More weather related supply chain disruptions in Western WA

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More weather related supply chain disruptions in Western WA

Post by Brian Lutz »

Due to heavy snow in the Cascades last week, all of the mountain passes across the Cascades in Washington were closed for roughly three days, and during that time there was also a brief closure of I-5 due to flooding on the Chehalis River. Snoquamie Pass (I-90) has been partially reopened now, but with trucks blocked for the better part of three days it's going to take a while to get things back to normal. I haven't been out shopping much, but did see a number of out-of-stock items at Winco in Marysville yesterday.
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Re: More weather related supply chain disruptions in Western WA

Post by Super S »

I was at the WinCo in Longview tonight. About the only odd thing I noticed was that they were almost completely out of bananas. There were a couple of specific frozen food items out of stock, but this seems to be an ongoing issue that has been going on a while. I have actually found Walmart to more consistently have frozen items I buy in stock.

I think west of the Cascades there wasn't as much disruption, but with that said, every route east, including Interstate 84 and US 26 in Oregon was closed for a period of time, so any items coming from the east by truck might be impacted for at least a few days.

Leavenworth, WA got a record 36" of snow in 24 hours. I could see that affecting the Safeway there.
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Re: More weather related supply chain disruptions in Western WA

Post by Brian Lutz »

Another article on this. In particular, it seems that fresh goods such as meat, bread and dairy are currently in short supply on store shelves:

https://komonews.com/news/local/reopeni ... ed-shelves
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Re: More weather related supply chain disruptions in Western WA

Post by Super S »

I don't know if this is related to recent weather issues, but I did a weekly shopping trip last night. WinCo had a lot of random out of stocks of items I regularly buy, mostly center store items, but was also out of the variety of orange juice I prefer, and there were a lot of out of stock items in the frozen foods area. I went to Fred Meyer and noticed similar issues in frozen foods (including a type of frozen dinners I prefer that I can not find elsewhere), but the store was otherwise well-stocked. I continued to Walmart which had most of the frozen items I was after, but noticed their produce department seemed lightly stocked.

I can't comment about Safeway as I generally do not shop there. But I will say that WinCo seems to be struggling at times to keep the store stocked, particularly their frozen foods area, as I mentioned previously.
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Re: More weather related supply chain disruptions in Western WA

Post by storewanderer »

WinCo in Reno has been completely out of gallons of water the past few weeks every time I go in, and puts other items in the space now. I am not sure if they have decided it just isn't worth wasting space in a truck for gallons of water or what.

Throughout the store they have scattered out of stocks but at the same time they also have quite a few good deals, better than other stores and better than they were having the past few months. Prices are rising on some items but there are a lot of really good deals.
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Re: More weather related supply chain disruptions in Western WA

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: January 25th, 2022, 11:13 pm WinCo in Reno has been completely out of gallons of water the past few weeks every time I go in, and puts other items in the space now. I am not sure if they have decided it just isn't worth wasting space in a truck for gallons of water or what.

Throughout the store they have scattered out of stocks but at the same time they also have quite a few good deals, better than other stores and better than they were having the past few months. Prices are rising on some items but there are a lot of really good deals.
I have noticed gallons of water randomly out as well. I get it when there is severe weather....we had snow then flooding in some areas recently. WinCo does have a refill station, but I question the cleanliness and maintenance, and the machine was frequently out of commission. They did install a new machine, but I am not confident it's being maintained.

To be fair, WinCo for the most part keeps things stocked well. But I sometimes scratch my head when stocking issues seem to be happening somewhat regularly on certain items.
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Re: More weather related supply chain disruptions in Western WA

Post by storewanderer »

Super S wrote: January 26th, 2022, 9:18 am

I have noticed gallons of water randomly out as well. I get it when there is severe weather....we had snow then flooding in some areas recently. WinCo does have a refill station, but I question the cleanliness and maintenance, and the machine was frequently out of commission. They did install a new machine, but I am not confident it's being maintained.

To be fair, WinCo for the most part keeps things stocked well. But I sometimes scratch my head when stocking issues seem to be happening somewhat regularly on certain items.
WinCo historically puts a huge focus on being in-stock. Multiple employees monitor this on the grocery aisles and in the past they do a good job forecasting demand, ordering extra product, moving stuff around if the aisle space gets empty but there is a display elsewhere, etc. This was before the COVID situation. Since the COVID situation it did seem like last summer they were getting back to their old model but more recently the supply situation has become very difficult and out of the store's control. I think at this point the out of stocks are on the warehouse/supplier end of things.

I have also noticed this situation you describe where one store is well stocked in a category A, poorly stocked in category B, then when you go to a competitor store you see the exact opposite in-stock condition between the two categories. I don't really understand it but I think it has something to do with chains that may supply stores from warehouses in different geographies or something.

It is also my impression lately that large chains are getting restocked first and smaller chains are being left out to last priority. A few independents in my area supplied by C&S have horrific in-stock conditions. Some in NorCal who use C&S who have other options like their own small warehouses/trucks are going with alternate suppliers for some categories just to stay in stock. They try to order but they are not getting product from C&S due to supposedly warehouse outs.

Wal Mart's distribution for OR/WA is in Herminston, OR for non food and Grandview, WA for dry and perishable food.
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