Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

[Alpha8472]

I have noticed many items that are made in China have been out of stock for a long time. There is a shortage of bandages, towels, and many other items.

Are the factories in China still closed, or is China just not shipping anything out due to our disputes with them?

[pseudo3d]

I have noticed many items that are made in China have been out of stock for a long time. There is a shortage of bandages, towels, and many other items.

Are the factories in China still closed, or is China just not shipping anything out due to our disputes with them?

I think the problem is that stores tend to ship by inventory demand so high-demand items take priority over lower demand items. For example, the soft drink aisle I remember wasn't affected in the initial rush, but as stores struggled to stock paper products (which before was never an issue), the soft drink aisle started to look pretty ragged as it was clear it was not being restocked.

As for store operations, my local H-E-B reopened the pizza restaurant (seating still closed) and partial bulk operations (coffee beans, but no grinding, or bulk items but no scoops). Center store is getting more and more items back.

[babs]

I have noticed many items that are made in China have been out of stock for a long time. There is a shortage of bandages, towels, and many other items.

Are the factories in China still closed, or is China just not shipping anything out due to our disputes with them?

The factories are open but are still recovering from the earlier shutdowns due to COVID. And it takes up to 6 weeks to ship product via ocean freight. That's why Chinese goods are ordered so far out.

[storewanderer]

I have noticed many items that are made in China have been out of stock for a long time. There is a shortage of bandages, towels, and many other items.

Are the factories in China still closed, or is China just not shipping anything out due to our disputes with them?

Many private label bandages are Made in USA. For instance at Kroger various of the bandages are Made in USA; same at Rite Aid as I recently purchased some bandages there and saw at least 4-5 boxes of their brand that were Made in USA. The Gauze is Made in China.

[storewanderer]

I went into Vons today. This store is in Bishop. The store was pretty well stocked in general; bakery, deli, and produce all looked terrible and very understocked with awful execution. I am also going to add Vons has some of the worst fried chicken I've ever had. This is not Albertsons chicken, I don't know what it is (it had feathers...), but it was terrible. It kind of reminds me of the fried chicken Food Source used to sell back when it had a hot food counter (this was straight from the freezer pre-breaded stuff) but somehow this was tougher and just worse. But on the bright side, they had the Giant Eagle paper products (2.79 for 160ct Facial Tissue?????).

Oh, and the Bishop Vons has been "remodeled." They kept the all of the Lifestyle wall fixtures but put "color" paint in the backgrounds. And they brightened the lights. Same refrigeration, tiles behind service counters, checkstands, etc. Talk about cheap... is this really the best they can do for a high profit store like this?

Where it fell apart the most was the front end. They have gone to a single line set up. They have done this by getting yellow CAUTION tape and roping off the entire front end so you cannot enter into any of the checkstands. Then there is a single line that feeds into the 4 self checkouts and the 9 or so regular checkstands. When I got there, there were about 5 people waiting for the 3 open regular checkstands but nobody was using the self checkouts for some reason (none had alcohol- I looked at all of the carts as I walked by which only had a few items) which I could not figure out. Nobody was managing the line so nobody seemed to know when it was time to move forward.

I walked through the store for about 15 minutes and at the point I got over to the deli at that point the checkout line was stretching all the way over to deli (past Starbucks) and had probably 20 people in it. One person was standing there coughing and there was a kid sitting in the cart coughing too, right near the Starbucks, with people standing on both sides. There is no social distancing for Starbucks customers when the line is this long or for people walking past on the opposite side (sales floor side) either. At this point some person in a light blue dress shirt uniform that looked like Albertsons manager uniforms in 2005 got up there and started to direct traffic, tell people they could use self checkout, etc.

This Bishop Vons, is a really poorly run operation. Stater really should figure out how to get a store in Bishop. Vons pays rent on the empty Kmart #1 (a 65k square foot building), which is a perfect size box for another grocery store, plus there is also empty Kmart #2 next to the Vons (15 year old large building) I am not clear what the lease status on is.

Curiously I also went into the Mammoth Lakes Vons; this store looked a lot better (Mammoth Lakes is pretty much deserted right now), and did not have the "single line" set up, just normal front end set up as one would expect.

Grocery Outlet has opened in both Mammoth Lakes and Bishop and seems to be doing very well in both locations. Smart & Final Extra in Bishop (tiny store) was so busy I couldn't even find a parking space so I didn't stop there. Clearly they have taken a lot of customers from Vons. Vons prices have fallen considerably from their previous pricing in the Bishop/Mammoth locations. There were still some pretty awful prices but it was by no means every item like it used to be with a terrible price, and perishables are noticeably better priced than before. They also now have a 2 page color ad flyer, vs. the past where they had a one page ad and it was on black and white photocopy paper.

[rwsandiego]

Would like to see pictures of the Bishop Vons. Why are they paying the rent on the K-Mart building?

[storewanderer]

Would like to see pictures of the Bishop Vons. Why are they paying the rent on the K-Mart building?

They want to keep a competitor out so they pay rent on Kmart #1. So we will see what happens with Kmart #2. There is also "old Vons #1" which has been a motorsport shop for years now, and "old Vons #2" which was vacant for a long time, then became "ValueSports" then vacant again for a while and recently refilled with Big 5/Auto Zone (suspect there is something keeping a grocer from opening in that space too but may be wrong; lousy location in my opinion).
https://thesheetnews.com/2019/11/15/bis ... -to-close/

"As for the property that Kmart sits on, Elaine Kabala, the Bishop city planner, told The Sheet that Kmart doesn’t own the property; they simply lease it. The company that owns it is a third party and Bishop has been talking with the owner to ask about what might be next. “We certainly don’t want the space to stay empty,” said Kabala

Thomson brought up her worst case scenario as well, “The worst thing that could happen is Vons holds the space hostage like they did to the old Kmart spot.” She said.

Kabala confirmed that Vons is holding the space hostage by leasing the old Kmart. They don’t own the property where the old Kmart sits but have a long-term lease on the space."

[klkla]

Where it fell apart the most was the front end. They have gone to a single line set up. They have done this by getting yellow CAUTION tape and roping off the entire front end so you cannot enter into any of the checkstands. Then there is a single line that feeds into the 4 self checkouts and the 9 or so regular checkstands. When I got there, there were about 5 people waiting for the 3 open regular checkstands but nobody was using the self checkouts for some reason (none had alcohol- I looked at all of the carts as I walked by which only had a few items) which I could not figure out. Nobody was managing the line so nobody seemed to know when it was time to move forward.

The Vons at 3rd & Vermont in L.A. was doing something similar.

There was a young employee monitoring the checkstand area and he would tell people to line up on the aisle where the greeting cards are stocked six feet apart. He monitored which checkstands were available and directed customers to the appropriate one.

He was very conscientious and organized. I'm not sure most of their employees would have been able to keep it organized and moving like he did.

[storewanderer]

The Vons at 3rd & Vermont in L.A. was doing something similar.

There was a young employee monitoring the checkstand area and he would tell people to line up on the aisle where the greeting cards are stocked six feet apart. He monitored which checkstands were available and directed customers to the appropriate one.

He was very conscientious and organized. I'm not sure most of their employees would have been able to keep it organized and moving like he did.

The greeting card aisle is a great place to do this (but it wouldn't have been on Mother's Day weekend...) now, at least the line will not be in close contact with many passing by customers. The front walkway as Bishop had, was NOT the right place.

Have not seen this set up in any NorCal Safeway locations and I've been to many. I am glad they have not done this as I think it is a terrible set up. I would not shop at a store with this set up. It is putting the customer at unnecessary risk to be stuck in the middle of a long line, trapped by caution tape, with who knows what behind them or walking past them potentially sick or coughing. In a standard "free" line if I saw something I didn't like, I'd get out of the line and move to a different line or even leave the front end and wait 5 minutes and go back up and pay (which I did in a store last weekend when a customer showed up who could NOT stop coughing; must have heard her cough 200 times in the 5 minutes she was inside the store and probably 40 of those times while she was in line/checkstand). In this situation it is like an airport security or something you are basically trapped and if you find you are by someone who is obviously sick or getting too close to you, it is not such an easy "out."

Also seems like you are exposing that "line monitoring employee" to close contact with a lot of customers unnecessarily... the grocers need to be exposing as few employees as possible to direct customer contact or close contact with customers. This creates another person who is being exposed, to literally EVERY customer who comes in. This is quite dangerous and irresponsible of the store.

[Alpha8472]

A large Safeway in my city has plexiglass in front of the cashier and behind the cashier now. It still does not cover up the entire area, but it is at least some protection from behind now. The shields still need to be bigger and cover more of the area.

I think they should clean the credit card reader after every customer. Every single time, you have to key in your phone number for the Safeway Club card and then you have to press whether you want to donate to a charity or not.