Threads about food and grocery item shortages are the very reason we have these shortages!

GLP has always been discussing food preps, news of crop failures and famines for a very long time. Talking about it then didn't cause shortages on the store shelves so what has changed?

There is more fear now, after the pandemic. It creates a bank-run type of fear and net impact is negative. And lots of waste of food from all the bad storage and excess that go uneaten.

Q: Will there be food shortages?

A: There are no nationwide shortages of food, although in some cases the inventory of certain foods at your grocery store might be temporarily low before stores can restock. Food production and manufacturing are widely dispersed throughout the U.S. and there are currently no wide-spread disruptions reported in the supply chain.

[link to www.usda.gov (secure)]

If there was a shortage, and I was a gov entity involved with information warfare, I too would be saying what you are saying.

I expect the government shills to tell people DONT PANIC and meanwhile the states and feds are stockpiling food like crazy.

Thread: Washington State has been stocking away millions of dollars of non-perishable food

Yeah no it was glps fault and has nothing to do with food processing plants being shamed to close because of covid

no big corporation made a shortage they left trucks sitting in lines to scalp you.

Absolutely.

Dumbasses are doing this.

Actually, the situation regarding shortages in food has resulted from unanticipated increases in demand for food at grocers.

Consider the lockdown... Most Americans were buying lunch outside of the home, rather than at home, or home prepared. How many American workers weren't breakfasting at home either? How many meals served in the evening by restaurants?

School cafeterias shutdown, restaraunts shutdown... Not like people quit eating those meals, is it?

Grocers and Suppliers have been running on very slim inventories thanks to Just In Time computer models and checkout register inventory mgmt. Suppliers order in enough to service the regular needs of their customers. Grocers now have 40% or more increase in demand for all types of food products.

Food producers are also going by JIT methods to satisfy the national market. 40% increase also impacts them.


Tie this to the Chinese supply shutdown. Early on it was reported that almost every corp in the S&P 1000 was dependent upon Chinese sources for Tier 2 supplies to make their product/merchandise ready to sell in the market. Tier 2 supplies include packaging and other resources.

Kellogs and Post make their cereals in USA, but likely source the plastic bags and boxes to package from China. Consider the Alum can shortage that has caused Coke & Pepsi to stop packaging their lesser demand sodas because the cans aren't available.

Everything that could be bought cheaper from China by American firms has been sourced from China. Still problems getting those sources back.


Stop the fear?
Food is perishable. The maxim in business is: Maximize your turnover. Businesses in food supply chain have done that. CEOs have slashed redundancies that might have provided better response to demand increases. Made sense then; but now it is a handicap.


Personally, I think if you don't already have 6mos to a year food supply in your home, but you embrace the "no fear" mantra; you are simply foolish. Not having enough money is a real problem, but not buying what you can now, while supplies are still available is stupid.

Food bought today is unlikely to be available in the future at lower prices. With increased debt likely to top $10 Trillion for 2020 due to the Pandemic-Econ Collapse, inflation will only get worse.

Are you planning on eating this Fall or Winter? Stocking up on food now will likely pay great dividends in the savings achieved now rather than buying food at 2-5x the price in months to come.


There is still 40% more competition for food than there was before March 2020. There are still mile long lines at Food Banks. How many actual unemployed?

If you have savings or resources to assure your family of a longterm food supply, do it!

This is pretty much what I was not saying.

Anyone that has been to a store in the last few months has seen and continues to see bare shelves. Things are marginally better but I continue to see canned goods in short supply. Monday, I was at a big box store early after open when the shelves were being stocked. Walked through the canned vegetables section and overheard one stocker saying "I know we don't have anymore of that in the back... or that.... maybe, nope, we don't have that either."

It's only been a couple of years since the time when September meant a huge case sale of canned vegetables. It would be a week long and there were pallets of cans stacked in the middle aisle. Last year it was a two day sale and one mixed pallet. I have no idea what this year will bring.

And so, yeah. People are nervous about their food security.

And good luck finding canning supplies. I had to call all over the place and still couldn't find any lids or rings. I had to buy new jars and I got the last case of quart jars at the one store that actually had them.

Apparently they limit you to two 4LB bags of beans per visit but you can buy as many cases of canning jars and supplies as you want so those went fast.

what shortages??? stores are packed

Prior to the China Flu Shutdown, grocers were rocking along as they had for years. Managers looking at the daily inventory reports of sales from cash register inventory tie-ins. Maybe they order more of something when they saw a trend to greater demand on one or more items.

Large chains not so responsive. The reason for Just In Time inventory is to maximize return; not buying more than what will sell in a given 3 day period or week. They're also buying only enough to fit shelf space...

Grocer Wholesalers follow much the same JIT, but are buying for regional customer base. During Hurricane season, likely they buy more batteries, crackers, and other stuff coastal residents like to buy when a storm is forecast. Maybe the wholesalers get more water products in during this season?

The whole JIT thing assumes relatively steady buying by the same usual customer-base of each grocery. The wholesaler doesn't have facilities to handle much more merchandise than they built their warehouse to handle...

Then we can talk about growers and suppliers. If there's more demand for grain products forecasted, it takes a year or two to increase the supply coming from the farm. We've seen drought cause cattlemen to sell their herds and prices drop due to over supply.

The over-supply comes from imbalance to demand.


From March, 2020 demand at grocers has been increased by about 40% due to lockdowns and food-service business shutdowns. Cooking at home has become the New Normal. Grocery shortages resulted and are still happening.

If there is a can shortage for soda makers, is this year's harvest going to face a canning supply shortage? Not seeing much canned veges where I live. Maybe there's tons of veges but no cans?

Are grocer supply chain providers going to be able to get fresh produce to market in volumes that otherwise would be canned or frozen?

This is a Real World logistics problem.

Many more complexities at work here. Of course, in the midst of this calamity, it's an election year and the opposition is trying to destroy America in order to prove Orange Man Bad...


In the meantime, don't lose sight of the fact that you are on your own when it comes to meeting your daily needs. Things are only going to get worse. It's doubtful that they will get better anytime for years to come. Keep that in mind...

Not around here they are not. They also are limiting the amount you can purchase on certain staple food items and some items are completely out of stock with no ETA.

I guess i'm in the right state??

As I have been stocking up a little on a few things, I've noticed expiration dates on the NEW foods I buy are some times OLDER than the foods I already have.

This is from Walmart where they have a big turnaround for food.

You would think they are rotating it every time they stock the shelf. So I think maybe they got some older food from another store.

Get what you need now. Food, of course. But also shoes and clothes for winter, first aid supplies, camping gear, etc.

Oh snap!.....I'm heading to the market to stock up!....this thread is proof!.....its trying to hide that there really is shortages!......

fuck it....I'm loading the truck tomorrow...lol