2020 shortages

[Gardening with Rabbits]

The first snowstorm was the other day and DD went to Walmart to get Evelyn a pair of snow boots. She was lucky she found one pair of boots to fit her, $30 something plus for a pair of boots for a 2-year-old.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Pumpkin missing from the grocery store. Ever since this thing started, we have had trouble getting corn taco shells. We can get them now, but a lot of the times they seem stale. I did not renew our Costco membership after they had people lined up outside and only a few in the store, but I went with DD the other day who is stocking up things and I decided to renew the membership. Store looked really well stocked. I did notice the organic flour I usually buy there was all gone. Big empty spot where it had been. They still had a limit on yeast. The local grocery store just a few weeks ago had almost no dishsoap. I stood there staring and could not believe it. Walmart is still having trouble getting yarn and sewing supplies. They did get some fabric in. Joann's is full, but I look at the new arrivals and the fabric is not from China like before, now it is from Pakistan.

 

[ducks4you]

Bought two 12 pack of Ball pints at WM yesterday. LOOKING for quarts, but I need to go through some of those in the basement. We are making a big batch of chili and DD and DH are canning it on Sunday. Refridgerator temperatures of 38 for a low Saturday night/Sunday morning, so the chili will be chilled out there, then canned. Didn't see any lids, but I have a good supply of those.
For dehydrated herbs I suggest that 1/4 pint Ball jars:

Ball 4oz 4pk Glass Mini Mason Jar with Lid

Read reviews and buy Ball 4oz 4pk Glass Mini Mason Jar with Lid at Target. Choose from contactless Same Day Delivery, Drive Up and more.

www.target.com

They are sold at WM, Tractor Supply and many other places, too, NOT for water sealing, just small storage with a solid lid to put in your spice cabinet...or, I guess for sewing supplies.

 

[ducks4you]

Pumpkin missing from the grocery store. Ever since this thing started, we have had trouble getting corn taco shells. We can get them now, but a lot of the times they seem stale. I did not renew our Costco membership after they had people lined up outside and only a few in the store, but I went with DD the other day who is stocking up things and I decided to renew the membership. Store looked really well stocked. I did notice the organic flour I usually buy there was all gone. Big empty spot where it had been. They still had a limit on yeast. The local grocery store just a few weeks ago had almost no dishsoap. I stood there staring and could not believe it. Walmart is still having trouble getting yarn and sewing supplies. They did get some fabric in. Joann's is full, but I look at the new arrivals and the fabric is not from China like before, now it is from Pakistan.

Try first microwaving the stale taco shells, then heating them up in the oven to dry them out.

 

[ducks4you]

I was able to find 2 gallon ziplock bags from a store about 25 minutes away, in another town, and I stocked up on them. SOMEtimes you need bigger bags.
SUGGESTION: Store crackers inside ziplock bags Inside of large jars. I have one of those colored glass jars but the lid isn't secure. I just put oyster crackers inside of a 2 gallon bag inside of this, so that they don't go stale.
WHO wants to buy something twice?!?!?

 

[Zeedman]

Most stores here are well stocked with most items - even some canning jars (but no lids yet). DW & I went grocery shopping yesterday because the local Aldi had just reopened after being closed for remodeling. Frankly, I'm surprised that the shopping crowd is relatively light, I expected an election-related mini-panic... maybe that is more likely in the large metro areas.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Was at the clearance store (Home goods) today. Managed to find Mom her frying pan, but everything else was sort of sparse.

Most notable was the olive oil. We go through a LOT of oil and Home Goods has always been our way of getting good quality at a discounted price.

It being a clearance store, we naturally do not expect to be able to simply walk in and find any specific brand on a regular basis, but we have our favorites.

But getting to the point, the amount of oil is really down especially considering that October/November is usually the season where the oil is coming in and is at it's most abundant (well, Mediterranean oil; because of the opposite seasons, anything Australian, New Zealander or otherwise across the equator has everything reversed). I've only managed to find two bottles over the last two weeks that were worth buying, and one of those is a brand I have not tried before, and is Italian (not to get racist, but 1. I tend to prefer the flavors of Greek or African Olive oils to those of the Southern European countries and 2. I have often heard that Italian Olive oil is the most likely to be adulterated.

Other than that, slim pickings, two bottles of teriyaki sauce (unfamiliar brand) and a chocolate bar (just like last week and another branch was just a bottle of vinegar, two bags of hard candy, and a jar of honey.

Ah honey, that's another thing that's normally abundant in winter and is almost non-present. At the moment it's no big deal since I have gotten around to bottling mead in a while and the jugs are full, but for the first time I can remember, once that is bottled I have only honey enough for one more jug before I'm out.

 

[Prairie Rose]

We had a shelf in the back room of canning jars at the grocery store i work at, and it has been there for five or six years. Whoever force-shipped them to us knows nothing about canning...they're all narrow mouth quarts. We moved some this year, but not enough to get rid of everything. We are also completely stocked on toilet paper...we had enough backstock on top of our freezer section for the entire county, but shipped quite a bit of it to one of the bigger city stores in desperate need. We now get paper products force shipped to us weekly, the cart room where we have been stashing it (right in front of the canning jars), has enough toilet paper in it to buy a used car.

I only have insider information on deli stuff, but I can tell you there truly is a pumpkin shortage at the moment, and a lot of your wider variety-flavors are just not being produced right now in favor of the basics. For example, I can typically get bologna from the warehouse once a week. I haven't been able to get pickle and pimento loaf, which is just bologna with extras, since july. The company just isn't producing it, said we would be lucky to get it before Christmas.

The price of cheese at cost has gone up 30% this month alone. The price of certain beef products? 50% or more. In many cases, a store will just choose not to carry a product once it hits a certain price point. No point in wasting valuable shelf space on a product that is so expensive nobody will buy it and it will have to be thrown away. The same thing goes for supplies...the price of vinyl gloves has quadrupled since this started, and that is one item the production areas of the store go through like water.

The one thing we haven't been able to get at work for months now? Spices. Everybody is cooking at home, and the spice companies haven't been able to keep up. We try to order the entire spice rack three times a week...and usually don't get a thing.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

The one thing we haven't been able to get at work for months now? Spices. Everybody is cooking at home, and the spice companies haven't been able to keep up. We try to order the entire spice rack three times a week...and usually don't get a thing.

I didn't think about it, but you are right, spices are in short supply. I was going onto my normal online site for spices and at least half the things are sold out. To make things worse the spice I was really low on has actually been removed from the site, so I think they aren't planning on getting it back. I'm actually contemplating planting some of what I have left and trying to grow my own (anyone know how many years it takes to grow a juniper bush from seed to berry production?)

 

[baymule]

Thanks @Prairie Rose for the insight. Bare shelves tell a story. It's not new to me, I lived in hurricane country most of my life, 100 miles inland from the Gulf coast. Grocery shelves are stripped before a hurricane hits. Afterward, because of power outages, there is little to no meat, fresh vegetables, dairy, cold or frozen foods. It takes a week or more for the grocery stores to clean all the cold cases. When the stores finally open, it is almost a reverent atmosphere, people are so grateful, they are hushed, like in a church. The panic and frenzy before the hurricane is gone, people are polite and concerned about others.

This Covid crazy is much like a pre-hurricane panic. If you live in hurricane country, smart people stay stocked up on necessary items. With this Covid, people who have never had to prepare for disaster in their lives, hit the panic button. Hopefully it may make people stay a little better prepared for the unexpected.