# Cat food scarcity **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 26, 2022, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-food-scarcity/960144 "2022-02-26T09:31:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-food-scarcity/960144/21 "2022-02-28T11:21:37Z")
Amazon seems to have decent supply in both brands in-stock. If you need me to, I’ll be happy to send a case or two from my Amazon account. Just PM me your address and what your owners will eat. I know asking the snakes to share their rats probably wouldn’t go well. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-food-scarcity/960144/22 "2022-02-28T11:42:36Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Conversely, remember all the warehouses full of institutional-sized this or that after the shutdown? My nightmares are still haunted by the multiple pallets of 20 lb. bags of flour marked “FOR HOTEL AND RESTAURANT USE ONLY” that wound up at my grocery store, with a barcode that our system didn’t recognize and a lengthy code that we had to hand-key into the registers every time somebody brought someone up to the checkstand. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-food-scarcity/960144/23 "2022-02-28T11:46:28Z")
Yikes. I usually get the 60-can cases of Friskies from Costco but I’m overdue for my once-every-three-to-four-months long journey (the Costco is about 2 hours away) to stock up. Hopefully I’ll find what I need, either there or at the local grocery. I’m down to about 3 days worth of pate. I haven’t noticed any shortages, but that may be due to the fact I usually have a lot of reserves, and I haven’t shopped for cat food lately. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-food-scarcity/960144/24 "2022-02-28T12:09:57Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Another customer thought she’d heard it was a shortage of cans Cat food does come in a different type of can than dog food or most canned goods, it’s aluminum rather than steel. So… if we take a ‘can shortage’ as a given there are some results. - Less normal wet cat food cans than normal - Same or increased demand for wet cat food - Normal wet cat food runs out more often than usual - People buy whatever wet cat food is present on the shelf, increasing demand for alternate style wet cat foods - Whenever a shipment of wet cat food arrives, people buy 2x as much as normal to stock their pantry It can take a while to normalize, even when volumes are back to normal, because buying patterns shift a lot of inventory away from store shelves and into pantry shelves, giving the appearance of an ongoing shortage. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-food-scarcity/960144/25 "2022-02-28T14:52:04Z")
It’s been the same with dog food, off and on. I usually purchase my dog food at Fleet Farm or Menards. I went to Menards because they had their usual 11% deal going on and they’re a little bit cheaper. Their shelves were practically bare. I asked and was told that there’s a dog food shortage everywhere. I panicked and bought a bag of something I don’t normally buy. The same day I went to Fleet Farm. Their shelves were well stocked. When I checked out, I told the cashier what I was told at Menards. He said that he hadn’t heard that. So, who knows!? 🤷🏽‍♀️ ---
**Author:** ![jjakucyk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jjakucyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjakucyk)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-food-scarcity/960144/26 "2022-02-28T18:44:49Z")
I’ve certainly noticed the lack of wet cat food, but I haven’t had any trouble getting dry (that’s all my cat eats). I have had to buy either a larger or smaller package than I wanted, or had to wait a week, but otherwise I haven’t had much trouble. It was worse when Mars bought Iams in 2014, because there was a several week period when they were rebranding and everything just disappeared. No bueno. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-food-scarcity/960144/27 "2022-02-28T19:29:38Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > I put it on Autoship and they seem to set aside product to cover Autoship orders before adding it to the general inventory for sale. Interesting, and it makes sense. We get our dog food from Chewy on Autoship, and now I’m glad we set it up! ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-food-scarcity/960144/28 "2022-02-28T23:36:39Z")
I haven’t been able to get the dry food my cats prefer from Kroger in several months. I’ve been ordering 16 pound bags from Target. At first, they packed it in a box. Now they just slap a shipping label on the bag. Fortunately, they all have arrived undamaged. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2022, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-food-scarcity/960144/29 "2022-03-01T02:34:29Z")
Does your grocery store (I assume you work(ed) there) buy close-outs and overstocks? Just curious. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2022, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-food-scarcity/960144/30 "2022-03-01T21:19:45Z")
My cat’s wet and dry brands are still available on Chewy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-food-scarcity/960144.md?page=1)