ECON Report food and grocery price increases/shortages here: 2021 Edition

Status
Not open for further replies.

goatsrus

Senior Member
Watch the cooking oils. I make and sell soap. I order my sunflower oil from a restaurant supply company. A 35 pound container was 59.99 in May and now it’s $90. It is higher everywhere I looked. Cooking Oil or lard/tallow is an important item to stock in times of uncertainty.
 

Mushroom

Opinionated Granny
The Admiral reports that Sam's, Hyvee, and Fareway in Sioux City were all completely out of all types of tostitos. Not alarming, but odd.
I talked to a restaurant owner at Sam's last week and he said Frito-Lay is on strike. I couldn't find the white corn tortilla chips I usually get either.

The Sam's was in Tulsa, OK
 
Last edited:

Marseydoats

Veteran Member
Mid-South WM had 8 -10 aisles of school supplies this morning. They have moved all the shelves so that the aisles are wider. I don't know what would normally go in that area. They don't have many toys and the garden center is almost completely empty.
Dh's soft drinks have gone up from $4.29 to $6.00 for a 12 pack in less than 6 weeks.
They didn't have any of the brand name nasal spray that dh uses and the OTC medicines were really picked over.
 

Honey Berry

Senior Member
The Admiral reports that Sam's, Hyvee, and Fareway in Sioux City were all completely out of all types of tostitos. Not alarming, but odd.

I have some insight into this: Frito Lay in Topeka was/is on strike. A number of products are simply unavailable. Should be somewhat back to normal soon as the strikers did reach an agreement.
 

Jubilee on Earth

Veteran Member
Well folks... we are officially back to shortages in my neck of the woods (Northern Michigan). Went to Meijer this evening, and was a bit shell shocked. Many holes, some of which I took pictures. Even produce, which has always been very robust even during the shortages, was depleted. No lemons or limes (unless you bought some sad looking bags), no tomatoes except cherry, Roma, and a few sorry looking beefsteak ones. Only a few avocados. Lots of empty lettuce and salad areas, and everything looking very thin in the stock levels.

In fact, that's what I noticed throughout every category is that there was very little back stock. For example cheese slices (like the Kraft kind). We like the sharp cheddar, no sharp cheddar. And only maybe 30 packages of the regular American. Usually that section is overflowing.

Anyway, here are some pictures for you with commentary. The most bizarre was peanut butter. At first I thought it was low on stock because of some big sale, as my eye caught those yellow tags. But look closely. The yellow tag "sale" prices are the same as the regular prices. Made no sense!
Bizarre peanut butter pricing.jpg

Completely out of sugar, unless you count the little boxes of Domino on the top shelf.
Sugar.jpg

Completely out of regular flour unless you bought those big bags for $13.
Flour.jpg

Wanted some regular pancake mix. Nope. All out. They were all out of Bisquick as well.
Pancake.jpg

Coffee was getting low (although the sale probably pushed some of that).
Coffee.jpg

Holes in the cooking oil as well.
Oil.jpg

Butter was very thin, which was odd. Usually there's a ton of butter.
Butter.jpg

As expected, I suppose, both toilet paper and paper towel were quite depleted.
Toilet paper.jpg

Paper Towel.jpg

And finally, no water in gallons, unless you wanted distilled.
Water.jpg

There were other areas I didn't take pictures of. The juices and Capri Sun type drinks were almost all picked over. The sour cream, cottage cheese, dairy area had very little back stock. And the meat section, most noticeably ground beef and chicken, was really sparse. Oh, and cleaning supplies, like sprays and toilet bowl cleaners, had several bare sections.

All in all quite depressing. I'm pretty well stocked for now. No one seemed very happy or smiley there. It was kind of a mentally taxing excursion to see all this. I think going forward, unless I'm popping in for milk or bread, I'm just going to shop the farmers market and leave this place alone for a while.
 

savurselvs

Veteran Member
The DW grabbed a rotisserie chicken for supper. They’re sold by the piece and not weight. It appeared to be a Cornish hen. Weighed in at 33 oz with the bag and juices! The feed store shocked me with scratch grain up to an astounding 14.74. Noticed in one of the grocery ads the wishbone salad dressing is now 15 and not 16 ozs. The incredible shrinking package is rolling!
 

ioujc

MARANTHA!! Even so, come LORD JESUS!!!
Yes the feed costs are raising about a dollar a week>>>>>I have been gathering grass and grape vines and buying imperfect fruit: peppers, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, bruised apples, and things like over ripe bananas for my rabbits.

The bunnies think they are in Paradise>>>>and, I will probably order some 50 pound sacks of oatmeal and start feeding warm oatmeal as soon as it starts to cool off>>>>>Thrifty rabbits make thrifty meals.

My chickens already free range, and get only a little grain at night to bring them into the hen house. Each of them lays almost an egg a day. I am going to look into the possibility of getting vegetable scraps from some stores>>>see how that works out.
 

Thinwater

Firearms Manufacturer
I sent my daughter to the grocery store to stock up tonight.

She asked me what the budget for this trip is.

I told her "If it fits in the car".

I am down to one bag of chicken feed. I guess I will get more of that tomorrow when the feed store opens. I only have 7 free range birds and don't use much so I can't keep more than 3 bags on hand without risking it going moldy in this fine super humid place they call Florida.
 

parsonswife

Veteran Member
I feel like I'm in Twilight Zone show. Walmart has empty shelves of all the cheap food (Mac n cheese,top Ramen, pet fFoo, life snacks

Albertsons Safeway's are full with minor price increase.

Best stocked and best price is our Food for Less /Sherms (a Northwest bag-it-yourself store.).

And yet I KNOW that price increases and shortages are just around the corner but I feel like nonone else sees it here.

Stock levals very drastically from store to store.
 

Countrymouse

Country exile in the city
Hubby decided tonight he wanted hot dogs for supper and we were out.

So......off to Ingles I go, to get the dogs and buns (whole-wheat, b/c he's a health nut. HOT DOGS + whole wheat bread for health? Yeah, I know, I know....)

Simple, right? The great American dinner.

Went to Ingles. Found the hot dogs ok (on sale, & plenty) --

but in the bread aisle---NOT ONE SINGLE BAG of whole-wheat hot dog (or hamburger) buns.

Lots of potato buns, white buns---no whole wheat to be had.

Left and went to Publix.

Again--plenty of white and potato and even some more exotic kinds---but plain old whole wheat? Whistling Dixie....

Finally found ONE bag of "multigrain" hot dog buns, one bag of "all natural / no high fructose corn syrup" hot dog buns, and ONE bag of hamburger buns.

Very very weird..............

And LOTS AND LOTS of GAPS on other shelves. I particularly noticed even bottled WATER seemed scarce....
 

Murt

Veteran Member
The DW grabbed a rotisserie chicken for supper. They’re sold by the piece and not weight. It appeared to be a Cornish hen. Weighed in at 33 oz with the bag and juices! The feed store shocked me with scratch grain up to an astounding 14.74. Noticed in one of the grocery ads the wishbone salad dressing is now 15 and not 16 ozs. The incredible shrinking package is rolling!

just wait until everything gets back to normal
(sarc)
 

Terrwyn

Veteran Member
Hubby decided tonight he wanted hot dogs for supper and we were out.

So......off to Ingles I go, to get the dogs and buns (whole-wheat, b/c he's a health nut. HOT DOGS + whole wheat bread for health? Yeah, I know, I know....)

Simple, right? The great American dinner.

Went to Ingles. Found the hot dogs ok (on sale, & plenty) --

but in the bread aisle---NOT ONE SINGLE BAG of whole-wheat hot dog (or hamburger) buns.

Lots of potato buns, white buns---no whole wheat to be had.

Left and went to Publix.

Again--plenty of white and potato and even some more exotic kinds---but plain old whole wheat? Whistling Dixie....

Finally found ONE bag of "multigrain" hot dog buns, one bag of "all natural / no high fructose corn syrup" hot dog buns, and ONE bag of hamburger buns.

Very very weird..............

And LOTS AND LOTS of GAPS on other shelves. I particularly noticed even bottled WATER seemed scarce....
This is going on with buns and bread in S. CA too. I even contacted the bakery whose bread I buy. Customer service said it was a delivery problem whatever that means. We like the whole wheat buns too.
 

greysage

On The Level
Wish I'd brought my phone with me to Hannafords this morning. First off, they've been doing some remodeling or something at the front of this store near the office entrance. I thought they were moving the customer service desk/checkout over there. I go in this morning and there is a wall, a bank, of high end commercial refrigerators or freezers. Doors are facing the public. This is right inside the entrance 20 feet. Everyone will walk by it who uses that entrance. Funny thing is, these are like restaurant or commercial units. There is no glass, no way to see what is in each. Looks like there was 6-8 of them. No idea what this is for. There still looks to be space behind that is open. That space is next to the HABA and pharmacy area. Didn't think to ask as my vehicle was making funny noises on the way there and that was on my mind.

Anyway, still short in the store brand common products. Bought the last two whole milk cottage on the shelf. Plenty of flavored ones and some national brand. The plain stuff is low. Store brand whole milk, furthest date out was Aug 9.

Store brand premium paper towels finally came down to pre-scamdemicoup prices but appear to be less per package.

Biggest most noticeable hole. Sports drinks. Literally 25% of an aisle is near empty. Didn't look at what was available because I don't drink the stuff.

Coffee, that area is shrinking. Still none of my flavor in the store brand premium. Bought the last two bags of the regional organic.

Noticed some stuff that seemed out of place for this store or our area. But didn't investigate. I think they're trying to look like they have products. Maybe they're trying to set up relations with other suppliers?

Nothing about masking and no one looked at me funny.
 

Shooter

Veteran Member
I got mad at walmart, so, figured id start going to the next small town from mine, they have a grocery store, wont mention the name, just went up and down isles abd bought what I wanted, I usually dont look at prices,if I wanna eat something I buy it, so I bought 4 cans of dinty moore beef stew, got home and thought the bill was a bit high, WOW, the dollar store 2 miles from me sells it for $2.50 a 20 ounce can, the store in the next city charged $3.79.

guess ill go there for fresh stuff, but canned will be from dollar store
 

Codeno

Veteran Member
I'm expecting sky high hay prices, I and everyone else going to be dumping cows on tbe market and getting low dollar.

Yet, at the grocery store it'll be top dollar.


I was listening to the Governor of North Dakota on talk radio out of Fargo last week, addressing the price of hay by the ton, due to the drought there. He said it was up around $100 per ton, and a rancher called in to say that the Gov was incredibly out of touch (go figure), and that hay was currently selling for close to $200 per ton. He said that some sellers had tested the waters asking for close to $300 per ton, which to his knowledge nobody was actually paying, yet.
 
Last edited:

WalknTrot

Veteran Member
I was listening to the Governor of North Dakota on talk radio out of Fargo 3 or 4 days ago, addressing the price of hay by the ton, due to the drought there. He said it was up around $100 per ton, and a rancher called in to say that the Gov was incredibly out of touch (go figure), and that hay was currently selling for close to $200 per ton. He said that some sellers had tested the waters asking for close to $300 per ton, which to his knowledge nobody was actually paying, yet.
Yup..that would be right. I checked the market here the other day (for grins..thankfully, I don't need any hay..grow my own).

All I could even find for sale were some nice looking 40lb squares of horse hay, but they were priced at $6.00 each, which very neatly works out to $300/ton. And GOOD LUCK finding it in any quantity. We've had a little rain in the past few days, but the second crop alfalfa is already flowering here - the timothy is stunted. It's going to be a very thin crop. If it gets cut soon...maybe a chance for a third.
 

parsonswife

Veteran Member
Wish I'd brought my phone with me to Hannafords this morning. First off, they've been doing some remodeling or something at the front of this store near the office entrance. I thought they were moving the customer service desk/checkout over there. I go in this morning and there is a wall, a bank, of high end commercial refrigerators or freezers. Doors are facing the public. This is right inside the entrance 20 feet. Everyone will walk by it who uses that entrance. Funny thing is, these are like restaurant or commercial units. There is no glass, no way to see what is in each. Looks like there was 6-8 of them. No idea what this is for. There still looks to be space behind that is open. That space is next to the HABA and pharmacy area. Didn't think to ask as my vehicle was making funny noises on the way there and that was on my mind.

Anyway, still short in the store brand common products. Bought the last two whole milk cottage on the shelf. Plenty of flavored ones and some national brand. The plain stuff is low. Store brand whole milk, furthest date out was Aug 9.

Store brand premium paper towels finally came down to pre-scamdemicoup prices but appear to be less per package.

Biggest most noticeable hole. Sports drinks. Literally 25% of an aisle is near empty. Didn't look at what was available because I don't drink the stuff.

Coffee, that area is shrinking. Still none of my flavor in the store brand premium. Bought the last two bags of the regional organic.

Noticed some stuff that seemed out of place for this store or our area. But didn't investigate. I think they're trying to look like they have products. Maybe they're trying to set up relations with other suppliers?

Nothing about masking and no one looked at me funny.

Regarding all the refrigerate units up front Alot of store chains are putting them there for the drive up and deliver folks like Door dash. The store employee shops for you and then puts the items in a bin in the cooler waiting for the pickup person.

That what might be those you saw
 

greysage

On The Level
Regarding all the refrigerate units up front Alot of store chains are putting them there for the drive up and deliver folks like Door dash. The store employee shops for you and then puts the items in a bin in the cooler waiting for the pickup person.

That what might be those you saw

Good thinking. There were a few signs about using Instacart on the way in the store that don't recall seeing before.
 

von Koehler

Has No Life - Lives on TB
My small town now has 3 stores Hyvee, Walmart, and now Fareway offering pickup service. Grocery minimum is $30 which now adays is rather easy to reach. They all are online now with ads so it makes comparison shopping easier.

What is nice is usually if one is out of stock or doesn't carry an item, the other 2 might.
 

Marseydoats

Veteran Member
I was listening to the Governor of North Dakota on talk radio out of Fargo last week, addressing the price of hay by the ton, due to the drought there. He said it was up around $100 per ton, and a rancher called in to say that the Gov was incredibly out of touch (go figure), and that hay was currently selling for close to $200 per ton. He said that some sellers had tested the waters asking for close to $300 per ton, which to his knowledge nobody was actually paying, yet.

$250 - $300 a ton is normal price here for GOOD hay --- I don't feed garbage
been paying it for years
Mid South
 

Terrwyn

Veteran Member
Well this morning was an eye opener for sure. Ordered from 2 stores and they had no bakery sweets at all.
Many substitutions in dairy and meat. Prices sky high. Did get the bread I like. We got a big laugh out of the lettuce. If we get one salad out of it we will be lucky. Wanted something tasty so did a grub hub at Panera bakery.
Can't say enough good things about my delivery people though.
 

Meemur

Voice on the Prairie / FJB!
Knock loudly on wood, I have most of the critical supplies I can get get right now. I'm still looking for snow boots that fit better than the ones I have.

I'm looking at small electronic keyboards (61 keys) and used guitars as morale items. I'll probably get a keyboard. I'm not looking at the fancy ones ($1,000+) . . . just the really basic ones, closer to $150. I really miss my spinet piano, but I'm not going to get another one. They are too hard to move. A small electronic one easily fits in my trunk or a closet.
 

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
I've been noticing different product sections are smaller. Not nearly as much choice in regular coffee, but the whole coffee section is smaller, same with flour and sugar. Interesting to say the least.

God is good all the time

Judy
 

WalknTrot

Veteran Member
$250 - $300 a ton is normal price here for GOOD hay --- I don't feed garbage
been paying it for years
Mid South
Hay prices greatly depend on your area of the country.

Good hay is relatively cheap here (N MN) because it normally has outstanding growing conditions, even though we may be one crop short (we get 3 in a good well-maintained field in a good year) because we are so far north. A lot of ground is in hay, so in a normal year, it's usually plentiful. We have quite naturally fertile soil, good drainage, and don't need irrigation, so costs are lower, too. It always shocks the bejeebers out of me when I see hay prices in most other parts of the country.
 

Barry Natchitoches

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Just went to the feed store out in the country about an hour out of Memphis, to get my egg laying ladies some feed.

At first, they said they were totally out. But then the lady said, “Wait, Barry. Don’t you use 16% layer pellets?”

”Yes.”

”OK, we have been out of that, too. But we got in one pallet of that yesterday. I know we sold alot of it before it ever arrived, but we may still have some left.”

So she goes in the back, where they usually have many pallets of chicken, horse, cattle and many other feeds stored (as this is farm country where I shop for my feed). The place is almost barren. Not its normal, robustly stocked storage area.

She comes out and says “Barry, I have 12 bags of the feed you buy left. I don’t know when I can get more. This is all the chicken feed that came on the truck that is left. How many do you want?”

”Can I get all? I have alot of hungry little beaks to feed.”

The price was up $3 over the last time I bought feed, but I paid the price without hesitation. My wife loves our fresh eggs, scrambled, and if things get bad, there is fresh meat under those feathers.
 

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
I went to the store a couple days ago. I bought a bag of cheddar sun chips. Upon getting home and putting stuff away, I too noticed that the bag was MUCH smaller than even 6 months ago.
 

Barry Natchitoches

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Mid-South WM had 8 -10 aisles of school supplies this morning. They have moved all the shelves so that the aisles are wider. I don't know what would normally go in that area. They don't have many toys and the garden center is almost completely empty.
Dh's soft drinks have gone up from $4.29 to $6.00 for a 12 pack in less than 6 weeks.
They didn't have any of the brand name nasal spray that dh uses and the OTC medicines were really picked over.
Because of the fact that Memphis is sitting on top of one of the nation’s largest supply hubs, we are among the last to see shortages of most things.

Shortages in Memphis area WalMarts is definitely NOT A GOOD SIGN...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top