SUPPLY CHAIN SURVEY: Sunday morning at the supermarket

 SUMMARY:

The empty shelves problem is worse than ever before. Shopping for groceries continues to be a strange adventure. Expectations are low -- if they have most of the problems we want, that's a successful shopping trip. There were 20 rows of Kraft ranch salad dressing today, with one bottle in each row to fill up space. Similar extra wide, shallow displays like that all over the store. Yet there are still more empty shelves than ever. We shop at 6am Sunday when the store opens for business, and a new one week sale begins. We are hoarders too, frequently buying more than we need for the next week. Whether the item is on sale or not. This is at the huge Meijer's supermarket in Southfield, Michigan. There is no checkout line that early, and employees are in a good mood during their first hour of the day -- they are happy to see us.

 

Philadelphia Cream Cheese

19 eight ounce tubs of soft cream cheese where there are usually 200. Better than last week, when there were zero. Past weeks averaged about 60 tubs. There were no 8 ounce blocks of cream cheese. Glad I bought two last week.

Diet Doctor Pepper Soda Pop

Last week I bought five 24-can cases and left one for everyone else. Still an unusual amount of empty shelves in the soda pop row (over the past month).

 

Breakfast Cereal

A decent supply of raisin bran cereal, finally, but still lots of empty shelves. The cereals highest in sugar are easiest to find. Out of stock of all brands of raisin bran has been an intermittent problem in the past few months.

 

Sugar Free Bread and Butter Pickles

None available. But I found some Meijer's Kosher B&B pickles in a refrigerated case that have half the sugar -- bought one -- they are very good. My own pickles made with no salt are better, but pickling takes time.

 

Hillsdale Farms packaged sliced ham

A decent selection, but the lower priced Smithfield brand sliced honey ham I was forced to buy two weeks ago was good. This week it was still only $3.50 for an 8 ounce package, versus $4.99 for Hillsdale. So I bought three of the six they had left -- they will stay fresh for months.

 

ACE harvest grain bread from Canada 

None available. They are often out of stock in the flavor we want.  We have extra loaves in the freezer -- they taste good when toasted. The bridge to Canada is blocked by trucks -- we were expecting empty shelves today.

Ice Cream 

The ice cream row looked like what I'd imagine in the old Soviet Union, like last week. There were more empty shelves than products for sale. You wonder why no one buys whatever is left -- probably not the best ice cream. Nothing sugar free available for sale. 

 

Swanson's Chicken stock, Pet foods

-- No chicken stock in the store. There was chicken broth, and it was on sale -- Swanson 32 ounces for only $1 -- we bought four. 

-- Plenty of cat litter, and bird suet was even cheaper than last week, when I bought two 10 block boxes for $10 each. Today I bought three more ten block boxes for $8 each. The cheap stuff -- not the fancy pants expensive flavored suets.  Lots of empty shelves in cat and dog food -- if your pet prefers a certain flavor, you may be out of luck.

Candy and gum display at the checkout counter

These impulse purchases were mainly empty shelves.

I didn't want to buy any candy or gum, but that view is strange.