Sunday, July 3, 2022

SUPPLY CHAIN SURVEY 7/3/22: Sunday morning at the supermarket

  The overall full store product supply improved this week. This week 6 of 15 specific items we buy every week were not available, and that was the best in stock percentage fpr those 15 items in many weeks, believe it or not.  Two items had not been available for months, until this week,  But based on one year of surveys, this may be just a random week to week variation.

Last week, 7 of 15 items were not available. and for 2 we couldn't get the quantity we wanted. The prior week 7 of the 15 were not available, 1 was not available in the economical large size, and for 2 items, we could only buy the 1 available when we wanted to buy 2. The week before was even worse -- 9 of 15 specific were not available. 

This week our supermarket had fewer empty shelves, compared with last week. My overall rating is based on my impression of the product supply in the ENTIRE store -- not just those 15 specific items we want to buy every week.
 
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, Monday and Tuesday mornings revealed no differences when compared with Sunday mornings.
Ye Editor 
 
Specific items counted:
Paper towels and toilet paper
Fully stocked for the past several months.
 
Cream  Cheese
There were 85 eight ounce tubs of Philadelphia soft cream cheese, where there are usually about 200+.  
Prior weeks were 73. 81, 85, 82, 84, 81, 111, 105, 93, 38, 78, 73, 104, 58 and 67. 
 
There were 33 Meijer's brand eight ounce tubs where there are normally 50+.  Prior weeks were 10, 30, 24, 19, 18, 9, 25, 3, 1 and 12,  The cost is $2.19 per tub compared with $4.29 a tub for Philadelphia -- both taste almost the same when smeared on good bread.
 
There were 100+ eight ounce bricks of Philadelphia cream cheese, where there are usually about 100+. 
Prior weeks were 100+, 100+, 21, 45, 5, 2, 23, 0, 1, 0, 0, 100, 100, 47, 12 and 0. 
 
There were 100+ Meijer's brand bricks where there are usually about 100+. Prior weeks were 100+. 95, 12, 2, 77 and none for four consecutive weeks  before that.
 
Instant  Coffee
A miracle: All brand fully stocked !
Prior weeks:
Taster's Choice 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1
Folger's decaf  6,13, 1, full shelf, 8, 22, 6, 0
Folger's regular 19, 0, 7, full shelf, 6, 1, 3, 0
Nescafe decaf 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 1, 8, 0
Nescafe regular 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
Maxwell House regular  0.1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0

The non-instant coffees were not fully stocked today, 
for the third week in a row, after many months 
with no empty shelves.
 
Snapple  Tea  Large  Bottles 
3 Raspberry, 8 Peach and 3 Diet Peach
Prior Weeks:
Diet Peach 0, 1, 10, 4, 0, 4, 0, 3, 17
Peach 0, 0, 6, 5, 4, 0, 0, 3, 10
Diet Lemonade-Tea 1, 3, 12, 9, 0, 1, 6, 0, 0
Raspberry 5, 1, 8, 10, 1, 1, 6, 2, 5,

Diet  Soda  Pop
Two liters bottles of 3 of the 3 flavors of diet cherry cola pop that I drink were well stocked, compared with 3 of3 last week, 2 of 3 in the prior two weeks, 3 of 3 the week before, and 2 of 3 the week before. The entire soda row was 3/4 full, compared with 3/4, 3/4, 2/3 and 3/4 full in prior weeks.
 
Breakfast  Cereals - Raisin Bran
This week there were modest quantities of all three brands
Last week Kellog's fully stocked, 12 Meijer's and 1 Post
Prior week Kellog's fully stocked, Meijer's 5 and 0 Post 
Prior week: 0 Kellog's, 3 Meijer's and 3 Post
Prior week; 5 Kellog's, 2 Meijer's and lots of Post 
Prior week had a small supply of Kellog's, no Post and 2 Meijer's 
 
Pickles
Non refrigerated jars fully stocked.

A miracle: 7 refrigerated containers of the Meijer's Kosher bread and butter pickles that I want -- not available for over almost two months. Spicy versions had been available, but I don't like them.

Yogurt
Fully stocked.
Last week was not quite fully stocked for the second week, after being fully stocked for seven weeks in a row. This department had been a disaster in 1Q 2022.  And then a miracle in 2Q 2022.

Planter's Dry Roasted Peanuts (product wanted not available)
This week there the 34.5 ounce size 
and the 16 ounce size bottles 
were fully stocked.
34.5 ounce size in prior weeks: 3,18, 2, 6, 6, 1 and zero
16 ounce size in prior weeks: fully stocked, 6, 0, 0. 0, 2 and 2 
 
The Planter's honey roasted peanuts I wanted in the 34.5 ounce size -- none available for the fifth week in a row.
The more expensive per ounce 16 ounce version was also out of stock.

Jif  Peanut  Butter (product wanted not available)
There were 7 Jif creamy 40 ounce size peanut butter after five weeks with no Jif due to a recall. There was a small amount of other brands. I wanted Jif chunky -- none available.
 
Packaged deli meats (product wanted not available)
Fully stocked with ham and turkey. Two brands of salami, but not the low cost, better tasting brand I wanted to buy, for the fifth week in a row. There are normally four brands of salami.
 
ACE bread from Canada 
6 Harvest Grain flavor loaves available and we bought one. A 22% price increase last week, from $3.69 to $4.49, but we had a 75 cents off coupon today. Past weeks loaves: 4, 0, 0, 0, 6 and 0.
 
Ice  Cream (product wanted not available)
Ice cream section about 3/4 stocked compared with 3.4, 3/4, 7/8, 3/4, 7/8 3/4, 2/3, 7/8, 3/4, 7/8 and 1/2 stocked in the prior weeks.  
No Breyer's no sugar added ice cream available when I wanted two compared with 1, 1, 2, 0. 8, 6, 4, 0, 6, 0, 12 and 0 in prior weeks. There were 4 Breyer's Carb Smart chocolate, a flavor that could be sold as no sugar added, but it's not very good.  
 
Lindt chocolate bars (product wanted not available)
This week 2 of 12 flavors were stocked, compared with 4, 7. 6, 4, 0, 0, 3, 2, 3 and 2 of 12, in prior weeks. A very poor selection of other brands of chocolate bars for the sixth week in a row, after a good selection for the three weeks before that.
 
Candy and gum
The candy section was only 2/3 full -- very empty in the chocolate bar section and sugar free candy section. The candy section was 2/3, 3.4, 7/8, 7/8, 2/3, 3/4. 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 1/2, 1/2, nearly full, 2/3, 7/8, 3/4, 2/3 and 2/3 full in prior weeks.
 
Dole Cole Slaw Mix(product wanted not available)
No Dole or any other brand cole slaw mix.
Last week 4 bags werre available of the 6 bags I wanted. 
never know when this product will show up. 
Pearson's brand is sometimes available, but it is awful.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.