What I couldn't get this week shopping

I went to the grocery store today and experienced a combination of missing items and missing cashiers. I saw shelves empty as well as empty spaces in refrigerated areas. It is a fairly large grocery store, and there were only 2 cashiers. The Self Checkout line was a mile long. Definitely signs of supply chain shortages, Covid illness and people quitting.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
Actually, sometimes it doesn't. Cows milk has been found to contain pus and sometimes antibiotics, used to treat the infected cows. Yuk! 🤮 I stopped drinking cows milk a couple of decades ago.
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I know it's not good. I only drink almond & sometimes soy milk. I grew up drinking lots of cow's milk, mostly due to advertising - and doctors' advice.
Years ago, I read about the differences in milk between different species, including human milk. Really eye opening.
 

I couldn’t get into a couple of stores lately when they closed early for a lack of staff because of illness. Nothing I urgently had to have.

One big grocery store had numerous empty shelves - that problem was caused by Mother Nature when she destroyed our high mountain roads. We’ll be dealing with that problem, especially in winter, for a couple of years minimum.
 
Bread and sliced ham. Not the brands that I purchase anyway. I am right partial to Arnold's Oat Nut bread. I buy the store brand packaged sliced 99% fat free ham mainly because of the price. It is about $3.20 a pound. The deli had some sliced ham and there was store brand bread so I can't complain. I can bake my own bread and eat venison and squirrel if needed.
 
win231 said:
I know it's not good. I only drink almond & sometimes soy milk. I grew up drinking lots of cow's milk, mostly due to advertising - and doctors' advice.
Years ago, I read about the differences in milk between different species, including human milk. Really eye opening.
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I've seriously learned something. Will try almond or soy milk. Thanks! (y)
 
Walmart delivered my order today and everything came. Just one sub for the little cherry pies I like. They were out and subbed blueberry which I approved. Was glad to get my milk as I was almost out. I know a lot of you like almond milk but I never understood ground up almonds mixed with water being called milk. I love the real thing.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
Like you I use to be a stickler about having to buy Hellman's mayo and Heinz ketchup for literally decades. I'm so glad I discovered that I really do like Great Value (Walmart's) lite mayo and Shoprite brand ketchup. Both cost much less than the name brands. I kind of suspect, though, that GV's mayo is made by Hellman.
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Interesting about "Hellman's Mayo." In CA, it's called "Best Foods." On the jar, it says "Known as Hellman's East of the Rockies."
 
win231 said:
Interesting about "Hellman's Mayo." In CA, it's called "Best Foods." On the jar, it says "Known as Hellman's East of the Rockies."
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So there was this local, a couple of years ago, raving and raving about the great new mayonnaise he'd purchased. Said he'd never heard of it before, but that it was so much better than his favorite brand Best Foods.
Knowing the answer, I had to ask what this great new mayo was. He replied Hellmann's!! :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
No:
Fresh loose Brussels sprouts. I bought bagged Green Giant ones.
Although I don't need pet food right now, the cat food shelves are alarmingly empty.
Store brand wheat thins crackers
Calcium capsules as well as many other dietary supplements are missing from the shelves.
Decaf teas.

They finally had store brand diet lemon lime soda - two, 2-liter bottles, so I snatched them as well as stocking up on Vichy water. No decaf teas.
 
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win231 said:
I know it's not good. I only drink almond & sometimes soy milk. I grew up drinking lots of cow's milk, mostly due to advertising - and doctors' advice.
Years ago, I read about the differences in milk between different species, including human milk. Really eye opening.
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I had a feeling you were being facetious. But some milk drinkers may not have been aware, so I replied as I did anyway.
 
terry123 said:
Walmart delivered my order today and everything came. Just one sub for the little cherry pies I like. They were out and subbed blueberry which I approved. Was glad to get my milk as I was almost out. I know a lot of you like almond milk but I never understood ground up almonds mixed with water being called milk. I love the real thing.
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Sometimes ordering from Walmart is very frustrating. The site doesn't tell you they're out of something until you get to the check out part. When I'm trying to fulfill the criteria for free shipping, then it pops up that they are out of a couple of items, it becomes a nuisance to try and find something else to order. Sometimes the out of stock is evident under the item, but many times it is not. I used to love their sugar free lemon pies, but all the Walmarts near me stopped carrying them. I was so disappointed.

As I replied to Win, real milk may have pus (yuk! 🤮) and antibiotics in it. Reading about the issues with so called real milk stopped me and my family members from drinking it. I went to soy then changed to almond. I'm satisfied with the taste of the latter. Haven't used soy milk in several years now.
 
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Oh, I forgot to mention cooking oil - store had plenty of expensive olive oil and huge contaiers of other oils. I just wanted some cheapo cooking oil in a small size bottle. A large one would go rancid before I used it all.
 
debodun said:
Oh, I forgot to mention cooking oil - store had plenty of expensive olive oil and huge contaiers of other oils. I just wanted some cheapo cooking oil in a small size bottle. A large one would go rancid before I used it all.
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I never use cooking oil, then again, I don’t cook. 😂
 
debodun said:
No:
Fresh loose Brussels sprouts. I bought bagged Green Giant ones.
Although I don't need pet food right now, the cat food shelves are alarmingly empty.
Store brand wheat thins crackers
Calcium capsules as well as many other dietary supplements are missing from the shelves.
Decaf teas.

They finally had store brand diet lemon lime soda - two, 2-liter bottles, so I snatched them as well as stocking up on Vichy water. No decaf teas.
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I get the Purina One blue bag for the ferals at work. I had to get the urinary formula this week because they were out of the regular. I doubt it makes all that much difference and they eat whatever.
 
I went to Costco Business Center Monday. And while I was able to get everything I went for (and then some :p), in the grocery area at least half of the upper racks were completely empty. Yes, there was merchandise on the ground level, but aisles and aisles of upper racks were vacant. Not sure what's up with that but the sight was jarring.

CBC is mostly focused on small businesses and sells lots of equipment and supplies useful to small retailers, food suppliers (like convenience stores or catering trucks) and restaurants. The grocery area is a wonder to behold. A very wide variety of dairy products, huge assortment of cheeses, packaged lunch meats, non alcoholic beverages, and snack foods. Spices by the gallon container, a freezer section with whole NZ goats and lambs (in opaque wrappers for the squeamish- like me), boxes of crab meat that cost $500 per, etc.

No pharmacy, optical dept, jewelry, toys, books, furniture, BBQs, soft goods like personal use like linens and clothing. No hearing aids, liquor fresh bakery, deli, rotisserie chicken or . They sell bulk meat but don't have a typical Costco meat department. The personal care, OTC meds and vitamin areas are quite small.

My local CBC reliably stocks 25 lb bags of bread flour for roughly $10, which I'm having trouble getting elsewhere.

Also 2-1/2 lb bags of freshly sliced mushrooms for $6.49 (I dry saute them and freeze in quart bags for future use), 1 lb. containers of fresh peeled garlic for $9.99 (which I also process and freeze for future use), gallon jars of pickled yellow peppers for $3.99 (split them with our daughter's family), and some other foods I can't easily buy for close to CBC prices.

Although I was able to fulfill my grocery list, the empty upper racks were surprising.
 
Today I did my grocery shopping and put away all of the groceries and now I thinking of what to eat for lunch. Later this evening I am not sure what I will be doing as the past evening my husband and I have watched the Australian Tennis Open , but now the matches are down to only 4 left and there are only broadcast in the middle of the night my time so I am not staying up that late to watch them. So hubby and I will have to find something else to do this evening.
 
Moving back to this thread...
My daughter, who lives about 18 miles away, and I often do cooperative shopping. Whatever she can't get I can usually score and vice-versa. Before the pandemic it was mostly a matter of convenience. We'd planned to see each other over the weekend and one would text the other with a "going to Costco/Aldi/Trader Joe/wherever today, do you need anything?"

Post pandemic it was, "I couldn't get X, Y or Z at the store today. Do you have shopping plans?"

Lately it's been particularly challenging to complete our grocery lists. Lots of out-of-stocks though it's hard to tell exactly what's afoot. Are there pallets of mdse in the back room, but too few employees to replenish shelves? Are trucks delayed because of fewer drivers? Have there been "runs" on suddenly popular foods à la toilet paper two years ago? Are less popular items being discontinued? Are providers struggling to get their products out of their hands and into the stores' distribution centers? Hard to say. Probably all of the above.

Nevertheless it took us a total of 4 stores to (mostly) complete our non-extraordinary grocery lists this week. One store had no fresh salsa, orange sweet potatoes, red onions or almond milk. Another was out of celery, romaine lettuce and bell peppers. You get the idea.

Are others seeing this?
 

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