SUPPLY CHAIN SURVEY 4/17/22: Sunday morning at the supermarket

NOTE: 

Michigan grocery shopping is one surprise after another for the past six months. Few of the surprises are good news. When one section of the store is well stocked one week, it could have lots of empty shelves the next week. Many times we buy more than we need of a product for the next week, whether it is on sale or not. Then we sometimes find empty shelves one week later.

The store had a similar amount of empty shelves, compared with last week, but the "Limit 2" signs have disappeared, so that's good news. As "usual", we can't buy some products we want to buy. That has not changed in six months. My overall rating is based on my impression of the product supply in the ENTIRE store. Not just the specific items we want to buy. Extra wide, shallow rows of items are almost everywhere in the store to fill in empty spaces. We normally shop at 6am Sunday when the store opens for business. At the huge Meijers supermarket in Southfield, Michigan. Previous experiments with shopping Friday, Saturday and Monday morning revealed no differences when compared with Sunday mornings

Ye Editor

 

Specific items I surveyed:

 

Paper towels and toilet paper

An enormous display of paper towels, but toilet paper rolls were not fully stocked, for the third week in a row.

 

- Philadelphia  Cream  Cheese

Only 38 eight ounce tubs of soft cream cheese where there are usually about 200 -- prior weeks were 78, 73, 104, 58 and 67. Meijers brand tubs, less than half the price, were finally available -- there were 12 onion and chive flavor available. That's it. There were NO eight ounce blocks of Philadelphia cream cheese where there are usually about 100 -- prior weeks were100, 100, 47, 12 and none.

 

- Coffee

No Taster's Choice available in any flavor for the sixth week in a row. Taster's Choice is still being made by Nestle's. Puzzling. There were 11 medium sizd bottles of Nescafe for $8 each and 12 medium-sized bottles of Folgers for $8 each. There were some boxes of one serving packets of instant coffee -- very expensive that way -- but none were Taster's Choice brand. And the shelf was half empty.

+ Snapple  Iced  Tea

There were 16 available for $2.29 each -- a miracle. 

But only Diet Peach, which is my favorite flavor.

- Diet  Soda  Pop

Two liters bottles: All three flavors of diet cherry coke pop that I drink were well stocked. Two different prices for three different diet cherry coke flavors: $1.00 each for Dr. Pepper, versus $2.19 each for Pepsi and Coke. Puzzling. There were more empty shelves compared with prior weeks. Six packs of 16.9 ounce bottles were on sale at 4 for $11 but the selection was limited.

 

+ Breakfast  Cereals

A decent supply of Kellog's raisin bran cereal in two sizes. And suddenly Post raisin bran was available too, and on sale. Still some empty shelves, as in prior weeks. But they always have high sugar content cereals.

 

- Jars of Pickles

Mainly empty shelves. There were a few dozen jars of various types of Vlasic pickles. No Meijers' brand for the fifth week in a row. There were some very expensive pickles -- $8 a jar, versus less than $4 for Meijer's and Vlasic. The expensive brands were a small number of McClure's and Safie bottles.... The better tasting Meijer's Kosher low sugar bread and butter pickles in a refrigerated case were all gone, along with the "Limit 2" sign, which they had for the past two weeks. But there were plenty of a spicy "Horseradish" version, and an even spicier "Hot" version. I tried one Horseradish flavor container today. Not what I really wanted. I can't figure out the pickle shortage. I buy fresh pickle size cucumbers to make my own pickles every week -- they are always available. I also buy some "store bought" pickles to eat while my own pickles are "brewing", which takes about a week.

Plain  Yogurt

Shelves were half empty but a large pile of unpacked boxes suggested they would be well stocked (normal), just like last week. The past month was a big improvement from earlier in 2022.

 

Packaged deli meats

A good selection. Just like a normal shopping day.

 

+ ACE harvest grain bread from Canada 

There was good election of ACE bread loaves available, in all flavors, including the Harvest Grain flavor we like. But they were sell by 4/17 (today) and felt like they were baked days ago. No other choices for whole wheat non-sliced bread at any price. Fortunately the wife made a special trip to the store mid-week and found four fresh loaves for sale. Bought all of them -- three were frozen. The dough is shipped in from Canada, and they bake it in the store.

 

+ Ice  Cream 

A miracle. About 7/8 full compared with 1/2 full the prior week. 12 Breyers sugar free ice cream versus none the week before.

 

+ Lindt chocolate bars:

There are signs on the shelves indicating 13 flavors. Two flavors were well stocked, but not the flavor the wife wanted. 11 flavors were empty. Better than completely empty shelves for the past few weeks. A limited selection of other brands. Puzzling. 

 

- Candy and gum, including  at the checkout counter

A total disaster this week. What happened to the formerly well stocked candy section (except chocolate bars)? The candy section was half full. And so were the candy impulse purchase shelves at the checkout line -- those were about two thirds full for the past two weeks.

 

+ Dole Classic Cole Slaw:

7 were available and I bought five. None were available last week. I make my own cole slaw dressing, with no sugar, and this brand stays crispy a long time. The bag of the Pearson brand I bought last week is a little bitter from some red cabbage, and it turns pink in my dressing. So I had "pink slaw" last week. The twice as expensive organic brand does not look good in the bag. Not bleached cabbage, I suppose.