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Shortages

This isn’t about doom and gloom . . I’m just sharing some news and some thoughts. This article about how local food shortages are affecting school lunches was in the local paper recently. This is Joplin!

I’ve heard every reason out there – supply chain issues, shortage of workers, trucks aren’t running as much because of fuel prices, container shortages.

The bottom line is . . when there’s something you need and you can’t get it, you’re not going to care why you can’t get it.

I’m sure things are different in different areas but here . . it’s getting a bit weird and scary.

With Covid, only Walmart that’s closest to me will deliver. It isn’t worth it, right now anyway, to go schedule curbside pickups at two or three other Walmarts to get what I need so I’ll probably be changing things on my menu because of things I can’t get.

My advice: Think about things you really need in the near future. Don’t be critical of what someone else thinks is a need and you may consider it a want. We may end up all needing to work together to help family and friends who truly have needs that we can meet. If it’s something that has a long shelf, buy a backup package. Don’t hoard!

I was thinking yesterday about food for Boots and kitty litter. He loved his food but I’ve been trying to get it from Chewy for over a month and it’s always out of stock. I opened the last bag of it a couple of weeks ago so I ordered a different kind of food for him – one bag to try it. I think he likes it better than the previous food or maybe the change was good, so I ordered another bag of that. I’m not stocking up . . I always keep an extra bag on hand. Kitty litter is one thing I do not want to have to search for so I ordered another container of that. Same with puppy pads. I have a little fenced off area in the breakfast room for Rita and I keep it covered in puppy pads. Don’t want to run out of those.

We were going to have friends over next week for dinner and I was going to fix the BBQ chicken I made last week. I wanted to order three whole chickens – two to fix when the friends are here and one because next week we’re having smoked chicken. Nope . . limit of one so I figured I’d get one for our smoked chicken. There’s ONE whole chicken left in stock and by the time they bring my groceries this afternoon, I’m sure that ONE chicken will have been sold.

There’s no cabbage available to purchase so I’ll scratch the cole slaw off my menu for next week.

I’m not worried. I’m not in a panic but I am watching what’s going on and trying to think ahead and get what we need when I can.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Went to Schnucks this week – one of the things on my list was Gatorade – shelf was completely empty.

  2. Judy, I have been on a small mission to get things I need for the holidays. It is getting scary out there. Shelves are empty. I’m not being greedy or anything but things I like to have, like nuts for baking, are out there now. In November there may not be any.

    Thankfully, we are retired and if we want peruse the aisles of a store we can do that during the week when it is less busy.

    • Consider checking out farms for your nut supply. I buy pecans from an OK farm (Landgraf Pecans in Madill OK) and they ship. New crop usually is available in early November. But, once you buy fresh pecans, it’s hard to go back to the grocery ones. Pecans freeze well.

      • Good point! We’ve been lucky to always live where pecans were plentiful – never inexpensive but always great and fresh.

  3. I have a very picky cat. It took us 12 types to find one she and her brother (now deceased) would eat. I went to buy another case of the only wet food she will eat as I’m down to 3 cans. The vendor can’t get the tin needed to make the cans so they aren’t getting it in stock (the entire shelf of that brand was empty). I upped the budget and bought blue wilderness same flavor in hopes that she would eat it. Reluctantly, she is but much slower.

    I don’t have the stock you do but we’d be fine for a few months if we absolutely could get nothing. I have milk powder if I can’t get a carton. We would miss yogurt, sour cream and fresh fruit although we have a few gallons of frozen blackberries from our garden in the freezer!

    May we all stay healthy!

    • We keep shelf stable milk in boxes and I doubt I could make yogurt with it but, to me, it’s better than powdered milk but we do keep powdered milk also. I think there are a whole lot of things we’d miss but I doubt EVERYTHING will disappear. I think it will be one thing missing this trip to the store, then next time we go, that will be back in stock and something else is missing. That’s why I don’t buy a lot of anything – just enough to get us by if it isn’t there for a few times.

      It’s Blue Wilderness dry cat food that Boots is loving right now.

  4. I made a trip to Aldi a few days ago and was amazed that I couldn’t buy a bag of carrots. The baby carrots were there, but no regular carrots.. I wanted to make some copper pennies, but I didn’t think it would work as well with the baby carrots, so I won’t bother right now. Cabbage we have lots of, so that’s no problem getting what we want. Now, the dressing I use to make my coleslaw has been absent from the shelves for months! Just today I spent well of $500 on my 11-year old car to keep it running, since the new cars are pretty much unavailable, and used car prices are out of sight! We all have to just keep hanging in there until things settle down, if they ever do…
    We’re leaving tomorrow to go across the state for the funeral for a dear friend, who, even though he was fully vaccinated, got covid and died. He was only 56 years old and didn’t have any other health issues. His wife, with multiple health issues, got a very mild case and was fine within a few days. Two of the four schools in our town are back to virtual learning because over 90 kids and 7 staff all tested positive. Hoping and praying that things start to settle back to normal soon!!

    • As you know, our vehicles are 25 years old (pickup), 20 years old (CRV) and 14 years old (Highlander). We spent about $1,000 each on the pickup and the CRV after we moved here but we hadn’t had anything done to them for the 10 years we were in Texas because we didn’t have a mechanic there that we trusted. I’d gladly spend $1,000 per year to keep an older vehicle running, so long as it’s dependable and safe for trips. Our Highlander still seems like a new car to me. Everything is perfect on it and I hope it lasts forever.

      I’m hearing of more and more fully vaccinated people being in ICU and passing away from Covid so I’m trying to stay home but, Vince goes somewhere every single day so I’m not sure how much good it’s doing me to stay home.

      I wonder if it will ever end.

  5. Judy, you mentioned a couple of weeks ago that you couldn’t find soy sauce. Check out Amazon as they have it in stock.

  6. It is not just there it is the same way here. Not only at Walmart but Brookshires and other stores. I was able to get 3 gallons of distilled water for my CPAP this week. They were having a sale on it. If you have one there, see if they have the same sale. I bet they do! I think we are all in the same boat. I try to keep backups of everything. But I can’t hoard because I don’t have the room.

  7. My cats’ favorite canned food has been out of stock for a while. Amazon says will be in stock soon. Dry food is getting low and I have one expensive jug of litter from the local grocery. I think it’s time I order and get a little extra. Shortages haven’t really hit here but we are a small community in a rural area so not so many people competing for what there is. Price is another thing though. The bag of frozen chicken breasts I used to get for $4 & change is now $8. Yikes! When I see something I know we will use before long I pick up a couple. If they sit on the shelf for a while it doesn’t hurt and I’m not competing with someone who really needs that item later on. I guess things could get interesting and none of us are used to that.

    • I do the same. Once winter gets here and we have snow and nice, though way less than you’ll have probably, we’ll be hunkering down and staying home. Well, that’s what I do anyway but I don’t want to be the one causing Walmart delivery people to have to be out in bad weather either.

      I try to keep all the spaghetti sauce together, all the kool-aid together, all the toilet paper together, etc. so I can glance and see if we’re getting low on anything and order in plenty of time so that if there’s a shortage, hopefully it will become available again before we run completley out.

  8. Went to Costco today and there was not one roll of paper towels for sale. There were four or five of us on the aisle all looking and none to be had. They had lots of toilet paper though (but none of the Kirkland brand).

    • Never heard of the Kirkland brand of TP. Is that a Costco brand? I think they just built or, are fixing to build a new Costco in Springfield, MO. That will be the closest one I’ve ever lived near but we don’t go to Springfield so . . why did I even tell you all that?? 🙂

      • I LOVE going to Costco! I always say it’s better than a trip to Disneyland. 🙂 Yes, Kirkland is Costco’s brand name for their own products. They’re always great! You just might have to take a trip to Springfield one of these days since Disneyland is so far away! LOL!!

        • No. Springfield is one of those places I have no desire to go . . not even for Costco.

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