Marie Bregg, founder of the Mason Jar Merchant website, had to buy the Canadian equivalent of Ball lids at retail prices to fill the flood of orders on her website. She says sales are up 1,000 percent from the previous year.
Posted on 04/01/2021 9:26:57 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Want to know how the US economy is doing?
Forget fancy indicators like the GDP, industrial production and home sales.
If you really want to know how consumers feel about our financial situation, just look at mason jar sales.
It's true. Throughout history, when people grew worried about their own self-preservation, they eased their fears with food preservation. In wartime, Americans gardened and canned to not only proclaim their patriotism but to ease food rationing. The Energy Crisis of the '70s led to the "Great Canning Lid Shortage of 1975." And in 2020 - a year wracked by COVID-19 fears, political strife, product shortages and economic uncertainty - neophytes have started gardening and canning with a fervor that would do Ma Ingalls proud.
"I call it 'Sourdough 2.0' -- it was the next craze of what people are doing in the kitchen because they have extra time," says Marie Bregg, who says sales on her online store, Mason Jar Merchant, are up "1,000 times" what they were in previous years.
This utter can-demonium has translated into canning-supply shortages, which started last spring but have persevered. No. 1 on the Home Canner's most-wanted list: canning lids. While mason jars and lid rings can be used repeatedly, the flat metal lids with the rubber ring are engineered to seal one time only. After that, there's no guarantee they'll still work, which could mean quarts of spoiled food or, worse, food poisoning.
As a result, brand-new Ball and Kerr lids - viewed as the gold standard - have become as hot of a commodity as toilet paper was last spring.
The Forum checked numerous big-box and grocery stores throughout Fargo-Moorhead, only to find no lids were available. Online, Walmart featured lids from a third-party seller, but the price had shoppers flipping their lids: $17.98 for a 12-pack of lids and rings. (Normally, a 12-pack would cost $3 or $4.)
"It's outrageous," said Carol Kronbeck, a lifelong home-canner.
Kronbeck estimates she cans 90 jars of pickles, salsa, jelly, spaghetti sauce and tomatoes every fall after husband, Jack, a retired farmer, brings her the bounty of their large garden near Hawley, Minn. "You could hardly find lids all summer because so many had started gardening who had never canned before. I'm just glad I got all my pickles done," Kronbeck says. "I ended up having to freeze everything, even tomatoes and green beans."
Sue B. Balcom, who manages the Bismarck Farmer's Market, sells her canned goods through her Root Sellers business and is the guest contributor to "Main Street Eats," on Prairie Public Radio, says she ran out of inventory sooner than usual last fall because she couldn't find more lids and jars.
"It's irritating, to say the least," she says. "The shelves were wiped clean. It had slowed down by the end of September to a point where I was scrounging for jars. I told people, when it's gone, it's gone."
An up side to the "can-demic" is that Balcom says her sales are 50% higher in the past year than in previous years. Even so, she's frustrated by hoarders who are snatching up all the canning supplies simply so they can sell them at inflated prices. "If you're hoarding lids, stop it," she says.
Why is this happening?
Small groceries in rural areas are also experiencing a shortage. Donna Scholl, grocery manager of Valley General Store in Halstad, Minn., says jars and lids have both been in short supply since May of last year, and lids are still a no-show. For a while in the summer, the store did receive packs of jars with rings and lids. People seemed to buy them, even if they already had jars, just so they could get new lids.
The demand grew especially brisk in the fall, when people from as far as 40 miles away were calling the store to look for lids. Last week, Scholl was checking with her warehouse, but there wasn't a canning lid in sight. "Not even an off brand," she says. "There wasn't even an estimated delivery time."
Scholl says she believes the shortage stems from workforce shortages and factory shut-downs related to the pandemic. Many manufacturers have switched their production emphasis to focus on their best-selling items, but it hasn't yet bumped up availability of canning supplies.
Bregg thinks the shortage is the result of “a perfect storm” of conditions: COVID-weary folks turning to home-gardening and canning to alleviate grocery bills and fears of future food shortages; Pinterest-surfing millennials who find they now have time to try homespun pursuits like canning salsa, and pandemic-related slow-downs at every level of the supply chain.
Newell Brands, the maker of Ball as well as popular mason jar brand Kerr, produces the largest quantity of mason jars in the U.S. In early October, the publicly traded company told CNN this unprecedented demand has resulted in supply constraints, extended lead times and recently limited product availability at stores and online.
At the time, a spokesperson also told the news network it was "increasing glass production, finding new lid manufacturers, and expanding facilities in an effort to replenish stock." The official Ball site issued a statement about fraudulent sites, reminding people to buy only through authorized third-party retailers and that “appropriate legal action is being taken to have these sites removed.”
Bregg, who has been interviewed by several national news organizations on the shortage, says she doesn't have an answer on when the shortage will end. "Suppliers don’t see supply chain normalizing until maybe the end of this year. The supply chain got screwed up. They ordered more supplies last year than in 10 years' time. There's a lot of fulfillment to make up for just to reach the normal level. "
Bregg, who was born in America but lives in Vancouver, B.C., says she's been able to fill online orders for canning supplies by buying up Bernardin jars and lids. Bernardin is the Canadian equivalent to Ball and Kerr. "They are definitely more expensive than you would normally pay, but that's because we bought them at retail," she says.
Other options include ordering no-name brands off places like Amazon, which typically come from Chinese companies. However, standards vary greatly from factory to factory, so there's no guarantee of quality, Bregg says.
Another option is a lid that is truly reusable, such as the Tattler brand. Although they are more expensive than the one-time-use lid, "you can tell when a Tattler seals, let me tell you," says Sue Balcom. "It takes a lot of strength to break those seals."
Marie Bregg, founder of the Mason Jar Merchant website, had to buy the Canadian equivalent of Ball lids at retail prices to fill the flood of orders on her website. She says sales are up 1,000 percent from the previous year.
I see what you did there!
“Can-Demonium”. That would be a good name for a retail store that sold food canning supplies.
I do competitive canning at fairs.
Stop laughing.
A dozen jars and lids goes for about 8 bucks at Walmart. Extreme shortage last fall. On Amazon they were going for nearly $40/ dozen
*FYI*
*Weekly Garden Thread Ping List*
Solution: Gorilla glue.......
Buy Tattler reusable canning lids.
They work great.
How does that work....just askin for a fren.
I’m not laughing! I was just in Walmart less than an hour ago - the ONLY thing on their canning shelves were 3 packages of regular-sized lids, which I now regret not buying! No other lids, no other rings of either size.
I did score some Mrs. Wages Salsa Mix, which I LOVE and doctor up myself when I make Salsa in the late summer/fall.
I have an OK stash of jars, but lids ARE getting to be a problem.
We’re going on a Menard’s Run (local Big Box like Home Depot) tomorrow and I’m going to scour that place for jars & lids, too! It’s located in a College Town, so I’ve got my fingers crossed that ‘the college kids’ aren’t into canning like I am! :)
P.S. I’ve entered a crocheted Afghan in the County Fair two years in a row now (Blue Ribbon Winner!) so I know what you mean about your ‘craft’ being compromised. :(
Oh, Yummy! NOT! :)
I’m looking into those, too! :)
Emphasis mine - in error !
Nothing against it,,,just easier to buy what want canned.
Hard, hard freeze in NE OK this winter...Coldest ever since I lived here...killed some stuff. Had a Hedge that looks like it is going to die..
My Bonsai plants seem to be okay....
Got Asparagus coming up..and it is GOOD!... Planting some Tom's and berries...Not big on vining stuff...as I container garden.. FWIW
Nice to know so many still know how to can.
I’m planning on putting in a supply of those. I was caught by surprise by the lid shortage. The wife and I normally can surplus, and were forced to do some freezing last year that we weren’t planning on. I blamed it on being the next fad, after bread baking was in the spring and summer. Apparently I need to stock things for all of my normal home activities, since they have become fads during all of this nonsense.
In the new American things are not always going to be on the shelves when you need them so keep an extra tucked away.
Bail top with rubber gaskets. I’ve got tons of them.
Same reason I use flintlocks instead of percussion locks.
And horsewhips instead of accelerator pedals.
If you’re going to be self sufficient, you’ve got to be self sufficient.
My mom has been searching our local stores for canning lids since last autumn. The stores are still out of stock.
Frustrating.
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