It would be delightful to visit the supermarket and find every item on our shopping list. That hasn't happened in over six months. In the good old days, pre-Covid, out of stock items were rare -- almost always items on sale when we went shopping late in the sale week. Now we shop during the first hour of the weekly sale. And sometimes the product on sale is not available in the first hour of the sale. This week our supermarket had fewer empty shelves, compared with last week. Probably just a random week to week variation. I suppose the good news is they are not always the same missing products every week 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.
We normally shop at 6am Sunday morning when the store opens for business, at the huge Meijer's supermarket in Southfield, Michigan. Previous experiments with shopping on Friday, Saturday and Monday mornings revealed no differences when compared with Sunday mornings.
Ye Editor
Paper towels and toilet paper
The biggest display of paper towels and toilet paper rolls you could ever imagine again -- enough for an army -- mainly to fill up otherwise empty shelves and end caps.
Cream Cheese
There were 81 eight ounce tubs of Philadelphia soft cream cheese, where there are usually about 200+.
Prior weeks were 111, 105, 93, 38, 78, 73, 104, 58 and 67.
There were 9 Meijer's brand eight ounce tubs, where there are normally 50+.
Prior weeks were 25, 3, 1 and 12.
There were 23 eight ounce bricks of Philadelphia cream cheese, where there are usually about 100+. All 23 were the awful 1/3 less fat version of the real thing.
Prior weeks were 0, 1, 0, 0, 100, 100, 47, 12 and 0.
There were no Meijers brand bricks for the fourth week in a row.
Instant Coffee (product wanted not available)
This week no Taster's Choice, yet again, for months, 22 Folgers decaf, 1 Folgers regular and 1 Nescafe decaf.
Last week no Taster's Choice, 8 Nescafe decaf, 6 Folgers decaf, and 3 Folgers regular.
The prior week there had been one Taster's Choice -- a miracle -- after six weeks of none available. It was $9.49, compared with only $6.99 the last time Taster's Choice was available.
There are always some boxes of one serving packets of instant coffee -- very expensive that way -- but none were Taster's Choice brand -- and the shelf was mainly empty. ... Puzzling that all the non-instant coffees remain fully stocked.
Snapple Tea Large Bottles
This week: 4 Diet Peach tea, 1 Raspberry tea with sugar and 1 diet iced tea - lemonade mixThe four prior weeks:
6 Raspberry tea with sugar and 6 diet iced tea-lemonade mix.
3 Diet Peach tea, 3 Peach tea with sugar and 2 Raspberry tea with sugar.
1 Diet Peach tea, 5 Raspberry tea with sugar, and 10 Peach tea with sugar.
16 Diet Peach tea.
Diet Soda Pop (one product wanted not available)
Two liters bottles of 2 of the 3 flavors of diet cherry cola pop that I drink were well stocked. No Pepsi Cherry Cola this week. The soda row was only 3/4 full this week, after being well stocked last week.
Breakfast Cereals
This week's raisin bran: A good supply of Kellog's, a small supply of Meijer's, but no Post brand.
Last week there was a small supply of Kellog's raisin bran. No Post raisin bran and only 2 Meijer's raisin bran boxes. Kellog's is too sweet. Post is more expensive and usually out of stock. Meijer's is our first choice.
Meijer's brand had been out of stock for months.
Pickles
Four weeks in a row fully stocked with Meijers and Vlasic pickles. There had been zero Meijers' brand for five weeks in a row before that.
For the fourth week in a row, the better tasting Meijer's Kosher low sugar bread and butter pickles in a refrigerated case were not available. The two spicy flavors of Meijer's kosher pickles were available, but with a new "Limit 2" sign. Too spicy for me.
Yogurt
Fully stocked for four weeks in a row. This department had been a disaster in 1Q 2022. And a miracle in 2Q 2022.
Planter's Dry Roasted Salted Peanuts
This week there was one 34.5 ounce size and I bought it. Only two 16 ounce bottles were available.
Last week there were no 34.5 ounce size and two 16 ounce bottles.
Meijer's brand 16 ounce bottles are always available, but they are only 5% less expensive than Planters, and don't taste as good.
Jif Smooth Peanut Butter
A new sign: "Limit 2", which is a lot if you buy the larger sizes. No signs on Jif chunky peanut butter.
Packaged deli meats
Fully stocked with ham and turkey (for several weeks in a row). But only two brand choices of salami. Which is better than the one choice last week.
ACE bread from Canada (product wanted not available)
No Harvest Grain flavor after a decent selection for two weeks in a row.
Ice Cream
Only 3/4 stocked, compared with 2/3, 7/8, 3/4, 7/8 and 1/2 stocked in the prior weeks. 4 Breyer's sugar free ice cream available, compared with 0, 6, 0, 12 and 0 in the prior weeks. We bought two. No other brand of sugar free ice cream available.
Lindt chocolate bars (product wanted not available)
This week zero of 12 flavors were stocked, compared with 3, 2, 3 and 2 of 12, in prior weeks. There had been completely empty shelves for one month before that.
A poor selection of other brands this week, after a good selection for the past three weeks.
Candy and gum
The candy section was 3/4 full this week, compared with 7/8, 7/8, 3/4 and 1/2 full in prior weeks. Candy impulse purchase shelves at the checkout line were 7/8 full, compared with 3/4, 2/3 and 2/3 full in the prior three weeks.
Cole Slaw Mix:
6 Dole Classic Mix available, after none for two weeks before that. Back to a normal mix of 7/8 cabbage and 1/8 carrots. Three weeks ago Dole had shrunk the bag from 16 to 14 ounces, at the same $1.89 price, and made their product half shredded carrots. Bizarre -- I'll never buy that awful mix again. Last week I tried Pearson's brand 24 ounces at $3.89. Not good enough to buy again.
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