This started coming back locally in very small numbers about two weeks ago. I bought three quarts, and will continue to buy a quart maybe every two weeks.
In normal times, we might use a quart every four to six months, typically for cleaning electronics and disinfecting surfaces.
I wonder if the pork supply chain is “compartmentalized” so that an interruption in, say, New England, will have no effect on the Gulf South. Pork products locally never really wavered (except for the one brand of Bryan sausage I mentioned above).
Ground beef, on the other hand, tripled in price … though I understand that is nationwide (or is it?).
What does that translate to locally? I haven’t bought ground beef since last summer when I last made Dad tacos so I haven’t price check it in ages, but tripling in price from what it was then would put it at $12 a pound.
Agreed. I haven’t seen Oscar Meyer Variety packs in months. The odd single-selection packages, but the 4-packs of bologna, PPLoaf, Salami and whatever the last one was are nowhere to be found.
Locally (New Orleans metro), that means that rock-bottom non-sale ground beef (73% lean) was going for north of $8.00/lb. Very recently (esp since July 4th), that same ground beef has drifted back down to the mid-five-dollars per pound.
Also, some form of ground beef was almost always on sale … maybe in three weeks out of four. Lately, one store had ground beef on sale for one week (July 1st-7th) – they were selling ground-in-store 81% lean ground beef for $1.99/lb if you bought a 10-lb chub. That was pre-COVID sale price, and I assume a loss leader that week.
Ground beef in Colorado was generally running between 4.99 to 5.99 prior to COVID in the major chains (less for the prepackaged tubes, and often on sale). Right now, it’s going for 6.99 to 8.99, so I’d say we’re seeing a 50% increase or so. There haven’t been any recent purchase limitations here however. One thing I did note, I was able to get the one pound 80/20 ground beef at Trader Joe’s for 4.29 - which is almost the same as it’s normal 3.99 lb.
I’m glad it’s not tripling everywhere, then. The last few years here in New Hampshire it’s run from $3.99 on sale to around $4.60 when not for at least 5 years. I’ve never been a big fan of ground beef (I vastly prefer pre-made meatballs and burger patties because machine made they’re a lot more compact than I can manage) and pretty much stopped buying it entirely when it began to cost more than buying a roast…looks like a butcher’s shop not terribly far from here has it for $3.77 a pound for 5 pounds, so prices seem pretty steady here.
Pork, however, is definitely rising. I got a lot of boneless pork for about $2/pound before covid, and now it’s closer to $4 for the same cuts.
To be honest, I didn’t buy disinfectant wipes for the first few years after they were introduced. For one thing, they’re an expensive replacement for a paper towel (or a cloth towel or rag) and a spray bottle of disinfectant. Secondly, they’re not exactly a green (i.e., environmentally conscious) product. But I’ve kept them in the house in recent years, mostly for cleaning grime on the floor or sticky whatever on counter tops or where I eat. And in January, before all this started, I bought a four-pack from Target. I just finished the first canister so I don’t expect to run out until after they return to store shelves.
Disinfectant wipes are hard to find, but at least one store around here has had plenty of 75% alcohol wipes in plastic bags of 10 each. I noticed the other day they also had lots of Clorox wipes (I didn’t look closely but pretty sure those were also in plastic bags, not tubs). However, I remember reading somewhere that the antibacterial chemicals used in Clorox and similar wipes aren’t very healthy for you, and that the alcohol type are preferable.
True, though the drugstore near me recently set up a “COVID” section of shelving and had a large supply of 99% isopropyl in half-liter bottles for the first time in months. I only use it in very small amounts for cleaning purposes but was glad to get a bottle as I was running low when the Great Plague hit.
Paper napkins are also in very short supply.
Wow. We’ve been slowly stocking up on beef patties for our graduation party cookout next weekend. Wife threw 24# of 80/20 patties in the freezer for $3.99/lbs from the pig last week. Other day I threw 7# of 85/15 patties in the freezer for the same price. Brat patties are even cheaper, going for $3.50/lbs for flavored ones like with cheese or peppers. As long as restaurants are restricted, bulk packaging in retail will remain.
I miss the variety of lunch meat. Some flavors exist but I rotate for flavor.
Pork was cheaper preCovid because of the trade agreements. Prices plummeted when China stopped buying pork products. Prices had started to climb after the trade agreements were finalized.
We still get brats in packages for about 60 cents per brat.
@Magiver, I saw quite a bit in the 90%+ range on Amazon. Good luck finding 70% (usually sold as “rubbing alcohol”) though
I recently got 2 of these webcams and they were delivered in 4 days. I got them for online gaming sessions over Zoom and they work well.
One thing that I have noticed in short supply is the small alcohol wipes for disinfecting my skin before sticking my finger for my blood glucose tests. Not available for months on drugstores, God knows why, as they’re far too small to be useful as a general disinfecting wipe. I finally got enough to last me a year online from Staples of all places.
Not food but we ordered a chest type freezer from Home Depot in March. The original delivery date was in June then July and now it’s due for September.
Everything I’ve ordered that comes from China has been weeks to months delayed. Seeds, toilet paper, shoes, medical equipment (most through Amazon sellers). Several have never arrived despite protestations of imminence from the seller, and have been refunded by Amazon, or by the seller after contacting Shopify and giving a date by which I’ll start a credit card action.
There are serious transportation problems in China, involving at least three different factors: very few cargo flights out of major airports to North America, problems getting cargo to the airports as well as the usual supply chain problems, and apparently even when dedicated cargo planes are sent to Chinese airports specifically to pick up supplies (as the Canadian government has done) they sometimes have to return empty because there are limits on their ground time there, and they can’t just wait around indefinitely.
Earlier, when there were acute shortages of virtually all PPE, I ordered hand sanitizer and masks online through Walmart (too much of the stuff on Amazon seemed overpriced and/or of dubious quality). The hand sanitizer was domestically manufactured (and the NPN was on Health Canada’s approved list) and arrived in about two weeks, along with a complimentary package of gloves and alcohol wipes. The masks came from China and were supposed to take a month, but dragged on for much longer. They finally arrived after two months, by which time I was about to cancel because they were readily available locally.
Hopefully I now have enough of everything but if there’s anything else I need, I’m going to make damn sure it doesn’t come from China, especially during this plague. I don’t necessarily mind Chinese-made goods – some is crap but a lot of it is OK – but having anything shipped directly from China invites huge delays even at the best of times.
To clarify, scheduled cargo flights are not currently an issue. Any freight company with scheduled flights to China are running them. It’s the reduction of passenger flights that is affecting freight volume. there is a substantial amount of freight that moves on passenger aircraft. Of the passenger flights still moving there are delays due to backlog and that would be measured in days. But by default, if the flights aren’t running then there is a reduction in available space. Charter flights are set up based on the freight being available at the time of charter. while it’s possible something gets fubar’d it’s no different than any other timeline.
Ocean transport seems pretty stable at the moment so regular pipeline products should not be affected.
At the beginning, I couldn’t find frozen peas anywhere. Frozen peas?
This one isn’t about a shortage but I’m going to drop it here anyway. Has anyone noticed products that have become available in abundance, so available that they are dirt cheap?
We’ve been eating lots of eggs lately because the stores always have lots of them and they have become ridiculously cheap. This morning, a carton of 18 was priced at 88 cents at my neighborhood grocery with the cartons of a dozen down to 65 cents. I see lots of egg salad in my near future.
I have the same need. I was able to buy it from Whole Foods back in April, but I see that right now it’s not in stock. Weird. There are other suppliers on Amazon, but they’re asking for about $27 a gallon. Dayum.
Googled “distilled water shortage”, and got this article from back in March, which claimed that people buying drinking water could lead to a shortage.
This article from the same time frame also confirmed a distilled water shortage, though doesn’t really explain why, except maybe just people panic-buying one more commodity along with toilet paper and hand sanitizer.