SUPPLY CHAIN SURVEY 5/8/22: Sunday morning at the supermarket

The supermarket had about the same number of empty shelves, compared with last week. 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. Always at the huge Meijer's supermarket in Southfield, Michigan. Previous experiments with shopping on Friday, Saturday and Monday morning revealed no differences when compared with Sunday mornings. We could not buy some products we wanted to buy, and that has been true with every visit for the past six months !

Ye Editor 

 

Specific items surveyed:

Paper towels and toilet paper

The biggest display of paper towels and toilet paper rolls you could ever imagine again -- enough for an army.

 

Cream  Cheese

There were 111 eight ounce tubs of Philadelphia soft cream cheese, where there are usually about 200+. Prior weeks were 105, 93, 38, 78, 73, 104, 58 and 67. 

 

There were also 35 Meijers brand eight ounce tubs, compared with 3, 1 and 12 in the past two weeks. I bought three of them -- a new flavor I liked finally showed up this week.  

 

There were no eight ounce bricks of Philadelphia cream cheese, where there are usually about 100+. Prior weeks were 1, 0, 0, 100, 100, 47, 12 and 0. 

 

There were no Meijers brand bricks for the third week in a row.

 

Instant  Coffee (product wanted not available)

Zero Taster's Choice, 8 Nescafe decaf, 6 Folgers decaf, and 3 Folgers regular. 

 

Last week there had been one Taster's Choice, 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 half empty. ... Puzzling that all the non-instant coffees were fully stocked.

Snapple  Tea  Large  Bottles (product wanted not available)

This week 6 raspberry tea with sugar bottles and 6 iced tea-lemonade mix with no sugar. No diet peach tea for me.  

 

Last week there were 3 Diet Peach, 3 Peach tea with sugar and 2 Raspberry tea with sugar. 

 

The week before, just one Diet Peach tea bottle, 5 Raspberry tea with sugar, and 10 Peach tea with sugar. 

 

The prior week 16 Diet Peach tea, and no other flavors.

Diet  Soda  Pop

Two liters bottles of the three flavors of diet cherry cola pop that I drink were well stocked. Very different prices: $1.66 each for Coke Cherry Cola, vs. $2.19 each for Pepsi Cherry Cola, and no price marked for Diet Dr. Pepper. The soda row was finally well stocked -- an improvement from the prior month.

 

Breakfast  Cereals

A small supply of Kellogs raisin bran. No Post raisin bran and only 2 Meijers raisin bran (there was one last week, we bought it, a liked it -- Kellogs is too sweet, and Post is usually out of stock). 

 

Meijer's brand had been out of stock for months. After we bought the two available today, the next customer will see an empty shelf. They always have the high sugar content cereals in this store.

 

Pickles

Three weeks in a row fully stocked with Meijers and Vlasic pickles. A  miracle. 

 

Two weeks ago there were a few dozen jars of various types of Vlasic pickles, and zero Meijers' brand for the fifth weeks in a row. 

 

For the third week in a row, the better tasting Meijer's Kosher low sugar sweet 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 three 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

There were no 34.5 ounce size, that I wanted, and two 16 ounce bottles that are more expensive per ounce. I bought the two, leaving an empty shelf for the next shopper. Meijers brand 16 ounce were available, but they are only 5% less expensive than Planters, and don't taste as good.

 

Packaged deli meats  (product wanted not available)

Fully stocked with ham and turkey for several weeks in a row. But only one choice of salami -- 6 ounces for $4.79 -- none of the 7 ounces for $3.99 brand that I wanted to buy.

 

ACE bread from Canada 

A decent selection for two weeks in a row. The prior week, the Harvest Grain flavor we prefer was also in stock, but stale, so we did not buy any.

 

Ice  Cream  (product wanted not available)

Only 2/3 stocked, compared with 7/8, 3/4, 7/8 and 1/2 stocked in the prior weeks.  No Breyers sugar free ice cream available, compared with 6, 0, 12 and 0 in the prior  weeks. No other brand of sugar free ice cream available.

 

Lindt chocolate bars (product wanted not available)

This week 3 of 12 flavors were stocked, compared with 2, 3 and, 2 of 12, in prior weeks. Better than the completely empty shelves for one month before that. A good selection of other brands for the past three weeks -- much better than in the month before that.

 

Candy and gum

The candy section was 7/8 full this week, compared with 7/8, 3/4 and 1/2 full in prior weeks. Candy impulse purchase shelves at the checkout line were 3/4 stocked, compared with full, 2/3 and 2/3 full in the prior three weeks.

 

Cole Slaw Mix: (product wanted not available)

No Dole Classic Mix available for the second week. Three weeks ago Dole shrunk the bag from 16 to 14 ounces, at the same price, and made their product half shredded carrots. It was no longer cole slaw, and I'll never buy it again. This week I bought Pearsons brand 24 ounces at $3.89. More expensive, and not as good as the old Dole mix with few carrots. If you use vinegar in the dressing for Pearsons, as I do, the red cabbage leaches its color and the slaw turns pink.