Retail Watchers

https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2020 ... e-of-2020/

UNFI could not keep up with the run on tofu in Seattle.

Shows how much demand there really is for vegetarian products in West Coast cities--here in my town, tofu and other vegetarian products were easy to find with new shortages or limits.

Funny, here in Reno Smiths a couple years ago did a nice job getting in 6-8 different brands/types of Tofu including a couple Simple Truth SKUs. It looked to me like it sold well, I never saw it on markdown and never saw any expired... Then last year they discontinued all but one of them. Eventually the Simple Truth did show back up but it is inconsistently stocked.

I have also had a lot of issues with Safeway where they have a lot more SKUs of Tofu selling seriously expired product.

Not an isolated thing. Giant-Landover still hasn't restocked tofu and there's been very little at Whole foods. Trade Joe's, supplied by UNFI finally had a normal selection late last week.

Tofu shortages make sense in the context of shortages of pasta, dried beans, and rice. Tofu is bought for protein (like beans). it also provides bulk for dishes much like the usual carbs. It's also pretty shelf stable (in the fridge of course), although less so than pasta, beans or rice. It's not just for a small minority of shoppers.