How well is YOUR grocery stocked?

Local groceries | 3/19/20 | Me, Myself, and I

[EinNYC]

I just got back from trying to get some common items I need in my refrigerator: carrots, Lactaid milk, and Stok unsweetened coffee. Now I feel very depressed and apprehensive for what's gonna be coming up in the next few weeks.

Went to BJs, as they have great prices on all of the above. I walked into a near-empty store--and immediately the theme music from "The Twilight Zone" started playing. Vegetables--pretty wiped out, and NO carrots. Milk--NO milk of any kind, except goat milk. Guys, you can have my portion of the goat milk! I bought some Silk Almond Milk just to have something. I felt like I'd been slapped, like I had stepped into a nightmare. Here I was in America, and I was being forced to live like someone in a turd world country, with extensive food shortages.

I continued on to Wegmans, and was treated to pretty much the same experience. There was a sign over the carrots -- "Limit: 2 bags of carrots"--but they needn't have bothered, as there WERE no carrots to buy. I needed some for a recipe, so I bought baby food carrots. And a goo-goo to you, too! When I reached the dairy section, I was reminded of Texas--lots of WIDE OPEN SPACES. No milk in sight, and only a few cartons of eggs. I grabbed some eggs, as I needed to buy them before Passover.

As if I didn't hate China, murderous land of selling political prisoners' body parts and the most heinous methods of torturing and killing numerous animal species I ever heard of before, now they are firmly in my sights. I realize that not being able to buy carrots, milk, or refrigerated coffee does not begin to approach the horrible ramifications of the coronavirus plague on many families, putting wage-earners out of work itself, bringing death to loved ones, preventing freedom of movement, and all the other negative changes to our lives, but it's what happened to me now, so far. The food shortage was sufficient to bring it home to me, realtime.

How are the rest of you suffering and how are you coping? I feel for all Americans' suffering induced by the unspeakable lowlife Chinese and their selfishness.

[Viking2002]

I went and did a good $250 order at Walmart here in east Alabama this late afternoon (we've relied on our local remodeled, expanded Dollar General for most staples the last couple of weeks, and have all the SHTF essentials like filtered water, meds, bar soap, and TP already stowed away from the last EOTWAWKI hysteria). Milk was good to go - whole, 2%, 1%, skim. It went downhill from there. Only about a dozen cartons of brown eggs were left (I found the regular white ones at a competing store, plus my wife's niece raises hens for eggs, so we have a fresh omelet sitting in a backyard coop any time we want one). I found one bottle of Trop50 OJ in the juice section. The cheese and lunchmeat aisles were almost completely barren (I mean, come on, that's considered 'non-perishable'? Really? I still got my white butt-puckering hunter's cheddar and pepper jack cheeses, though. And some turkey for the wife and roast beef for moi.). Toilet paper racks were at half capacity. OTC pain med section of the pharmacy was down to about 10% of normal stock. Most meats were removed from the wall cases and were in the aisle. (Good news being, they wanted to move it out and had marked even the fresh stuff down. I got chuck roast, corned beef brisket, ribeyes, ham steaks, pecan smoked chicken wings, all that goodness.) Bread section was surprisingly well-stocked. As far as soup and canned meats like tuna and Vienna sausages, forget it - a few picked-through odds and ends. (I did find a can of Libby's corned beef with the key still attached and snagged it.) Produce section yielded some good winter and yellow squash, tomatoes, sweet onions, corn on the cob, lettuce, peppers, fresh fruit. My wife needed her stash of fresh bananas, clementines, and avocados restocked, they they were all plentiful. (The 10 and 20 pound sacks of baking potatoes were cleared out.) Most canned veggies left were store brand peas, corn, and Veg-All (*MEGA-BARF*). I just had to SMH at some of the really bizarre stuff that people were hoarding. I guess it must be a regional thing.

[oldvirginian]

I went shopping yesterday.
Produce was so so. Plenty of bananas, tomatoes. Potatoes were available in 5# bags only.

Meat was hit hard. Limited stock of most cuts. Hamburger was low, I got the last 2 pkgs. Lunch meats wiped out. Bacon and sausage were limited.

Dairy was pretty good. Plenty of milk, eggs, cheese.
All canned biscuits were sold out.

Frozen food was wiped out. Completely except for ice cream. Pizza, fish, chicken, tv dinners anything heat and serve was gone.

Paper aisle was wiped out. No paper towels, tp, wet wipes all gone. Bare shelves.

Canned goods were a disaster. Corn, beans, canned meats, tuna even hot dog chili was sold out.
Hamburger helper, tuna helper, all meat extenders were sold out.

Wal-Mart was even worse.
Think Berlin after WW2.

[Kazan]

The stores here in Ohio are mostly well-stocked the veggies, fruit, bread and meat. But, the ketchup was completely gone and most of the pizza. And, of course, there is no toilet paper anywhere.

[luckystarmom]

I’m in San Jose. Grocery stores were very bad on Monday. Today, I went to our local store again and they we’re stocking back up.

I didn’t check eggs or meat or dairy. I got potatoes and bananas and mayo and mustard.

It was almost back to normal.

[Ellendra]

Thermometers are sold out all over the city. Milk is usually available, but you take the kind they have, don’t count on any specific type. I have no idea what the egg situation is in the stores, my chickens have been keeping us supplied. Pasta and canned chicken are getting hit pretty hard.

I haven’t been to a store for several days now. I’m really glad we were stocked up on canned soup and frozen meats.

This is the longest I’ve gone without hearing dad complain that “We’ve got too much food in this house!” He’s usually anti-prepping and tends to ridicule my chickens and my gardening. Now, maybe, he might be starting to understand.

[GnuThere]

Love the David Balducci ones, I always buy one at an airport when I can.

[mass55th]

I'm basically the same as you. I live in a two bedroom apartment in a small complex. I don't have the room for a separate freezer, small or otherwise. I've always kept my refrigerator's freezer section well-stocked with food, and I only go out about once a week to buy soda, and whatever I need to get me through to the next week. It's just me here.

I've been fairly lucky in that what I have needed, has been in stock for the most part. I went to B.J.'s last Thursday, and they were empty of a lot of their fresh meat. I only went there to see if they had any chicken kebobs that I wanted to take to my son's when next I visited. They had none. I left because I didn't need anything else.

This past Monday I had a doctor's appointment, and stopped at the Walmart Superstore near there before heading home. I hate going to my local Walmart Superstore, because the store always looks like it's going out of business with empty shelves and freezer sections. It's been that way for about 3 years now. They've also cut back on the variety of brands they sell, and I usually end up having to go to the two other markets in Rome. When I got to the other Walmart, I had a small list of things I wanted, and was able to find everything I needed. They had clerks on every aisle filling up the shelves as fast as they could. One shelf I noticed was empty of peanut butter.

Tuesday I went over to my local Price Chopper for some soda, bagged salad, creamer, and I figured I'd check to see if they had the bagels that I like. They had two of the "everything" bagels, so I took those. Them not having bagels later in the afternoon isn't new. Most times you have to get there early in the morning before they run out. Price Chopper had no bagged salad, no eggs, and no bread. Thankfully, there is a small Italian bakery down the street from me, and I stopped there before going home, and bought a loaf of Italian, and a loaf of sour bread.

I was planning on visiting my oldest son in Albany this weekend (we've since cancelled), and I wanted to get to the Wegman's in Syracuse to pick up the Zweigle's White Hots he likes. They're made in Rochester, and Wegman's is the only store that sells them. It's about 45 minutes away from me. I usually call Wegman's ahead of time (especially in the summer), and ask them to hold 3-4 packages of those hots so I can pick them up in a day or two. I'm glad I called this time, because when I got to Wegman's yesterday, they had none...but I was at least able to get the ones they'd put aside for me. I shoved them in my freezer so I can take them to him in a couple of weeks hopefully. Wegman's had vegetables galore...even plenty of bagged salads. Their meat section was a bit scarce, but I wasn't planning on buying any other meat anyway. I like their French Vanilla muffins, but all they had were blueberry, which I can't stand. Wegman's had eggs, so I bought myself a dozen of those, and picked up some canned vegetables for casseroles that I'll need when my sister-in-law, along with my niece and her family come for Easter dinner...that is unless we end up cancelling. I'm holding off buying a ham because I don't want to buy one, and then find out they aren't coming. I don't have room in my freezer to store it. I'm just hoping when I do need to get one, that there will be some available.

[sauropod]

Got most of my stuff about 3 weeks ago.

Push comes to shove I can last a month.

[Jane Long]

Dear, the time to have shopped was WEEKS ago.

[angry elephant]

I was accused of being a hoarder by family members before all this started. Then with the shopping frenzy I have had to go and buy more canned cooks.

I live in a house that was built in 1910 as a farmhouse. It has that kind of sunken full-room pantry. Now I have canned goods that I have to try to fit in, mostly vegetable beef soup and corned beef.

At my local store today the eggs were low. There was lots of chicken, beef, pork and seafood. Dried beans and rice were stripped out. Canned vegetables were very low. There was one lone can of pinto beans on the shelf which I did not buy as I have plenty.

There was absolutely no paper towels and TP limited.

I bought some milk to freeze since others talked about that.

I hope the panic shopping ends soon as I had a lot before it all started and now feel compelled to shop.

[mass55th]

"Meijer was low on bread and certain canned goods, but other than that it wasn’t horrible."

My youngest son lives in Carmel, Indiana, and wrote this to me on Wednesday:

"I am annoyed by the widespread panic and stupidity. I went to Meijer yesterday and so many shelves were empty it looked like they were in the middle of a going out of business sale. Soo I had to go to Kroger to get Italian sausage because Meijer had none. So I go to Kroger and they have signs in the meat section telling people they will not sell more than 3 of one item because people are going nuts and buying up everything so no one else can have any. Luckily they had Italian Sausage."

[Uncle Miltie]

You remembered ... sniff!

[mass55th]

"I stocked up on 30 days of microwave popcorn today."

I can't eat popcorn, and have to settle for Pirate's Booty, buttered flavored, or Chester's Butter flavored corn puffs.

[onona]

Aye, it'll take some time. Some incentives here at home (yes, I said it), and I know that's ripe for corruption.

Which devil do ya take ?

[Ken H]

[mass55th]

"Keep busy and don’t watch the news."

Or the restaurant ads!! I live in Rome, New York, and they keep showing ads for restaurants that aren't any where near me. Just saw one for a delicious looking rack of ribs at Fridays. Yeah, good luck with that.

[AtlantaBelle]

I am in Nashville and we just had a devastating Tornado a couple of weeks ago. That robbed stores of desperately needed cleaning supplies, etc. The stores have restocked for the most part.
I was at my local Publix today and they were pretty well stocked. Lots of fresh produce, seafood, meat section not bad. I got Tilapia, Filet Mignon, a fantastic looking Porterhouse, 2 separate pkgs of Burger and a Kielbasa. Got some Nathan’s hotdogs.
I got some (on sale!) White Mtn bread from their Bakery. It was VERY fresh and they sliced it to my specs.
Everything else was stocked very well until I got to Dairy section. Lots of milk but cheese was 80% out, had some of what I wanted anyway just not the brand I usually buy. Bread was 75% out BUT there was bread, again, maybe just not the cheapest options as they were all gone.
Frozen very well stocked and they had a lot of staff all over store in every aisle stocking.

[Inyo-Mono]

Bookmark.

[TheConservativeParty]

I went to a large grocery store on Wednesday. It was strange to see empty places, the entire potato area for instance. Meat section was third world sparse. Paper product isle empty. Still plenty of other stuff though, canned goods, etc.

Then today we went to another town, had other errands there, and went to 2 grocery stores , Aldi and Walmart. Aldi was good (potatoes were good to find) but no paper products. Walmart had anything I looked for and had one pack limit on TP and Kleenex, which is why they still had some at 2pm.

We were a few weeks from running out the paper products. Luckily I went to Sam’s in February before things went sideways.

[Ken H]

It just makes sense to be prepped at all times. Plus, it’s an act of good citizenship since you won’t be out grabbing precious supplies from others who were not so foresiteful.