SUPPLY CHAIN SURVEY: Monday morning at the supermarket -- happy days are here again two weeks in a row?

NOTE: 

I edited a for profit finance and economics newsletter - ECONOMIC  LOGIC -- from 1977 to 2020. This blog, launched in 2008, was mainly for supplementary charts. I never thought about writing a column on supermarket shopping!  That was too boring here in Michigan, from 1977 to late-2021. And then the supply crunch began in late-2021.  I can't wait for it to end. The supply shortages do take one's mind off the rapid price increases. That's good news, I suppose?

Ye Editor

 

There is no doubt the empty shelves problem significantly improved in the past two weeks. Two consecutive weeks of improvement is a new record since the decline began in late-2021. You can't find everything you want, in the quantities you want, but product supply is improving all over the store. Extra wide, shallow rows were almost everywhere in the store to fill in empty spaces. We normally shop at 6am Sunday when the store opens for business, and a new one week sale begins. This is at the huge Meijer's supermarket in Southfield, Michigan. But with daylight savings time beginning on Sunday, I could not wake up early enough to get there when the store opened. Previous experiments with shopping Friday and Saturday morning revealed no differences when compared with Sunday mornings. Today there were an unusual number of boxes not yet unpacked at 6am, sitting on the floor near the shelves. But none of those unpacked boxes affected my commentary.

 

DETAILS

NOTE: My overall rating is based on my impression of product supply in the entire store. Not just the specific items we buy every week. We still can't get everything we want, but the store had fewer empty shelves than last week, and that's a two week improvement trend, so far.

Paper towels and toilet paper

Once again, I have never before seen so many paper towel and toilet paper rolls in one store at any time in my life.  Not even in warehouse style stores. No shortages of these products.

 

Philadelphia  Cream  Cheese

67 eight ounce tubs of soft cream cheese where there are usually about 200 -- there were 61 last week, and 6 the week before.. No eight ounce blocks of cream cheese where there are usually about 100 -- there were 38 last week, and none the week before that.

Diet  Soda  Pop

Two liters bottles: All three flavors of diet pop that I drink were well stocked. And there were fewer empty shelves than in prior weeks.

 

Breakfast  Cereals

A decent supply of raisin bran cereal, although only in one size, of one brand. Most other cereals were well stocked.  Still some empty shelves, as in prior weeks. But they always have plenty of the high sugar content cereals.

 

Sugar  Free  Pickles

None available in any brand, or size, on the shelf. I now buy low sugar bread and butter pickles found in a refrigerated case, discovered when I could not find the sugar free pickles for many weeks. They are more expensive, but at least you can buy them.

Plain  Yogurt

Well stocked -- same as last week. Both weeks were a big improvement from one month ago.

 

Packaged deli meats

A good selection. Few empty shelves -- better than in prior weeks. I found the Hillshire Farm brand of salami I like, finally, and bought one container.  The 7 ounces for $5 is not cheap, but the cheap brand -- 7 ounces for $4 -- is not good. 

 

Shortages of brands I wanted "forced" me to try unfamiliar brands of many different products over the past few months. Some were good -- others were not.

 

ACE harvest grain bread from Canada 

One loaf available. We wanted three loaves, so bought the only one they had. It was $3,99, up from $3.69 in the past year.

Coffee

The wife wanted Taster's Choice coffee -- none available, yet again, in the French Roast flavor she wanted. There are only three flavors -- her favorite is always out. This morning there was no Taster's Choice in the store of any flavor!

 

Ice  Cream 

The ice cream row was better stocked than last week.  About 3/4 full.  A few weeks ago the trough was at about 1/4 full, and hard to believe, here in America There were two brands of sugar free ice cream in stock -- amazing for 2022. There were 6 Breyers Vanilla / Chocolate / Strawberry containers, and I bought two. And 7 cartons another brand -- all were vanilla (totally boring in sugar free ice cream). There had been no sugar free ice cream of any brand last week, and in most weeks in 2022.  A big improvement.

 

Candy and gum display at the checkout counter

These impulse purchase shelves were more than three quarters filled up this week, not the mainly empty shelves I reported one month ago.