SUPPLY SIDE SURVEY: Sunday morning at the supermarket -- good news this week

The empty shelves problem was finally better this week. Of course our expectations are low -- if they have most of the products we want, that's a successful shopping trip, even if we can't get the quantities we wanted to buy. If the product we want is on sale and we can get as many as we want to buy, that's a miracle. There were 18 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. 

 

We stock up on items we use regularly, that don't spoil, especially if they are on sale (we're hoarders and good investors too) ... so we don't get to survey every item mentioned in other Supply Side Survey articles posted here in prior weeks.

 

Philadelphia  Cream  Cheese

There were 25 eight ounce tubs, and 57 eight ounce blocks of plain cream cheese. Last week there were only 6 eight ounce tubs of soft cream cheese, where there are usually 200. And no eight ounce blocks of cream cheese, where there are usually 100.

Diet  Soda  Pop

12 packs of cans were on sale again for $4 if you bought three. I did. Not a full stock of popular cola flavors in the store left for the next batch of shoppers --but  we shop at 6am when the store opens.  Last week all 12 packs were also on sale for $4, if you bought three or more, but I couldn't find three of any popular diet cola flavors I wanted. They had some Diet Doctor Pepper 12 packs last week, but I had plenty left at home, so I bought nothing.

 

Breakfast  Cereals

A decent supply of raisin bran cereal, but still lots of empty shelves. The cereals (more like candy) highest in sugar are the 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 few weeks.

 

Sugar  Free  Pickles

Some were available this week, and last week, for the first time in a while. But I don't care because I switched to Meijer's Kosher low sugar bread and butter pickles -- not many of those were left in the store but I only bought one 32 ounce container for $3.99. I also make my own pickles with fresh small size pickle cucumbers, and no sugar.

Plain  Yogurt

There was a small amount of one brand of 2% milk fat plain yogurt this week. The wife wanted no fat plain yogurt but decided to compromise this week. None were in the store of any brand, or any fat content last week. Just sweet Vanilla and other too sweet flavors last week, and not many of them.

 

Packaged sliced ham and turkey

A decent selection. The Smithfield  "Prime Cuts" honey ham and smoked turkey were on sale -- 8 ounces for $3.50 -- I didn't need any, but bought two of each anyway -- they'll be at least $3.99 next week. I first bought the salami of this cheap brand, because that was my only choice one week. Not that good, but I later found out their honey ham and smoked turkey are as good as our prior, more expensive brands: Hillsdale Farms and Oscar Mayer.  The one benefit of out of stock items is you may discover a cheaper substitute, or a better brand, that happens to be in stock when your preferred brand is not.

 

ACE harvest grain bread from Canada 

Three available, and we bought all three. They are often out of stock in the flavor we want.  This "heavy" bread freezes well.

Other items:

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

Ice  Cream 

The ice cream row was as empty as last week. There were still more empty shelves than products for sale, which were mainly small, very expensive ice cream containers, and some very cheap ice cream -- not the most popular products. This week a miracle!  Finally I spotted Breyer's sugar free chocolate / vanilla / strawberry -- three flavors -- not cheap at $4.79 each, but I bought two of the three. Be aware that vanilla sugar free ice cream is pretty bland -- stronger flavors taste much better. 

 

Cookies:

We wanted one package of great Voortman windmill (almond) cookies and one package of their good raisin bran cookies. They were on an unadvertised sale at two for $4, rather than the usual $2.99 each. These are old fashioned hard cookies -- they stay forever, and have far fewer calories than soft, much sweeter cookies. So I bought 13 packages, rather than two, to save 99 cents on each one. Then a big dispute at the register at 7am -- sent the wife back to the cookie row to pull the label off the shelf. Turns out that one package was $2.99, but if you bought two or more, they were all $2 each. The clerk had only checked the price for one package -- I'll fight hard to avoid overpaying $13 for 13 packages of cookies!

 

Candy and gum display at the checkout counter

These impulse purchases were mainly empty shelves.  

I didn't want to buy any candy but the view is strange.