SUPPLY CHAIN SURVEY: MONDAY MORNING AT THE SUPERMARKET

NOTE: 

Michigan grocery shopping was too boring for a column until late-2021, when the supply crunch began.  I can't wait for it to end. The supply shortages do take one's mind off the rapid price increases. The price marked on the shelf is higher, but there are no products to buy, That's how you fight inflation, I suppose?

Ye Editor

 

Two consecutive weeks of supply improvement, ended today. There were significantly more empty shelves today than last week, breaking the streak. Extra wide, shallow rows are almost everywhere in the store to fill in empty spaces. 22 rows of Kraft ranch salad dressing. With one bottle in each row.  We normally shop at 6am Sunday when the store opens for business. ut not today.  This is at the huge Meijer's supermarket in Southfield, Michigan. Previous experiments with shopping Friday, Saturday and Monday morning revealed no differences when compared with Sunday mornings.

 

DETAILS

NOTE: My overall rating is based on my impression of the product supply in the entire store. Not just the specific items we buy every week. We still can't get everything we want. The store had MORE empty shelves than last week. Disappointing.

Paper towels and toilet paper

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

58 eight ounce tubs of soft cream cheese where there are usually about 200 -- there were 67 last week. There were 12 eight ounce blocks of cream cheese where there are usually about 100 -- there were none last week.

Diet  Soda  Pop

Two liters bottles: All three flavors of diet pop that I drink were well stocked. And there was a similar amount of empty shelves compared with 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.

 

Pickles

None of the Meijer brand pickles in jars were on the shelf. The stock has never been zero before. Puzzling. The much more expensive Meijer's Kosher pickles in a refrigerated case were well stocked, and on sale for the first time. I bought four containers -- enough for a month -- the wife thinks I'm crazy. They might be gone next week too.

Plain  Yogurt

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

 

Packaged deli meats

A good selection. Few empty shelves. Shortages of brands I wanted "forced" me to try unfamiliar brands of similar products over the past few months. Some were good -- others were not.

 

ACE harvest grain bread from Canada 

None available in any flavor.

 

Coffee

The wife wanted Taster's Choice French Roast flavor coffee -- no Taster's Choice available in any flavor for the second week in a row.  Puzzling.

 

Ice  Cream 

The ice cream row was better stocked than last week.  About 7/8 full, versus 3/4 full last week.  A month 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 was only one Breyer's Vanilla / Chocolate / Strawberry container -- I wanted two but bought the one available. (Today a carton of ice cream is 1.5 quarts and the product has a lot of air bubbles so it's easier to scoop. When I was a child the containers were 2 quarts and the ice cream was heavier, with no air, and really froze solid. Those were the good old days.) There were 5 cartons of another brand. but all were vanilla (totally boring in sugar free ice cream). 

 

Other Items we wanted to buy:

Lindt chocolate bars. Not one in the store of any flavor. And a limited selection of other brands.

 

Candy and gum display at the checkout counter

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