a bit in the midwest as I occasionally see it available now but it sells out quickly.
mandeepj 5y ago
After a long time - Yesterday, I noticed a lot of empty shelves in poultry and produce at Whole foods. Although no similar sight was to see at Trader Joe’s
CyanLite2 5y ago
Sounds like there's going to be a glut of over-production in March.
- Proven 5y ago
skunkworker 5y ago
I was at a local Trader Joes on the 3rd of January, the store was much more barren than normal, and when I went up to the counter I asked if the truck was delayed, it wasn't. They had a larger rush on Jan 2nd and 3rd than they had leading up to Christmas and New Years. It was very odd to see.
- itsgrimetime 5y ago
  the TJ's near me (greater Seattle area) was pretty bare, but they did miss their daily delivery (due to landslide blocking a highway). almost all cold dairy & vegetables were out of stock
- ncmncm 5y ago
  "Out of Stock" is the Authentic Trader Joe's Experience. It goes along with everything being a long, long way from its "sell-by" date. (Except walnuts, oddly: only ever buy organic walnuts from TJ.)
actusual 5y ago
The QFC (Kroger owned grocery stores in the PNW) by me had to close early this past Sunday because it ran out of people to run the store. I had been there earlier in the afternoon and the site of bare shelves and lines as long as the entire length of the store was actually unnerving.
- ryanmarsh 5y ago
  It ran out of people willing to work for poverty wages.
- allenu 5y ago
  Wow, do you know if it's because people quit or were sick at home with Covid? I remember the week after New Year's going into a grocery store (Ballard Market here in Seattle) and there were probably around 50% of the employees normally working there. I assumed it was due to people being at home sick, but didn't ask.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    I would guess it is due to labor supply going down at the price grocery stores are used to and willing to pay. I am seeing the same story play out at many other in person businesses used to paying low wages for in person work, especially at undesirable times of the day and week. Daycares, hotels, restaurants, car rentals, healthcare, etc.
    - CamperBob2 5y ago
      I've also heard that parking-lot delivery orders are causing labor issues. If you order a bunch of stuff from the store for curbside delivery, an employee has to spend a significant amount of time doing the shopping for you, likely in addition to their other duties. This is apparently VERY disruptive.
pessimizer 5y ago
Aldi's distribution has been hit particularly badly. A couple of weeks ago, my local Aldi had run out of salt. I never would have imagined a grocery store could run out of salt.
- SilasX 5y ago
  Nor a post office to run out of stamps in their stamp vending machine, but it happened to the one near me.
  - ThePadawan 5y ago
    Swiss Mail raised the prices for 1st class mail from CHF1.00 to CHF1.10 on January 1st... ...and ran out of CHF0.10 stamps in vending machines, within the week. You really have to wonder what they expected.
  - ericbarrett 5y ago
    My experience with the USPS stamp vending machines since long before the pandemic is that they are out of stock about half the time.
    - SilasX 5y ago
      I had never seen it happen myself.
- Tagbert 5y ago
  If there is snow or significant freezing rain, there may be a run on salt when people buy it to apply to steps and sidewalks to melt the ice.
- ja27 5y ago
  Weird, here Aldi and Walmart have seemed pretty unaffected but Publix has had a lot of empty shelves.
syshum 5y ago
I have not been inside a grocery store for over a year... But I have not seen any major changes in my curbside pickup order, no major out of stocks, no major substitution.
- groby_b 5y ago
  Same thing here. I suspect that's due to the fact that a) curbside services charge a nifty premium, and stores revenue share with them. I'd be surprised if that doesn't lead to prioritization. b) this is demand usually known well in advance, which helps the stores deal with planning. c) In many stores, it's strictly a shelving issue. If the curbside service has in-store pickers, there's a chance they can skip shelving and the need for shelving staff. d) The curbside delivery workforce is a bit more elastic, so Covid shortages don't necessarily manifest the same way. c
  - reaperducer 5y ago
    Don't forget: e) Curbside usually doesn't offer everything in store. It only offers the most popular or plentiful items. For example, if I go to my local mega-chain supermarket, I can choose from six or eight different brands of white bread. If I do the order online, there's only three.
  - syshum 5y ago
    A. The store I shop at provides their own Curb Side services, for free. i.e Kroger, Walmart, Meijer, all have these services, free right now. Kroger used to charge a $5 fee but they have suspended that for last couple of years at least B. I think that is giving them too much credit, I normally use Kroger, and even if I place my order a few days in advance I can edit it (and normally do) up to midnight before my pickup day. C. this is likely true.
- pixl97 5y ago
  Which store chain is this? With Walmart and HEB curbside in the Austin area it's been very common for subs/out of stocks. Going into the HEB over the last week has shown rapidly fluctuating stocks in many items. For example diet drinks of almost any kind were sparse in the store. Meat and cheese was well stocked, but bread was half stocked. Then I may go another time and the items that are missing are in stock and something new is missing. Very hit and miss.
vondur 5y ago
I see empty shelves in our local Targets here in SoCal quite frequently. Pasta has been hard to get, and dairy items are sparse.
paxys 5y ago
> "We're really seeing the perfect storm," If these "perfect storms" happen six times a year maybe it's not the storm but their own logistics to blame?
- JPKab 5y ago
  Nobody exists in a vacuum when it comes to supply chains. It's a supply chain, not a supply pipe. There's only so much that can be done. Their logistics didn't suddenly get incompetent between 2019 and now.
  - rch 5y ago
    The assertion is that they were always incompetent, but it wasn't broadly apparent until now.
    - gregw2 5y ago
      Nah, they just optimize for lower capital tied up in inventory (and stocking space) which the CFO watches, versus lower service levels which an operations person watches which has a less concrete/direct/measurable financial impact. (Perhaps I am equally as cynical as you but just from a different angle?)
      - rch 5y ago
        Maybe, but I think CFO-types should (and often do) consider supply chain risks in their cash flow estimates. I'd also hope (wish) that people in general pay more attention their exposure to disruptive events at the local, regional, and global levels going forward.
nickvanw 5y ago
I live in the Seattle-area where we've been hit with some serious winter weather in the mountain passes, to the point that for a period of a few hours, there was practically no route to drive to a neighboring state, and the passes were closed for the better part of 72+ hours. Even with that, and the rest of the aforementioned issues, I have had virtually no problem shopping for what I needed with some small changes, like buying a different brand of eggs or getting organic bananas. This was even after 2-3 days of mountain closures and the panic shopping that goes with that. This seems to mainly be an issue with convenience - decades of excellent logistics have trained us to basically expect a store to always be in stock of a wide variety of perishables. It's no surprise that when something disrupts that finely-tuned machine, we have to deal with some small setbacks.
- 01100011 5y ago
  You live in a major metropolitan area full of warehouses and featuring a major west coast port. You weren't cut off from anything. Other states were cut off from you.
- sbierwagen 5y ago
  I mean, we also have a major deepwater port. It's not like inland Alaska here where shut down roads mean you're totally isolated. In fact, just yesterday a new terminal came online with cranes that match the reach of Long Beach: https://www.nwseaportalliance.com/newsroom/ssa-marine-and-northwest-seaport-alliance-welcome-first-vessel-call-newly-modernized https://www.nwseaportalliance.com/newsroom/ssa-marine-and-no... (This project was started in 2016, which is one answer to "why don't we just add more capacity to solve port traffic jams")
- bc_skier 5y ago
  I live to the west of you out on the peninsula and we couldn't get milk for the past week and a half. As in there wasn't a single carton of milk anywhere in multiple stores. Curious if it's just smaller towns relying on distribution from the city, and getting cut off first or what. I figured Seattle would have had similar issues.
rossdavidh 5y ago
In line with what a few other people here have said, I should mention that where I am (Austin, TX, USA), I literally just came from the grocery store before reading this, and everything seemed to be in stock. I'm not saying there were zero issues, but nothing we were looking for, and certainly no bare shelves. Maybe it's more weather-related? We certainly have no shortage of Omicron in Texas, but the grocery stores (and the supply chains that provide them) seem to be doing fine.
- mariojv 5y ago
  San Antonio here. Things seem to be fine. I went to the store on a Sunday morning and it wasn't very busy, nothing was sold out. I had been worried because I saw lines outside of a store closer to me, presumably due to capacity restrictions. The other day, my husband went, and they were out of frozen potatoes. That can happen either from shortages or a freezer malfunction, though, so it was relatively normal. I am actually pleasantly surprised at how well the supply chain is holding up during this wave.
- ryanmarsh 5y ago
  God bless HEB.
syntheweave 5y ago
California mostly seems to be doing OK on its supplies. I have noticed that fresh milk in single-serving quantities(which I'll pick up on walks) has basically disappeared though.
- dognotdog 5y ago
  Seeing the same in PA, quarts of many brands are out of stock at various stores, but half gallon and up are available.
guessbest 5y ago
I understand there are probably a lot of startups trying to solve this from the supplier side but are there any startups working at solving this from the customer side?
- moate 5y ago
  Amazon, UberEats, Fresh Direct. All sorts of grocery delivery services
bluedino 5y ago
According to Chase my grocery spending is up 40% since two years ago. I buy so little beef these days. Chicken and pork (except for bacon which has doubled) haven't went up as much. The weirdest things are out of stock these days. Those canned cinnamon rolls are nowhere to be seen. They were out of carrots the other day. Certain breads... I really feel for lower or fixed income shoppers. Everything else has went up in price as well so they're making cuts somehow
- mariojv 5y ago
  Chicken thighs can be a great replacement for chicken breast. You may have to cook it a little differently, but if it's in a soup or other dish where it's mixed in, you can hardly tell any difference. I haven't done this myself but have seen great deals on whole chickens if you consume or freeze enough during the week for it to be worth it.
- HideousKojima 5y ago
  Pepperoni pizza rolls were out at all 3 of the grocery stores in my town (pop. ~20,000) as well as the cheapo Totino's frozen pizzas, and the pasta section was heavily picked over. Ramen noodles were also picked clean, it's super bizarre what does and doesn't get snapped up.
Animats 5y ago
"Omicron-driven absenteeism."
dsign 5y ago
That's puppies compared with Cuba and North Korea, where grocery store shortages have been the norm for many decades.
ncmncm 5y ago
It has been very hard to buy Friskies canned cat food in California for a long, long time. But not at all in New York.
fma 5y ago
I find it interesting that Gatorade has been short for months. Costco puts a limit and I've seen them bare on shelves for a while (and the other day). Not sure why...A quick google shows that PepsiCo dropping the ball no supply chain, workers etc...so it's interesting that much of this blame is put on Biden (#BareShelvesBiden) when really it's the free market and management that should be blamed. I have recently seen certain shelves bare of cereal and what not. So what do I do? Just buy a different kind of cereal and move on with life.

132 points by nimbius 5y ago

I haven't seen any, myself. And my anecdote is as good as theirs. It'd be nice if they actually pointed to, you know, data, for these kinds of stories. My pizza place was closed though. Everyone out with covid. And it wasn't the usual cashiers over at the grocery; I think they may have been temps, because they didn't know how to do anything.

justinator 5y ago
I certainly have. We literally LOST a place to buy groceries, as a good part of a town just burnt to the ground after (it seems to be coming to light[0]), a local cult decided to burn a railroad tie and left it smoldering while 100mph+ winds were being recorded. My King Soopers closed for renovations because of a domestic terrorist shot and killed a few people last year[1], And today, workers at King Soopers are starting their strike (which I support!). Given I also live in a unique enough geographic area where the land west of me for a few hundred miles includes mostly mountains, no groceries stores exist there - so the stores that are left are getting (to put lightly) hammered. And also Covid, shipping logistical problems, shortages with delivery drivers - pile it on. Affording to eat is getting more and more difficult. [0] I want to make clear that these are allegations, and no arrests have been made, but it's not looking great for the cult. https://kdvr.com/news/local/twelve-tribes-property-history-of-controlled-burns/ https://kdvr.com/news/local/twelve-tribes-property-history-o... [1] https://kdvr.com/news/boulder-grocery-store-shooting/records-king-soopers-shooter-had-look-of-pure-anger-during-2017-cold-cock-incident/ https://kdvr.com/news/boulder-grocery-store-shooting/records... [2] https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/workers-nearly-80-krogers-king-soopers-go-strike-talks-stall-2022-01-12/ https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/workers-nearly-8...
- jimkleiber 5y ago
  I used to live in that area, right near that King Soopers—I hadn't heard about the cause of that fire, thank you for pointing out the investigation into it. Regarding stores, this may seem a bit out of touch, as I assume their prices are probably more expensive and I also don't know what their stock is like, but a friend of mine recently opened a new (small) grocery store[0] downtown[1]. I'm no longer in the area so I've never been there, but perhaps they will have some better in stock or better in price than some other options. Anyway, just wanted to pass along in case it may help you. [0]: https://nudefoodsmarket.com/ https://nudefoodsmarket.com/ [1]: https://g.page/nudefoodsmarket https://g.page/nudefoodsmarket
  - justinator 5y ago
    Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out - doesn't hurt to wander by and say hello! Want to stress that the fire investigation is ongoing, but there's a lot of evidence pointing the start of the fire being on the Twelve Tribe's property. But I don't want things to become a witch hunt.
    - jimkleiber 5y ago
      Oh for sure! > But I don't want things to become a witch hunt. And i appreciate the qualification on this...I'll just try to follow it more closely than I had been before.
- Melting_Harps 5y ago
  > Affording to eat is getting more and more difficult. Boulder was never exactly a cheap place to eat, but you do have other choices: several Whole Foods, Safeways Lucky's and a Trader Joe's etc... I'm told Alfalfas went under during covid. Also, the Farmer's Markets Downtown when in season. Personally speaking, food costs have been artificially suppressed for far too long in the US; it has led to a situation in which food waste is abhorrently common. If this is what creates a paradigm shift, then so be it. Moreover, Boulder's community garden space is always an option if you can get in--right now you'd be limited on options with anything other than brassicas outside of a greenhouse. This is a much needed reset for Boulder in my opinion. It should live up to the values it supposedly promotes. Sidenote: I used to shop at that King Soopers in Table Mesa when visiting, too. Scary stuff... And that cult owns the Yellow Deli on Pearl street mall, right?
  - porknubbins 5y ago
    What do you mean by food prices have been artificially surpressed in the US? Most food waste I am aware of is to do with stores throwing out almost expired products, which bothers me but wouldn’t be helped by making things more expensive.
  - justinator 5y ago
    It's a squeeze - and I'm getting pretty close to making me feel bad for myself. But conventional grocery stores themselves are getting pretty expensive for very normal things. A Whole Foods is not a sustainable place to shop for me. I do live within spitting distance of the currently closed Kings Soopers, so that convenience is gone - as a cyclist, there's just so much cargo I can haul at one time so having a store close is a nicety. Safeway relinquished their ownership of Lucky's to the original owners! https://www.dailycamera.com/2021/06/09/lolitas-market-and-deli-in-boulder-sold-to-owners-of-luckys-market/ https://www.dailycamera.com/2021/06/09/lolitas-market-and-de... The Yellow Deli is indeed owned by the Twelve Tribes. It's currently closed.
willis936 5y ago
A week ago I bought the last package of chicken in a supermarket. Someone had been to three stores and couldn't find milk. Your anecdote is as good as mine. Investigative journalism with many samples is worth more than either anecdote.
- jonnycomputer 5y ago
  Ok, but checking in on twitter photos of empty shelves isn't investigative journalism, and the few people who might be in the position to know are saying its not like March 2020, e.g. "There are some issues with out-of-stocks, but it tends to be a situation where if you go to a store on a Tuesday night, maybe something's out of stock, but by Wednesday sometime it's back in store," Rose told NPR." The point is, the article would be less sensational and more informative if it could point to some kind of systematic data source--even one they collected themselves. But they don't.
reaperducer 5y ago
my anecdote is as good as theirs They actually talked to the California Grocers Association, and quoted the CEOs of Albertson's, the nation's largest supermarket company; and Conagra, one of the largest food companies on the planet. Not exactly anecdotes. These are people with access to real data. I haven't seen any, myself. I've seen it. I have a regular bi-weekly list, and a lot of the items are getting harder and harder to find. I have to try two or three stores, and even supplementing with Amazon Fresh, I still can't get everything. Two of the chain supermarkets near me have signs up apologizing for the empty shelves, saying they're stocking them as quickly as they can. Which tells me this is a staffing issue, not a supply issue.
- onecommentman 5y ago
  Would a Grocers Association or supermarket chain have any financial, political or legal reason to overemphasize that unusual or substantive shortages might be happening? Yes. (Though that doesn’t mean they are wrong or misleading in this case.) Which is why it is wise to look at actual objective nationwide data first. Anecdotes are useful in suggesting where to check real data (or gather real data if missing). Whoever is gathering supermarket pricing data on a nationwide basis (secret shoppers) would objectively know what’s happening, if anything, and if it is local or regional or nationwide. An actual news agency would have contacted them and paid for the general non-proprietary regional/national info. I agree with your take on this being a staffing issue where you are, if they are posting those sorts of signs and actively hiring.
  - reaperducer 5y ago
    Would a Grocers Association or supermarket chain have any financial, political or legal reason to overemphasize that unusual or substantive shortages might be happening? Contrary to what Hollywood and the internet would have you believe, not everything is a conspiracy. Inventing conspiracies any time something doesn't meet your worldview is just plain lazy. As for providing the hard data, if that's what you're after, subscribe to the Wall Street Journal. This is NPR. It's a radio network. It produces radio-sized reports. It just happens to also put those reports in text form on the web as a convenience. It's great that you're interested in the data. Go find it. It's out there. NPR isn't going to hand it to you on a silver platter. That's not what NPR is for. That's not what radio is for. Whoever is gathering supermarket pricing data on a nationwide basis The federal government does this every month. The data is available. Go nuts.
WheatM 5y ago
kyrra 5y ago
A writer at NR pointed out that most national papers haven't picked it up yet (this was on Tuesday), but many local ones had: https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/empty-shelves-disprove-bidens-supply-chain-boasts/ https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/empty-shelve...
d23 5y ago
We have seen it too. And they did point to data: a rise of posts about it on social media. They also interviewed experts about the issue and why it's happening.
snarf21 5y ago
You may not have seen it yet but you will. I'm on the east coast and I see it at every store, even Dollar General.
- taude 5y ago
  Weird, I'm on the east coast, too. And haven't seen any empty shelves in the grocery store.
pengaru 5y ago
VONS normally sells Open Nature "hormone+antibiotics free" rotisserie chickens on the daily. It's been coming up on a month now that they've been unable to get any of these according to the deli clerk. "We keep ordering them, but they don't show up" in her words. Starbucks has been completely out of espresso beans on multiple occasions this past month too. It's unclear to me how a Starbucks even stays open without espresso beans, but apparently not all their beverages actually contain freshly pulled espresso... I've only ever gotten shots of espresso. Walmart has been out of some multivitamins for over a month now too. I don't buy much stuff from these vendors, this actually amounts to a large portion of crap I consume that isn't just organic produce and canned sardines which I've fortunately not had trouble acquiring. The above is kind of the luxury junk I can do without, but there's clearly problems.
- reaperducer 5y ago
  Starbucks has been completely out of espresso beans on multiple occasions this past month too. The Starbucks down the block hasn't been able to get the flavor syrup I like since before Christmas. Like with your chicken, the manager says they just can't get it. The Starbucks store actually closed for a week not very long ago. I thought it was because of the 'rona. The manager said it was just that they didn't have enough staff and had to cover other stores.
nonford150 5y ago
The only store in my area which doesn't seem to be affected by massive shortages is Whole Foods. Guess the Amazon supply chain is fairly robust.

hprotagonist 5y ago

"There are some issues with out-of-stocks, but it tends to be a situation where if you go to a store on a Tuesday night, maybe something's out of stock, but by Wednesday sometime it's back in store," Rose told NPR. This describes about the “worst” i’ve seen, in new england. I had no trouble getting some fairly fussy ingredients for holiday cooking or my annual winter anti-depression baking spasms. Still, march 2020 did make the point that maybe having a pantry of staples in rotation at home is a real smart idea.

cableshaft 5y ago
Yeah I did the pantry thing after March 2020 (in the basement, the kitchen doesn't have a proper pantry) and wasn't careful enough about protecting it. It was fine for a year, but this winter we got mice in the house and now we have to toss what wasn't in cans or plastic containers already. We set some live traps and I've caught and released (several miles away) four mice already. Still a good idea, we just can't have anything mice could possibly get into next time.
- hprotagonist 5y ago
  it’s advertised as a kibble container but we all know it holds 25 pounds of flour juuust fine. (and we use it quickly enough, which is kind of shocking but also, pie crust is easy!)
  - reaperducer 5y ago
    pie crust is easy So is pizza dough! I make it about once a week, and every time I'm reminded of my younger generation boss who didn't know that pizza dough is just flour, water, salt, and yeast. She though it was some kind of magic plastic or something and refused to eat pizza because of it. People really are getting too far away from their food sources.
    - b112 5y ago
      Wha? How?! Plastic?? That's bizarre.

prawn 5y ago

Meat shelves have been cleaned out at the supermarkets in Australia the last couple of visits. Hopefully encourages people to try their local butcher instead.

ravenstine 5y ago
Freezing meat when it's available is an option too.
- prawn 5y ago
  Haven't checked this time, but last time the shelves cleared, the chest freezers were all sold out or expensive in second hand marketplaces. The used market went from people struggling to sell cheap to 4-5x the price and virtually none on offer.
hffftz 5y ago
The fresh seafood was completely empty at my local grocery today

post_break 5y ago

We just went shopping after being out for a while. The prices were incredible. The availability was scarce. We’re stocking up on cat food since it’s harder to come by. Meat prices mean buying chubs and vacuum and sealing. Costco hot dogs for lunch is becoming an increasing thing for me.

pjscott 5y ago
It’s interesting that things differ so much from one region to the next. I’m in the Midwest and everything is abundant, the shelves are full, and you can get pork for $1-2 per pound, usually on the lower end of that range, and chicken at moderate prices. Is shipping the bottleneck here?

mauvehaus 5y ago

When did they go away? We've got toilet paper labeled in English again here in VT/NH (Spanish is not widely spoken in this region, to put it mildly), but there's certainly been shortages of a wide assortment of things. At the grocery stores, they've been the limited to reduced brand choices and workaroundable sorts of problems. Elsewhere, things have been weird. Target opened a new site recently and the clothing selection was slim. At various points I the last year it has been hard to buy all of the following: 1) a dish pan 2) car wax 3) shellac (now back in stock) 4) .22LR ammunition (ongoing) 5) cabinet grade plywood (recent development) 6) a roof rake (for removing snow from your roof, obvs. This was new for me too) 7) EN 417 fuel canisters for backpacking stoves (severe and ongoing) The hiccups have been here all along, it's just that they're hitting things everybody buys.

sokoloff 5y ago
.22LR has been ongoing so long that it’s on its third presidential administration, isn’t it? 2013 start?
- 83 5y ago
  Prices have been high since 2013ish on .22LR, but you could generally still buy some. It wasn't until the 2020 summer of covid and George Floyd protests that it became almost entirely unavailable, regardless of price. That is just starting to open up a bit in the midwest as I occasionally see it available now but it sells out quickly.

mandeepj 5y ago

After a long time - Yesterday, I noticed a lot of empty shelves in poultry and produce at Whole foods. Although no similar sight was to see at Trader Joe’s

CyanLite2 5y ago

Sounds like there's going to be a glut of over-production in March.

Proven 5y ago

skunkworker 5y ago

I was at a local Trader Joes on the 3rd of January, the store was much more barren than normal, and when I went up to the counter I asked if the truck was delayed, it wasn't. They had a larger rush on Jan 2nd and 3rd than they had leading up to Christmas and New Years. It was very odd to see.

itsgrimetime 5y ago
the TJ's near me (greater Seattle area) was pretty bare, but they did miss their daily delivery (due to landslide blocking a highway). almost all cold dairy & vegetables were out of stock
ncmncm 5y ago
"Out of Stock" is the Authentic Trader Joe's Experience. It goes along with everything being a long, long way from its "sell-by" date. (Except walnuts, oddly: only ever buy organic walnuts from TJ.)

actusual 5y ago

The QFC (Kroger owned grocery stores in the PNW) by me had to close early this past Sunday because it ran out of people to run the store. I had been there earlier in the afternoon and the site of bare shelves and lines as long as the entire length of the store was actually unnerving.

ryanmarsh 5y ago
It ran out of people willing to work for poverty wages.
allenu 5y ago
Wow, do you know if it's because people quit or were sick at home with Covid? I remember the week after New Year's going into a grocery store (Ballard Market here in Seattle) and there were probably around 50% of the employees normally working there. I assumed it was due to people being at home sick, but didn't ask.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  I would guess it is due to labor supply going down at the price grocery stores are used to and willing to pay. I am seeing the same story play out at many other in person businesses used to paying low wages for in person work, especially at undesirable times of the day and week. Daycares, hotels, restaurants, car rentals, healthcare, etc.
  - CamperBob2 5y ago
    I've also heard that parking-lot delivery orders are causing labor issues. If you order a bunch of stuff from the store for curbside delivery, an employee has to spend a significant amount of time doing the shopping for you, likely in addition to their other duties. This is apparently VERY disruptive.

pessimizer 5y ago

Aldi's distribution has been hit particularly badly. A couple of weeks ago, my local Aldi had run out of salt. I never would have imagined a grocery store could run out of salt.

SilasX 5y ago
Nor a post office to run out of stamps in their stamp vending machine, but it happened to the one near me.
- ThePadawan 5y ago
  Swiss Mail raised the prices for 1st class mail from CHF1.00 to CHF1.10 on January 1st... ...and ran out of CHF0.10 stamps in vending machines, within the week. You really have to wonder what they expected.
- ericbarrett 5y ago
  My experience with the USPS stamp vending machines since long before the pandemic is that they are out of stock about half the time.
  - SilasX 5y ago
    I had never seen it happen myself.
Tagbert 5y ago
If there is snow or significant freezing rain, there may be a run on salt when people buy it to apply to steps and sidewalks to melt the ice.
ja27 5y ago
Weird, here Aldi and Walmart have seemed pretty unaffected but Publix has had a lot of empty shelves.

syshum 5y ago

I have not been inside a grocery store for over a year... But I have not seen any major changes in my curbside pickup order, no major out of stocks, no major substitution.

groby_b 5y ago
Same thing here. I suspect that's due to the fact that a) curbside services charge a nifty premium, and stores revenue share with them. I'd be surprised if that doesn't lead to prioritization. b) this is demand usually known well in advance, which helps the stores deal with planning. c) In many stores, it's strictly a shelving issue. If the curbside service has in-store pickers, there's a chance they can skip shelving and the need for shelving staff. d) The curbside delivery workforce is a bit more elastic, so Covid shortages don't necessarily manifest the same way. c
- reaperducer 5y ago
  Don't forget: e) Curbside usually doesn't offer everything in store. It only offers the most popular or plentiful items. For example, if I go to my local mega-chain supermarket, I can choose from six or eight different brands of white bread. If I do the order online, there's only three.
- syshum 5y ago
  A. The store I shop at provides their own Curb Side services, for free. i.e Kroger, Walmart, Meijer, all have these services, free right now. Kroger used to charge a $5 fee but they have suspended that for last couple of years at least B. I think that is giving them too much credit, I normally use Kroger, and even if I place my order a few days in advance I can edit it (and normally do) up to midnight before my pickup day. C. this is likely true.
pixl97 5y ago
Which store chain is this? With Walmart and HEB curbside in the Austin area it's been very common for subs/out of stocks. Going into the HEB over the last week has shown rapidly fluctuating stocks in many items. For example diet drinks of almost any kind were sparse in the store. Meat and cheese was well stocked, but bread was half stocked. Then I may go another time and the items that are missing are in stock and something new is missing. Very hit and miss.

vondur 5y ago

I see empty shelves in our local Targets here in SoCal quite frequently. Pasta has been hard to get, and dairy items are sparse.

paxys 5y ago

> "We're really seeing the perfect storm," If these "perfect storms" happen six times a year maybe it's not the storm but their own logistics to blame?

JPKab 5y ago
Nobody exists in a vacuum when it comes to supply chains. It's a supply chain, not a supply pipe. There's only so much that can be done. Their logistics didn't suddenly get incompetent between 2019 and now.
- rch 5y ago
  The assertion is that they were always incompetent, but it wasn't broadly apparent until now.
  - gregw2 5y ago
    Nah, they just optimize for lower capital tied up in inventory (and stocking space) which the CFO watches, versus lower service levels which an operations person watches which has a less concrete/direct/measurable financial impact. (Perhaps I am equally as cynical as you but just from a different angle?)
    - rch 5y ago
      Maybe, but I think CFO-types should (and often do) consider supply chain risks in their cash flow estimates. I'd also hope (wish) that people in general pay more attention their exposure to disruptive events at the local, regional, and global levels going forward.

nickvanw 5y ago

I live in the Seattle-area where we've been hit with some serious winter weather in the mountain passes, to the point that for a period of a few hours, there was practically no route to drive to a neighboring state, and the passes were closed for the better part of 72+ hours. Even with that, and the rest of the aforementioned issues, I have had virtually no problem shopping for what I needed with some small changes, like buying a different brand of eggs or getting organic bananas. This was even after 2-3 days of mountain closures and the panic shopping that goes with that. This seems to mainly be an issue with convenience - decades of excellent logistics have trained us to basically expect a store to always be in stock of a wide variety of perishables. It's no surprise that when something disrupts that finely-tuned machine, we have to deal with some small setbacks.

01100011 5y ago
You live in a major metropolitan area full of warehouses and featuring a major west coast port. You weren't cut off from anything. Other states were cut off from you.
sbierwagen 5y ago
I mean, we also have a major deepwater port. It's not like inland Alaska here where shut down roads mean you're totally isolated. In fact, just yesterday a new terminal came online with cranes that match the reach of Long Beach: https://www.nwseaportalliance.com/newsroom/ssa-marine-and-northwest-seaport-alliance-welcome-first-vessel-call-newly-modernized https://www.nwseaportalliance.com/newsroom/ssa-marine-and-no... (This project was started in 2016, which is one answer to "why don't we just add more capacity to solve port traffic jams")
bc_skier 5y ago
I live to the west of you out on the peninsula and we couldn't get milk for the past week and a half. As in there wasn't a single carton of milk anywhere in multiple stores. Curious if it's just smaller towns relying on distribution from the city, and getting cut off first or what. I figured Seattle would have had similar issues.

rossdavidh 5y ago

In line with what a few other people here have said, I should mention that where I am (Austin, TX, USA), I literally just came from the grocery store before reading this, and everything seemed to be in stock. I'm not saying there were zero issues, but nothing we were looking for, and certainly no bare shelves. Maybe it's more weather-related? We certainly have no shortage of Omicron in Texas, but the grocery stores (and the supply chains that provide them) seem to be doing fine.

mariojv 5y ago
San Antonio here. Things seem to be fine. I went to the store on a Sunday morning and it wasn't very busy, nothing was sold out. I had been worried because I saw lines outside of a store closer to me, presumably due to capacity restrictions. The other day, my husband went, and they were out of frozen potatoes. That can happen either from shortages or a freezer malfunction, though, so it was relatively normal. I am actually pleasantly surprised at how well the supply chain is holding up during this wave.
ryanmarsh 5y ago
God bless HEB.

syntheweave 5y ago

California mostly seems to be doing OK on its supplies. I have noticed that fresh milk in single-serving quantities(which I'll pick up on walks) has basically disappeared though.

dognotdog 5y ago
Seeing the same in PA, quarts of many brands are out of stock at various stores, but half gallon and up are available.

guessbest 5y ago

I understand there are probably a lot of startups trying to solve this from the supplier side but are there any startups working at solving this from the customer side?

moate 5y ago
Amazon, UberEats, Fresh Direct. All sorts of grocery delivery services

bluedino 5y ago

According to Chase my grocery spending is up 40% since two years ago. I buy so little beef these days. Chicken and pork (except for bacon which has doubled) haven't went up as much. The weirdest things are out of stock these days. Those canned cinnamon rolls are nowhere to be seen. They were out of carrots the other day. Certain breads... I really feel for lower or fixed income shoppers. Everything else has went up in price as well so they're making cuts somehow

mariojv 5y ago
Chicken thighs can be a great replacement for chicken breast. You may have to cook it a little differently, but if it's in a soup or other dish where it's mixed in, you can hardly tell any difference. I haven't done this myself but have seen great deals on whole chickens if you consume or freeze enough during the week for it to be worth it.
HideousKojima 5y ago
Pepperoni pizza rolls were out at all 3 of the grocery stores in my town (pop. ~20,000) as well as the cheapo Totino's frozen pizzas, and the pasta section was heavily picked over. Ramen noodles were also picked clean, it's super bizarre what does and doesn't get snapped up.

Animats 5y ago

"Omicron-driven absenteeism."

dsign 5y ago

That's puppies compared with Cuba and North Korea, where grocery store shortages have been the norm for many decades.

ncmncm 5y ago

It has been very hard to buy Friskies canned cat food in California for a long, long time. But not at all in New York.

fma 5y ago

I find it interesting that Gatorade has been short for months. Costco puts a limit and I've seen them bare on shelves for a while (and the other day). Not sure why...A quick google shows that PepsiCo dropping the ball no supply chain, workers etc...so it's interesting that much of this blame is put on Biden (#BareShelvesBiden) when really it's the free market and management that should be blamed. I have recently seen certain shelves bare of cereal and what not. So what do I do? Just buy a different kind of cereal and move on with life.