# So what shortages are you personally seeing? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [July 24, 2020, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268 "2020-07-24T23:28:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 29
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/561 "2021-02-14T19:09:22Z")
Back in the day, I was very successful at selling girl scout cookies in bar parking lots. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/562 "2021-02-17T03:11:16Z")
Ok, I just saw isopropyl alcohol endcapped at Krogers and Walmart. I’m thinking the shortages are unofficially over. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/563 "2021-02-17T03:26:21Z")
And i bought both Grapenuts and Cheerios today. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/564 "2021-02-17T03:34:51Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Robax- tablets. The Robax- tablets are for backache with aspirin, ibuprofen or acetaminophen, plus a muscle relaxant, available OTC in Canada (but not the US, because of the muscle relaxant, last time I tried to buy some there). Mrs Piper went to a different drug store and asked about Robax there. The pharmacist confirmed that all three types are in very short supply. He didn’t know why. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/565 "2021-02-17T05:17:58Z")
For whatever reason, generic naproxen and uncooked chicken wings have sometimes been in short supply in these Canadian parts. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/566 "2021-02-17T16:48:58Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > For all of you missing Grapenuts: > > [https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/12/us/grape-nuts-cereal-shortage.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/12/us/grape-nuts-cereal-shortage.html) > > From the NYTimes, Feb. 12th. > [@puzzlegal](#): > > And i bought both Grapenuts and Cheerios today. I don’t buy brand name Grape-Nuts, I buy the store brand “nutty nuggets” and I have not noticed any kind of shortage with those. On the other hand, I have not seen store brand bran flakes for close to a year but can usually find All-Bran flakes. And sometimes they are out of the flakes but they almost always have the regular All-Bran. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/567 "2021-02-17T18:38:18Z")
We never actually ran out of Grapenuts. It’s Cheerios that the store was out of two months running. With a giant hole where the Cheerios were supposed to be. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/568 "2021-02-17T20:24:31Z")
Looks like they have _part_ of the Cheerios, just not the grain part. ---
**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:** [February 17, 2021, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/569 "2021-02-17T21:22:49Z")
Due to ice storms, many empty shelves in Oregon. Gee, I make my first in-store grocery trip in 11 months and they have no bread my lovely wife can eat. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/570 "2021-02-19T02:50:38Z")
went to Sam’s club and it looked like they were running out of space for paper towels. They had (6) 8’ skids of them in the back of the store and a bunch of it in the main aisle. I think they’re going to be drowning in isopropyl alcohol in the near future. ---
**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:** [February 19, 2021, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/571 "2021-02-19T03:42:23Z")
Still no isopropyl alcohol here. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/572 "2021-02-19T03:43:51Z")
It’s readily available on Amazon. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2021, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/573 "2021-02-22T15:48:27Z")
Dish soap has been in short supply here for at least a month, when I first noticed. ---
**Author:** ![mistymage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mistymage/32/459_2.png) [@mistymage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mistymage)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2021, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/574 "2021-02-22T17:35:14Z")
My husband’s favorite pasta can’t be found anywhere. Creamette’s Mafalda. Usually we buy a box or 2 at Fareway but it hasn’t been in the store for at least 6 months. There’s some non-Creamette Mafalda on Amazon but they want ~$10 for the same amount of pasta that cost ~$2.00. Penne, elbow and egg noodles work but he misses the wavy noodles. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/575 "2021-03-03T15:46:30Z")
OK, everybody, this is getting really serious. Canned cat food. There was some on the shelves, but there were very large gaps; and those gaps included everything I ordinarily get. And apparently it’s not a local problem, or the stores just having decided not to order those brands: Tractor Supply told me they’d been trying to order but had been told by the manufacturer that the problem was way up the supply line in the slaughterhouses: the cat food manufacturers weren’t able to get the ingredients. I’ve got a couple of months’ supply built up, so this isn’t immediately urgent for my particular household. But I am real glad that I was able to do that. ---
**Author:** ![GoodOldKJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc79bd/32.png) [@GoodOldKJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOldKJ)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/576 "2021-03-03T19:12:51Z")
I noticed the same thing at Walmart last week. Thank goodness my boy prefers dry over canned. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/577 "2021-03-03T20:19:04Z")
I posted about this Feb 13. (If I was clever enough to include a link to my own post I would). At that time, the smaller “Little Friskies” cans were nowhere to be found, but a few larger sized cans were still available. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/578 "2021-03-03T20:34:25Z")
Ah. That’s post 556 if you click on its date, right? I took you to mean a shortage of that particular brand and size, not a general shortage of canned cat food. It occurs to me that my post could be misread like that also – it wasn’t only the specific brands and size that I was after that were missing, most other versions were also missing or very scant on the shelves. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2021, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/579 "2021-03-04T04:10:29Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > OK, everybody, this is getting really serious. > > Canned cat food. My kittens are on a food I can only get by mail and one of my deliveries was postponed a couple of weeks, which made me nervous enough to order extra when it was back in stock. Speaking of pets, there seems to be a shortage of Litter Genie refill cartridges. Most places are out of stock, and those that have them have raised the price by at least 25% since I last bought a refill two months ago. Some sellers on Amazon have increased the prices by 300%. And lemon Pledge is out of stock everywhere I’ve looked, both online and in person. I finally gave up and got Old English but it doesn’t smell nearly as nice. Likewise the new Mr. Clean lemon scented Swiffer wet jet stuff is also out of stock ☹ #FirstWorldProblems ---
**Author:** ![dummygladhands71](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dummygladhands71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dummygladhands71)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2021, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/580 "2021-03-10T22:54:56Z")
And I still can’t find that ersatz “chocolate” licorice. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268.md?page=28) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268.md?page=30)