Retail Watchers

Was in Target and Hannaford earlier today and both of them were quite thinly stocked in pasta and boxed cookies of all things. Pasta was particularly bad; took the last five boxes of rigatoni Target had and Hannaford was almost bare as well. Brand-wise it didn't matter; there was pretty not much of anything to be had.

Pasta seems fairly well stocked out west. I have noticed some brands/SKUs have disappeared in the past couple of years (seems to be a lot less "Product of Italy" pasta out there in private label now across all chains) and price has spiked. I'd guess assortment is still much better in the east and midwest on pasta, once they can get the supply chain issues fixed.

Kroger Private Selection Pasta (this is still imported) used to routinely go on sale well under $1 with a buy 5 event or similar; recently they ran a sale of 1.27 with digital coupon (regular price is under $2). Some CA chains are over $3 on boxes of basic Barilla also. So prices have sure spiked.

TW-Upstate NY wrote: ↑June 14th, 2022, 12:37 pm Was in Target and Hannaford earlier today and both of them were quite thinly stocked in pasta and boxed cookies of all things. Pasta was particularly bad; took the last five boxes of rigatoni Target had and Hannaford was almost bare as well. Brand-wise it didn't matter; there was pretty not much of anything to be had.

I've noticed a lot of pasta shortages here in the Midwest over the past 45 days or so, too. Walmart and Target seem especially affected. At one visit to a Walmart last month, the entire pasta section was very nearly empty. I was there again two days ago, and the inventory has recovered somewhat, but the shelves are still beyond half empty.

I noticed Walmart and other stores had a shortage of distilled water a while ago. About a month ago Walmart started getting tons of distilled and other gallon water bottles from a new company. The new bottles are clear plastic and look like Crystal Geyser gallons instead of frosted milk jugs.

Now the new gallons of water seem plentiful. Who makes the new water? They look like the Refreshe brand bottles at Safeway.

Alpha8472 wrote: ↑October 2nd, 2022, 3:16 pm I noticed Walmart and other stores had a shortage of distilled water a while ago. About a month ago Walmart started getting tons of distilled and other gallon water bottles from a new company. The new bottles are clear plastic and look like Crystal Geyser gallons instead of frosted milk jugs.

Now the new gallons of water seem plentiful. Who makes the new water? They look like the Refreshe brand bottles at Safeway.

Those waters are private label but produced by Crystal Geyser. Similar to how they produce private label tea for Raleys (may have been discontinued) and Trader Joe's along with their Tejava product.

There is expected to be a shortage of rice, oranges, and beef. In California the worst drought in 1,200 years has reduced the rice crops. Hurricanes in Florida have knocked oranges and grapefruits off of the trees before they could be harvested. Due to the Texas droughts there is not enough grass for female cows, and buying feed is too expensive. Female cows are being slaughtered for food, and they won't be able to produce more cows. This will lead to a shortage of cows and increased beef prices.

https://bestlifeonline.com/food-shortag ... soon-news/

My local Costco has been limiting eggs and romaine lettuce for the past month or so now.

I have battled a cold for the last couple weeks. A shortage I have been seeing is cough and cold products. Either this indicates a really bad flu season or it shows how bad the supply chain is. Walmart and Fred Meyer were pretty much wiped out of every product with bare shelves, but there was spotty availability at both Walgreens and Fred Meyer of things like cough drops. I don't recall a time in past years though where multiple stores had bare shelves though.

Alpha8472 wrote: ↑December 9th, 2022, 11:24 am There is expected to be a shortage of rice, oranges, and beef. In California the worst drought in 1,200 years has reduced the rice crops. Hurricanes in Florida have knocked oranges and grapefruits off of the trees before they could be harvested. Due to the Texas droughts there is not enough grass for female cows, and buying feed is too expensive. Female cows are being slaughtered for food, and they won't be able to produce more cows. This will lead to a shortage of cows and increased beef prices.

https://bestlifeonline.com/food-shortag ... soon-news/

Seems like that might cause an issue with beef in the future, but at the same time there should be more available right now, if they are getting rid of cows that would usually be kept to breed instead.

Also wondering if they were able to collect some of the oranges and still use them for juice, as there seem to be quite a few sales on the fresh juice in the last several weeks (as low as $1.99 this week for one of the store brands here, all of which were $2.99 a couple months back).

Super S wrote: ↑December 11th, 2022, 8:53 am I have battled a cold for the last couple weeks. A shortage I have been seeing is cough and cold products. Either this indicates a really bad flu season or it shows how bad the supply chain is. Walmart and Fred Meyer were pretty much wiped out of every product with bare shelves, but there was spotty availability at both Walgreens and Fred Meyer of things like cough drops. I don't recall a time in past years though where multiple stores had bare shelves though.

There has definitely been more on the news about kids getting sick (including hospitals being filled), and that there were issues with a shortfall in kids medicines.

I guess it makes sense that adult illnesses might be higher as well (if nothing else, those parents that catch what their kids have), plus possibly that if they have trouble getting kids versions of medicine, they are taking the adult versions to use in place (since they are similar, mainly different dosages, but one could use less for a child to reduce the dose to a kid sized one if that was all that was available).