GBAChef: Oddest things to be missing in the supermarket.

FAST6191

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So was doing shopping earlier and it seems things are somewhat out of stock, and if you know the shelf pattern in general then things have been moved a bit to hide it.

Most amusing was the cereal aisle had a giant cardboard box blocking several prime eye level shelves where there would normally be loads of cereal, was very little on top of the shelves either waiting to be put down. Most of the own brand stuff was nowhere to be seen either (which is a pity as I usually like own brand takes on shreddies/malted wheats) and previous weeks had seen a bit of a reshuffle to make things look less barren there. This wasn't just Friday night run down either as everything else was restocked, and according to the cashier it had been dead all evening.
Lidl, not the ones I went to above over the course of this evening, have also not had any chocolate flakes in yoghurt (Stracciatella is seemingly the name) for a long time where it used to be almost every other time and I really miss that stuff.

So then in this current era of disrupted supply chains, local and otherwise, what is the oddest thing you have seen missing? What is your favourite thing you are having a hard time getting hold of? Are you stocking anything when you see it?
 

Minox

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Not really disrupted, but some time ago I found out that vanilla sugar and pearl sugar is not really a thing here. The former is easily replaced, but having to make your own pearl sugar is not very enjoyable.
 

McPringles

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Not at all pandemic related, but a few years ago I was living in an apartment complex with a local department store being essentially right across the street from the complex's main entrance, so even though the prices weren't great it'd be the go-to place if I didn't want to drive. They had a grocery selection, mostly dry stuff, non-perishables, snacks, bread, etc. There were also coolers up front with bottled water, soft drinks, whatever. But for whatever reason, they never stocked milk, even in single-serve containers. What made it more bizarre was that right up with the snacks near the checkout lanes, they had prepackaged cups of dry cereal. Always annoyed me, because I'd have to go another block to Walgreens or a gas station if I needed dairy products and didn't want to go all the way to the grocery store.

That whole chain of stores went bankrupt a full year before the pandemic, and frankly I can't say I was all that sad to see them go.
 

Dr_Faustus

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Local shops here have been a pain in the arse finding anything that I would normally get.

An example (also an example of my laziness in preparing simple snacks) I typically get pre-prepared PB&J sandwiches by box fulls that make a simple snack in the mornings and mid day for my blood sugar. They typically become harder to find during the summer however and I assume suspect because of parents snatching them up for kids when they go to camp or whatever. That said more so recently they have become more of a rarity to find (at least the grape ones) which has resulted me trying to make them before work now.

Another thing is Sprite Zero, which is uncommon at best and my main soda of choice, and for some reason Munchos, which I have not been able to find anywhere around me for the last goddamn two months. Its just a damn bag of crisps.
 

JuanMena

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This is appropriate.

There's this organization in my country called PROFECO (Consumer Federal Procuratory) that decides what's healthy and what's not for the country's population.

They recently decided that instant pasta is a no go for my country, thus they're canceling it altogether.

So of course, monkey see monkey do, we're having panic shopping, but instead of being toilet paper, this time, is fake ramen:

images
 
Last edited by JuanMena,

hippy dave

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We're still getting food deliveries rather than going to the supermarket regularly, but there've been various things that seemed impossible to get hold of at various times.

Worst thing recently tho was the petrol shortage. We had a camping holiday to Wales booked for months with the in-laws for last weekend, so you can imagine the joy of watching the needle creep toward the bottom of the gauge as I went from empty petrol station to empty petrol station in the week before. Ended up getting up at 4.30am on the Thursday to join the queue at a particular Morrison's which the in-laws assured us was getting daily deliveries - that turned out to be the one day they didn't get any, but we got lucky at a nearby Tesco. So we made it to Wales in the end, but it didn't help with the stress/exhaustion levels for our relaxing holiday. (BTW filling up in rural Wales didn't take a second thought, the woman at the station said it had been normal there the whole time and she didn't know what the news had been on about...)

Panic buyers and Brexit voters and Tory voters and Boris fucking Johnson can burn in hell now plzkthx
 

Costello

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During the peak of the crisis last year in Singapore -- under full lockdown (we could still go to the supermarket but not much more) there was one thing that was missing: tomato sauce. Anything that had tomato in it was missing: fresh tomatoes, tomato paste, concentrate, pasta sauce, pizza sauce, etc...

That was bad for us because a lot of the food we eat is tomato sauce based :P Pizza, pasta, lasagna, etc...
It took several weeks for things to come back to normal.
 
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GeekyGuy

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It's likely attributed to one of two things: either your store is in remodel mode (in which case they're condensing what items will be kept in the store and discontinuing many items at once), or it's an issue with supply. Our store is going through both currently. We're in remodel mode, and both the warehouses and the shipping companies simply don't have enough workers to get the product to us. Shortages aren't as much an issue as they were earlier in the year. At this point it's a labor issue.
 

FAST6191

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Seems shrinkflation (prices go up but volumes go down marginally to try to create the illusion of steady price ) is kicking in


Went to the supermarket last night. Nutella no longer in 1000g containers but down to 950g.
Also the amount of supermarkets that dropped their deli and fish counters around here is quite considerable.

I had a hell of a time finding cocoa powder the last month or two.
Try TK/TJ maxx if you have one around you. Been in a few and most of those have a fair bit.
 

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Seems shrinkflation (prices go up but volumes go down marginally to try to create the illusion of steady price ) is kicking in


Went to the supermarket last night. Nutella no longer in 1000g containers but down to 950g.
Also the amount of supermarkets that dropped their deli and fish counters around here is quite considerable.


Try TK/TJ maxx if you have one around you. Been in a few and most of those have a fair bit.

To be fair this has been a trend that has been going on since the early 2010's as far as I know. The recent chaos is just accelerating it more for other products since it will give them an excuse to do so. An example of this being a thing awhile ago is several Ice Cream companies making their containers smaller while still charging the same price for them. I think Breyers was the first on the trend and others soon followed trying to use the weight epidemic as an excuse to sell things in smaller amounts.
 

FAST6191

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To be fair this has been a trend that has been going on since the early 2010's as far as I know. The recent chaos is just accelerating it more for other products since it will give them an excuse to do so. An example of this being a thing awhile ago is several Ice Cream companies making their containers smaller while still charging the same price for them. I think Breyers was the first on the trend and others soon followed trying to use the weight epidemic as an excuse to sell things in smaller amounts.
Been going on longer than that; I bought a bunch of antique chocolate tins a year or two back (make wonderful cake tins) and lined them up against the current ones... yeah. This is was just more pronounced than most so I thought I would note it.
Did not see the "you is all fat bastards" excuse though. Going to have to go looking for that.
 

Dr_Faustus

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Been going on longer than that; I bought a bunch of antique chocolate tins a year or two back (make wonderful cake tins) and lined them up against the current ones... yeah. This is was just more pronounced than most so I thought I would note it.
Did not see the "you is all fat bastards" excuse though. Going to have to go looking for that.
Actually I stand corrected at least for Breyers https://consumerist.com/2008/04/21/breyers-ice-cream-shrinks-to-15-quarts/

So they did that due to "others" dropping down their size and they responding by doing the same for the sake of production costs. Still a shitty thing to do but oh well. As for the whole weight epidemic thing, I have seen some instances of it being used before trying to sell it off as "better portion control" options to make them look good in PR but in reality they are selling you less for the same or more.
 

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