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Author Topic: What's the oddest grocery-store shortage you've seen?  (Read 2731 times)

SunflowerP

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What's the oddest grocery-store shortage you've seen?
« on: March 20, 2020, 10:31:06 pm »
A bit of (hopefully) fun, inspired by my grocery shopping earlier today, and this post from Sefiru:

I was at the grocery store on Wednesday and some strange patterns were emerging.

- Frozen veg: gone. Picked veg (beets, sauerkraut etc): fully stocked.
- Chicken: very low. Sausage and ham: mounds of it.
- Canned veg: gone, except for an untouched flat of yellow string beans. Does nobody like them?
- Canned pasta: cleared out. Canned fish, right next to it: normal stocks.
(I didn't check out the flour, because I got a bag before shit hit the fan, but my mom said it was sold out when she went ... but there's no shortage of prepared bread yet. ???)

Lots of the things people are buying stores right out of make sense, like hand sanitizer. But some - as Sefiru notes here - are odd, either on their own or in contrast to similar/related products. What's the oddest one you've seen?

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Re: What's the oddest grocery-store shortage you've seen?
« Reply #1 on: March 20, 2020, 10:34:06 pm »
What's the oddest one you've seen?

For me, it was olive oil. Oh, the canola oil and so on was pretty depleted - but the olive oil was completely gone in one store, and in the other, only four or five bottles remained at the back of the bottom shelf.

Sunflower
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Re: What's the oddest grocery-store shortage you've seen?
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2020, 10:42:41 pm »
What's the oddest one you've seen?

A few days ago, a friend in another city noticed the stores had plenty of pasta but no sauce, whereas in my town, the pasta was sold out but the shelves of sauce were full.   

I also observed in some puzzlement that they had plenty of oranges and bell peppers, but not a single mushroom left in the produce department.

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Re: What's the oddest grocery-store shortage you've seen?
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2020, 10:48:53 pm »

Tofu. In an area with a negligible Asian population and only a handful of vegetarians. I've never seen tofu out of stock in my town before, ever!
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Re: What's the oddest grocery-store shortage you've seen?
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2020, 10:52:20 pm »
A bit of (hopefully) fun, inspired by my grocery shopping earlier today, and this post from Sefiru:

Lots of the things people are buying stores right out of make sense, like hand sanitizer. But some - as Sefiru notes here - are odd, either on their own or in contrast to similar/related products. What's the oddest one you've seen?

Sunflower



This is the coffee aisle at Bartells, a local Seattle pharmacy franchise. Notice: only the Starbucks is sold out. It may not seem weird to you, but frankly I don't understand why Seattlites would care so much about Starbucks coffee!
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Re: What's the oddest grocery-store shortage you've seen?
« Reply #5 on: March 23, 2020, 06:53:48 pm »
But some - as Sefiru notes here - are odd, either on their own or in contrast to similar/related products.

I suspect two factors are at work here: a preference for familiar foods in times of stress, and people who aren't familiar with cooking and/or prepping blindly following online 'what to stock' suggestions without grasping the purpose behind them.
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Re: What's the oddest grocery-store shortage you've seen?
« Reply #6 on: March 23, 2020, 10:10:14 pm »
Lots of the things people are buying stores right out of make sense, like hand sanitizer. But some - as Sefiru notes here - are odd, either on their own or in contrast to similar/related products. What's the oddest one you've seen?

Baking yeast.

Fortunately I have a sourdough culture but WTF?
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Re: What's the oddest grocery-store shortage you've seen?
« Reply #7 on: March 24, 2020, 10:26:53 am »
Baking yeast.

Fortunately I have a sourdough culture but WTF?

Actually this makes sense in light of the posts I'm seeing on Facebook even if not the most sensible answer objectively.  Basically people are figuring society is collapsing so we have to revive old obsolete skills, including baking from scratch.  That's literally what they're trying to do.

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Re: What's the oddest grocery-store shortage you've seen?
« Reply #8 on: March 24, 2020, 11:32:06 am »
Actually this makes sense in light of the posts I'm seeing on Facebook even if not the most sensible answer objectively.  Basically people are figuring society is collapsing so we have to revive old obsolete skills, including baking from scratch.  That's literally what they're trying to do.

Or, you know...Occam's Razor. Rather than buying bread that has been pawed at by fuck-knows how many people...you make your own. And that requires yeast.
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Re: What's the oddest grocery-store shortage you've seen?
« Reply #9 on: March 28, 2020, 10:15:59 am »
What's the oddest one you've seen?

Spoiler:  
Sanitary towels & etc

I don't quite understand this one.  And, as an "ecowarrior", I do wish more folks had decided to invest in re-usable.

Sorry, that wasn't terrible amusing.  Let me add this as a counterpoint:  "Farts, boobies, buttcracks!"  (And there's a prize for anyone who can spot the cultural reference.)
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Re: What's the oddest grocery-store shortage you've seen?
« Reply #10 on: March 30, 2020, 06:15:23 pm »
And, as an "ecowarrior", I do wish more folks had decided to invest in re-usable.

I invested in reusable, not because of any ecological sentiment, but because I was forever running out and having to restock. :)

On a lighter note, I bought a celery root just to feel superior about knowing what to do with it. It came out to more slaw than I expected so I've been eating celery root for a week (I don't mind, it's tasty.)
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Re: What's the oddest grocery-store shortage you've seen?
« Reply #11 on: April 28, 2020, 11:04:28 pm »
I suspect two factors are at work here: a preference for familiar foods in times of stress, and people who aren't familiar with cooking and/or prepping blindly following online 'what to stock' suggestions without grasping the purpose behind them.

Here's another unexpected one that makes sense when you think about it: every time I go to a nearby drugstore that usually stocks several varieties of unnaturally-colored hair dye, the aisle is stocked full of the normal colors of dye and completely depleted of the unnatural colors. This time I managed to find one box of silver-white dye nudged off to the side, and that was it. I took what I could get.

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Re: What's the oddest grocery-store shortage you've seen?
« Reply #12 on: April 29, 2020, 05:46:18 am »
Here's another unexpected one that makes sense when you think about it: every time I go to a nearby drugstore that usually stocks several varieties of unnaturally-colored hair dye, the aisle is stocked full of the normal colors of dye and completely depleted of the unnatural colors. This time I managed to find one box of silver-white dye nudged off to the side, and that was it. I took what I could get.

The gays are growing restless.

I suppose if you're on lockdown, now is a good time to dye your hair without having to consider boring, real-world consequences...

For me, the weirdest thing has been how little people like fish. If you like fish, you will not be having any problems with your stockpile. I'm vegetarian: is it difficult to freeze fish for longterm use? That's my only other theory.

I don't think I've seen anything weird that was out. It is very noticeable that no-one is buying boxed cakes, easter eggs, cupcakes etc. I saw quorn chicken-style chunks yesterday for the first time in weeks, and also peppers (which I'd been assuming was a supply chain thing)
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Re: What's the oddest grocery-store shortage you've seen?
« Reply #13 on: April 29, 2020, 07:16:54 pm »
For me, the weirdest thing has been how little people like fish. If you like fish, you will not be having any problems with your stockpile. I'm vegetarian: is it difficult to freeze fish for longterm use? That's my only other theory.

A few factors I can think of:
- for stockpiling, canned fish (tuna and salmon) seems more practical than frozen (though frozen fish holds up quite well in my experience).
- home freezer space is finite, and people have now filled it with frozen veg.
- people are going for 'comfort' foods over 'healthy' foods, which in my area means a shortage on chicken.

Around here, TP and rice are starting to reappear, though flour is lagging behind.
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Re: What's the oddest grocery-store shortage you've seen?
« Reply #14 on: April 30, 2020, 02:13:04 pm »
A few factors I can think of:
- for stockpiling, canned fish (tuna and salmon) seems more practical than frozen (though frozen fish holds up quite well in my experience).
- home freezer space is finite, and people have now filled it with frozen veg.
- people are going for 'comfort' foods over 'healthy' foods, which in my area means a shortage on chicken.

Around here, TP and rice are starting to reappear, though flour is lagging behind.

we never ran out of flour, and our rice was only really out one day (I got the last bag mwahaha), but the past week was the first time I've seen TP in a month and a half (still only store brand, but I'll take it)
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