Supermarket apologizing for non-existent shortages?

[FireLane]

I was at the supermarket and saw this strange sign (attached) taped to the shelf in the pasta aisle. There were similar signs all over the store.

If you can't read it, it says: "Dear Valued Customer, Due to unprecedented challenges in our supply chain, we are experiencing shortages on pasta and egg noodles (all brands, all varieties). Our team is doing all we can to keep the shelves filled. We appreciate your patience."

But there is no shortage, as you can see in the photo. Their shelves are full. I've been going to this store for months and I've never had a problem getting pasta or anything else I want to buy. Why are they apologizing for a shortage they're not having?

Is this warning of a supply disruption they anticipate in the near future? Are they trying to make people feel lucky to be able to buy anything at all, so they can raise prices without a protest?

[Ron Scott]

What did they say when you asked them?

[maizefolk]

The shelf isn't very well faced, which makes it look like there isn't as much product but is probably a labor saving decision. My local grocery store was great about facing pre-pandemic but has basically given up now when it's hard to hire people even at $18/hour.

The other question is whether, even if the shelves are full, the variety of pasta as declined. Are there specific shapes or brands missing?

[ChickenStash]

Off hand, they could be having issues on the backend but with enough current stock, they've been able to smooth things out and keep supplies on the shelves. If the suppliers are continuing to have issues they might start having bare shelves soon.

Or, if it's a chain store, perhaps some areas are having bare shelves, and corporate just issued a blanket order that all the stores post a notice.

[mathlete]

Looks like certain shapes/varieties may be sold out. I get your point in that its essentially the same product (pasta/egg noodle), but the shortages and disruptions are very very real. This isn't some scheme by the supermarkets. Supermarkets sell commodities and so one of the only vectors for competition they have is price. They're not trying to charge more than they have to. This is just the staff trying to head off questions. 

Basically, my whole life in the US, I feel like you could always get plenty of whatever you wanted. Nobody in the US is starving of course, but the supply chain constraints are easily observable.

Anecdotes;

- In 2021, McCormick's thick and zesty spaghetti sauce packets were out everywhere.
- The cherry variety of Mrs. Baird's fruit pies disappeared for a while.
- A small clothing company I'm close with has months of backlogged merchandise waiting to be manufactured and shipped.
- The Playstation 5 came out 2 years ago and you still can't walk into a store and buy one.

Data;

Domestic new vehicle production is down more than 40% on supply constraints;



And as a result, here is the used car price index;



Further reading;

There was a lot of fear that the war Ukraine would trigger a cascading wheat shortage. It turns out that more of the wheat was harvested than expected, but by whom? Cool analysis below:

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150590/larger-wheat-harvest-in-ukraine-than-expected#:~:text=About%205.4%20million%20tons%20of,ton%20wheat%20crop%2C%20said%20Skakun.

[GilesMM]

Most groceries are having supply chain and labor issues. The new normal. Nothing to panic about.

[FireLane]

The other question is whether, even if the shelves are full, the variety of pasta as declined. Are there specific shapes or brands missing?

Not that I've noticed, but I'm not very brand-conscious. Pasta is pasta, to me. I usually just buy whatever's on sale.

Looks like certain shapes/varieties may be sold out. I get your point in that its essentially the same product (pasta/egg noodle), but the shortages and disruptions are very very real. This isn't some scheme by the supermarkets. Supermarkets sell commodities and so one of the only vectors for competition they have is price. They're not trying to charge more than they have to. This is just the staff trying to head off questions. 

That's a good point, that this may be about specific brand availability more than general product quantity.

The only time I encountered empty shelves was at the worst point of the COVID pandemic. When I went to the store then, pasta and other staples really were sold out, and there was no telling whether you could get everything on your shopping list. But that hasn't happened near me since early 2020.

[maizefolk]

The other question is whether, even if the shelves are full, the variety of pasta as declined. Are there specific shapes or brands missing?

Not that I've noticed, but I'm not very brand-conscious. Pasta is pasta, to me. I usually just buy whatever's on sale.

One of the tricks grocery stores have started using a lot more since the pandemic is to expand the shelf space of whatever they do have in stock to fill in any gaps that would be left from products that are unavailable. So it would be easy to miss if particular products have gone missing which prompted posting that sign.

There was a several month long period where 1/4th of the total freezer space in my local grocery store was filled with just shelves and shelves of a single brand of peppermint ice cream.

[mathlete]

The only time I encountered empty shelves was at the worst point of the COVID pandemic. When I went to the store then, pasta and other staples really were sold out, and there was no telling whether you could get everything on your shopping list. But that hasn't happened near me since early 2020.

I remember that. Coming home after a late night of work and hitting up the grocery store and it being nearly empty.

The Pandemic is weird because it was this horrible thing that I never want to repeat, but at the same time, I have nostalgic memories for certain parts. Brain chemistry is crazy.

[soccerluvof4]

I would say there is definitely all 3. A Shortage , a Logistical problem and a people problem. Each store seems to be handling different ways like Aldis seems to just buy and stock other items there shelves are always full and they buy a lot more local. Where as the big chains have big and larger transportation issues because even before the pandemic and everything else there has been a driver shortage for 25 years. Now with conveniently another big break out in China of Covid its just going to be the new norm for quite a few years imo. Even our local new channels are non stop reporting the drug store chains apologizing for the mt shelves of cold and flue otc medications. Hopefully we focus on increasing our labor pool and bring more and more stuff made here to tackle some of these issues.

[Cranky]

I would say there is definitely all 3. A Shortage , a Logistical problem and a people problem. Each store seems to be handling different ways like Aldis seems to just buy and stock other items there shelves are always full and they buy a lot more local. Where as the big chains have big and larger transportation issues because even before the pandemic and everything else there has been a driver shortage for 25 years. Now with conveniently another big break out in China of Covid its just going to be the new norm for quite a few years imo. Even our local new channels are non stop reporting the drug store chains apologizing for the mt shelves of cold and flue otc medications. Hopefully we focus on increasing our labor pool and bring more and more stuff made here to tackle some of these issues.

My Aldi has not had much pasta for months and months. I really noticed it this summer. Every once in a while there will be a few boxes, but it's gone pretty fast. I have no idea why this is. They are also frequently out of many dairy products.

Do they not get shipments? Do they not have enough people to stock the shelves? Is Aldi unable to get enough product at their price? I dunno. But I now stock up on pasta whenever it's on sale at HyVee. We like pasta.

[jim555]

As long as there is enough toilet paper all is right with the world.

[Zamboni]

Well, yes and no . . . I like TP, but I also like ice cream.

There was a several month long period where 1/4th of the total freezer space in my local grocery store was filled with just shelves and shelves of a single brand of peppermint ice cream.

At least that is a flavor I like. Not that I am super picky about ice cream, but I do have some standards.

I agree that the signs are probably there just so they don't have to answer questions.

Here is a list of what I had on my list that was completely out of stock on my visit to my closest grocery store (a large chain) yesterday:

• distilled water . . . none of any brand.
• heavy cream . . . which was also completely out at the second closest store.
• almost every flavor of ice cream! Mon dieu!
• 4 pack little bottles of red wine . . . none of any brand
• my preferred nasal spray (I bought another brand)

Hey, hey, hey! No judging my list!

I only had about a dozen things on my list, so this was a pretty discouraging shopping trip other than the produce section, which was well stocked. I mean I know how to distill water and have access to equipment to do that, and I know how to make some yummy ice cream from heavy cream (oh . . . wait), and, yes, I can buy the big red wine bottles even though I only drink like a half a glass per day.

But here's the thing if you want to be stoic about it all: unless you've been to Cuba recently, you have no idea what a terrible supply chain in the western hemisphere really looks like right now. I've been to Havana recently, and I can tell you that the variety and availability situation in the grocery stores the rest of north America and Europe is still pretty awesome, comparatively.

Cuban stores keep the shelves full even if it means an entire aisle of just Havana Club Rum and another entire aisle of a single type of canned tomatoes. Cuba seems nearly deserted to me, but they obviously have enough grocery store employees to keep those shelves neat and tidy. Yes, yes, I get it that they have other issues, like embargoes, but it showed me that the grocery store variety can get way way worse for an extended period of time for reason other than the pandemic. And there was no meat at all, except right when the store opened each day, so there was a fairly orderly and polite "meat line" outside before they opened every morning.

We used to look at stories from behind the iron curtain back in the former Soviet Union days and cluck cluck and say "well they have a crappy system." But now it seems like crappiness may be slowly seeping over the entire globe.

[Missy B]

My partner's brother and wife lived in Cuba for 18 months.
his wife said the chickens were 'the skinniest she'd ever seen'. they can grow all kind of tropical fruit there, but you never see it at the supermarket where ordinary Cubans shop. the rice was full of gravel, because it gets dried at the side of the road.

The saddest and most perverse thing to me was that Cubans couldn't even legally grow their own food. If they did planted fruit trees, or even did a row of peas, they were supposed to give it all to the govt. If you try to do that and keep it, one of your neighbors will report you for treats.
In a place that struggles to feed everyone, letting people benefit from their own work and initiative around this one basic thing would be a game changer.

[maizefolk]

In a place that struggles to feed everyone, letting people benefit from their own work and initiative around this one basic thing would be a game changer.

This exact reform in 1978 was what kicked off China's transition from standard communism to their current weird hybrid system.

Switching from "all food everyone grows belongs to the government" to "each person is responsible for one part of one field and benefits if that field produces more rice" increased yields 5x.

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2012/01/20/145360447/the-secret-document-that-transformed-china

[rosarugosa]

The other question is whether, even if the shelves are full, the variety of pasta as declined. Are there specific shapes or brands missing?

Not that I've noticed, but I'm not very brand-conscious. Pasta is pasta, to me. I usually just buy whatever's on sale.

Looks like certain shapes/varieties may be sold out. I get your point in that its essentially the same product (pasta/egg noodle), but the shortages and disruptions are very very real. This isn't some scheme by the supermarkets. Supermarkets sell commodities and so one of the only vectors for competition they have is price. They're not trying to charge more than they have to. This is just the staff trying to head off questions. 

That's a good point, that this may be about specific brand availability more than general product quantity.

The only time I encountered empty shelves was at the worst point of the COVID pandemic. When I went to the store then, pasta and other staples really were sold out, and there was no telling whether you could get everything on your shopping list. But that hasn't happened near me since early 2020.

You are obviously not Italian!

[beekayworld]

The other question is whether, even if the shelves are full, the variety of pasta as declined. Are there specific shapes or brands missing?

Not that I've noticed, but I'm not very brand-conscious. Pasta is pasta, to me. I usually just buy whatever's on sale.

One of the tricks grocery stores have started using a lot more since the pandemic is to expand the shelf space of whatever they do have in stock to fill in any gaps that would be left from products that are unavailable. So it would be easy to miss if particular products have gone missing which prompted posting that sign.

There was a several month long period where 1/4th of the total freezer space in my local grocery store was filled with just shelves and shelves of a single brand of peppermint ice cream.

Bingo! This looks like what's going on in the photo. There are 8 front-row boxes of Orzo, but 3 different price tags below the boxes, implying there used to be 3 different types of pasta there.  In addition, the boxes on the far right are turned as though someone had looked behind them trying to find a missing type of pasta (probably whatever was labeled on the sign below the turned boxes.)

Rather than answer a bunch of "Where's the X-type of pasta?", they put up the sign and then spread out the types they DO have to fill in the spaces.

[Zamboni]

they can grow all kind of tropical fruit there, but you never see it at the supermarket where ordinary Cubans  shop.

Yeah, that's actually true about the grocery stores, but there are "juice stands" on the streets in Havana and people selling fruit from mobile wheelbarrow-like carts here and there. We bought little bananas from such a cart . . . even though we only wanted two bananas he insisted we take a whole big bunch for the 3MN (about 15 cents USD) we paid.

I think there is a lot more internal independent capitalism going on there than people realize. We did meet some very diehard communists, too, so it wouldn't surprise me if "neighbors reporting" is a thing. But there is A LOT of looking the other way, especially if you spread the wealth in your immediate neighborhood. There was a guy raising birds in cages on the roof of the building next to us, for example. He was very friendly, always waved. Definitely not a govt farm.

[roomtempmayo]

Pasta is pasta, to me. I usually just buy whatever's on sale.

I recently tried trumpets, and there's something to the hype.

[Paul der Krake]

Have you considered the possibility that the sign is just out of date? I mean, there are tons of businesses around me with outdated COVID signs that nobody seem in a hurry to take down months after the mandates have expired.

Seems quite plausible that they were out of pasta last week, and the sign is just leftover.

[Villanelle]

I would say there is definitely all 3. A Shortage , a Logistical problem and a people problem. Each store seems to be handling different ways like Aldis seems to just buy and stock other items there shelves are always full and they buy a lot more local. Where as the big chains have big and larger transportation issues because even before the pandemic and everything else there has been a driver shortage for 25 years. Now with conveniently another big break out in China of Covid its just going to be the new norm for quite a few years imo. Even our local new channels are non stop reporting the drug store chains apologizing for the mt shelves of cold and flue otc medications. Hopefully we focus on increasing our labor pool and bring more and more stuff made here to tackle some of these issues.

My Aldi has not had much pasta for months and months. I really noticed it this summer. Every once in a while there will be a few boxes, but it's gone pretty fast. I have no idea why this is. They are also frequently out of many dairy products.

Do they not get shipments? Do they not have enough people to stock the shelves? Is Aldi unable to get enough product at their price? I dunno. But I now stock up on pasta whenever it's on sale at HyVee. We like pasta.

I think Aldi in particular is seeing an increase in demand, thanks to inflation.  More people seem to be shopping at the cheaper grocery stores, and they seem to be struggling to keep up with the increased demand, especially when it comes at a time of supply chain issues.