SUPPLY CHAIN SURVEY: Sunday morning at the supermarket

The empty shelves problem is worse than ever before. Our expectations are low -- if they have most of the products we want, that's a successful shopping trip. There were 19 rows of Kraft ranch salad dressing today, with one bottle in each row to fill up space. Similar extra wide, shallow displays like that were 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. 

 

Pet   Food: 

Last week I mentioned you might not get the specific brand and flavor your pet prefers. The Blue Buffalo Sensitive Stomach 10 pound bag was $30. This is dry food without corn or rice filler.  There was only one in the store. I bought it. Probably will be out of stock in one month when I will need to open the bag I bought today.

 

Philadelphia  Cream  Cheese

Only 6 eight ounce tubs of soft cream cheese where there are usually 200. No eight ounce blocks of cream cheese where there are usually 50 -- glad I bought two last week.

Diet  Soda  Pop

Two weeks ago I bought five 24-can cases of Diet Doctor Pepper for only $6.50 each and left one for everyone else. That supply will last at least five weeks. This week all 12 packs were on sale for $4, but you had to buy three. Unfortunately I couldn't find three of any diet cola flavors I wanted. They had some Diet Doctor Pepper 12 packs -- but I couldn't buy more of that. Still an unusual amount of empty shelves in the soda pop row (over the past month).

 

Breakfast  Cereals

A decent supply of raisin bran cereal, finally, but still lots of empty shelves. The cereals (more like candy) highest in sugar are easiest to find. Out of stock of all brands of raisin bran has been an intermittent problem in the past three months. But not in the past two weeks.

 

Sugar  Free  Pickles

None available last week. Back in stock this week. But ... Meijer's Kosher low sugar bread and butter pickles in a refrigerated case are fresher, taste better than sugar free pickles, and I bought two 32 ounce containers for $4 each. I use the brine to make my own pickles with fresh pickle-sized cucumbers, but pickling takes time.  For this product, sugar free out of stock led to me finder a better product that I had never noticed before.

Plain  Yogurt

The wife wanted a container of plain yogurt -- none in the store of any brand or any fat content. Just sweet Vanilla and other too sweet flavors, and not many of them. Miejer's plain Greek yogurt was on sale starting today. Not one available to buy.  Some sale.

 

Packaged sliced ham and turkey

A decent selection. Last week an out of stock product led to me trying the Meijer brand of sliced turkey -- it was cheaper and less salty than our prior brand -- we bought two more containers today. There were only a few in stock, but the more expensive brands were available.

 

ACE harvest grain bread from Canada 

One available. We wanted three, but bought the one. They are often out of stock in the flavor we want. The nearby bridge to Canada was not blocked by trucks this week -- so we were expecting more than one loaf. 

Other items:

The wife wanted Taster's Choice coffee -- none available, and Nabisco Triscuits low salt wheat crackers -- none available.

Ice  Cream 

The ice cream row was worse than last week. There were far more empty shelves than products for sale, which were mainly some small very expensive ice cream containers, and some very cheap ice cream -- not the popular products. Nothing sugar free was available for sale -- I buy sugar free ice cream once in a while, and later wonder why I did. It does look like real ice cream. 

 

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 and has not improived in weeks.