supply chain issues?

Gatorade--for DS's lunches

Canned cat food. One of our cats is super picky and only eats fancy feast seafood pate varieties. It's getting harder to find it

Cars--we ordered our Hyundai Palisade in April. Still waiting on it.

I've noticed Gatorade also -lots of empty spots on the shelf

canned cat food has been an on and off for us - we buy Meow Mix but not pate and sometimes I can buy it, sometimes it's completely out so I've taken to buying extra when I see it

There's apparently an Uncrustables shortage. That's the only thing my son wants for his lunches.

If you can't find Topo Chico and live in HEB land give their 1877 water a shot. It's good.

I was at Talbots in Winston Salem yesterday, and I overheard the clerk telling a customer that they have been getting shipments in slow trickles, not the massive amount of boxes for each reset at once.

They apparently haven't gotten all of their September items in, but some of the October stuff is starting to arrive.

I was at two different Sam's Clubs yesterday, and both had limits on certain items. TP and paper towels were 1 pack per customer and bottled water was limited to 3 of each product. I only looked at the baking aisle in one store, but they had 3 packs of the large Libbys pumpkin puree for less than $7 a set.

I've had trouble getting the organic/simply Heinz ketchup at my local Publix, although at one point, their shelves were empty of ALL Heinz ketchup products.

It's been difficult to find regular strawberry Jello (or even most Jello flavors) in the refrigerated section.

I am always stocked up on toilet paper, and when the pandemic started, I had five "bales" of Kirkland TP in my basement (because it's my favorite TP, and I live 1.5 hours from the closest Costco, and I just always buy it when I go for my 3-4 trips each year!). I didn't buy toilet paper for over a year once this all started, but I slowly started rebuilding my stock in late spring by getting a bale or two when I could. I've had more trips to Costco than normal this year because of some large purchases we were making for the house/DH's office that were better deals at Costco, so I took advantage of those opportunities LOL. I am now back to my 5-bale pre-pandemic level, and if shortages hit again, I will not have to worry about purchasing any. And no, I did not feel guilty about buying this much. As I said, this is my normal state LOL. I have an irrational fear that Costco will no longer carry this particular paper! Besides, they were very well-stocked when I did purchase, and if there was a limit I did not exceed it.

My DD is doing an inventory of our canned-food stock in our basement. She is rotating stock and identifying any product that would expire before the end of the year. Those items will be donated to the food pantry and replaced with newer ones. (I already did this once in June and donated any items expiring before the end of the summer, but we did not purchase any replacements at that time.) We are also cleaning out the freezer. Any meat that is "older" will be cooked and refrozen in Foodsaver bags, labeled with date and amount. This will preserve the taste/quality and make it easy for meal-planning. Any frozen veggies/fruits that have fallen to the bottom of the freezer and overlooked for too long will be tossed if the quality looks bad. We also have some packaged items in boxes that we are going to portion out and repackage in Foodsaver bags--taquitos, fish fillets, and such. I will photocopy nutrition information and cooking directions, and those will go in my recipe binder. I have found that the repackaged items take up much less room in the freezer than the boxes, especially after we open the box and use only a portion of the contents. I have cloth reusable bags that I put these items in, and they are labeled "chicken", "beef", "pork," "pre-packaged," "fruit," "veggies," etc. so it is easy to pull out a bag and see what we have to work with.

We went through most of the rice I bought at the beginning of the pandemic, so I bought 25 pounds of basmati rice at Sam's last week. I will be packaging it into 2 cup portions with the Foodsaver. I really liked using it that way, and I will be doing that in the future.

We used almost all of our canned beans--I am down to two cans of pinto beans and 3 cans of black beans. I realized that when I was looking for kidney beans this week, so it is time to restock kidney beans and pork and beans.

I still have a pound of yeast in the freezer, so we should be good there. I will be buying more baking powder since mine has been open for a year and needs replaced anyway. I will buy an extra because it can be combined with oil and water to make an egg substitute for baking. www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/recipe-page.aspx?recid=872. At a dollar per can at Aldi, I see no reason not to make sure I have some. I will also be checking all of my other baking supplies to see what needs to be refreshed. I usually do this when I do my Christmas baking, but I don't want to wait that long this year.

It's not so much that I expect shortages in any of these items, but I am concerned about having to shop if COVID gets as bad as some are thinking it might this winter.

If I learned anything from the pandemic, it was "expect the unexpected." Nobody really knows what will be hard to find, so look at those things that you really rely on and make sure you have it.

And yes to the Heinz ketchup. We use either Simply or Organic as it has real sugar nor CS or HFCS. But it has been back in stock in our stores.

I always have 1 large bottle in the pantry now as back up.

We use Simply, but I haven't seen it in stores for the last 6 months. Have switched to Organic for now, but even that is hit or miss.

I haven’t seen since mid July (?.?.?), lunch box friendly items, such as juices, small waters, other packable liquids, small bags of chips, cookies, lunchables, etc. in the grocery store setting.

My sister made a run to Sam’s for a few of those items, but still even there many weren’t available.

Surprisingly, distilled water is hard to find (I use it for a nasal rinse.)

That, and canning lids.

We buy boxes branded for use with baby formula, to use with the nasal rinses and CPAP machines. The price is the same. And since several of you have mentioned it, I just added a box to our grocery cart order. Thanks! I remember it was hard to find for a time last year as well.

For those missing Gatorade have you tried looking for the powder? Lots of companies make electrolyte powder drinks too, DH uses them for training so let me know if you need help finding any!

Do you know if there is something going on with Wegman's brand coffee?

We buy the large can, half caff and it's been out for weeks. For some reason the small cans are in. I know I read something about coffee being affected, I can't remember, I want to say had something to do with issues in South America - not sure if it is pandemic related or more climate.

I don't actually go to store, so not sure, but haven't heard anything from my shopper.

I did hear from friends about home improvement projects being stalled because of waiting for things like vanities and other furniture-type parts.

I was going to mention pet supplies in general. Specifically, crystal cat litter for automatic litter box. Sold out/out of stock most places unless you want to pay scalpers prices. I jest, but barely. The bag I'd normally get at Walmart for under $5 is is 2 for $25 online/Amazon right now. Yikes. When we first got the kittens I ordered a lot to get the free shipping knowing it wouldn't go to waste so I'm good for a couple months. Hope it restocks by then.

Our Taco Bell hasn't had hot sauce either of the last 2 times I've gone (over about a 2 month period). The horror!

I'm having a hell of a time finding cake boards. I put all my cakes on 1/2" thick cake drums. And the company that makes them is having issues....I can't find 12" rounds anywhere. I may have to resort to gluing thin ones together to make a thicker base. 

Combine that with 2 years of weddings all trying to happen at once? Boards are needed!