# 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:** 9
**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:** [August 31, 2020, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/161 "2020-08-31T20:53:37Z")
IME stores in this area are often out of given sizes or types of cream, covid or no covid. Been going on for years. I suspect it’s an item on which sales are often erratic, and they’re buying near the lower end of their expected range because they don’t want to get stuck with past-date leftovers. I had one place tell me straight out that they never got much in because it would often be left over, and they’d rather run out some of the time than have frequent discards. ---
**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:** [September 2, 2020, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/162 "2020-09-02T22:33:03Z")
Still seeing shortages in: - common sense - basic manners - advanced manners - cautious drivers - people looking up from phone, crossing road - gas priced at market value - general human compassion - malted barley powder for bread - fitness equipment ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2020, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/163 "2020-09-02T23:54:12Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > It’s odd that I can still find eyeglass wipes. One would think that people would have figured out they are coated with what’s basically hand sanitizer, if an expensive and inefficient form of it. I’m pretty well stocked up by now in preparation for if people ever realize this. So I’m not going to need any more for awhile. Thankfully, a several month supply merely takes up the top of my toilet. Now I realize why people haven’t and never did switch over to the readily available eyeglass wipes in place of sanitizing wipes: they don’t contain a lot of fluid. The batch I am currently using contains more than the average amount of fluid, and yesterday I had just finished eating some fried chicken so I did an experiment: I used one of the plentifully-wet eyeglass wipes as a wet wipe for my hands and I hadn’t even halfway finished before all of the alcohol had evaporated. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2020, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/164 "2020-09-07T10:12:48Z")
Mizpullin made a trip to the grocery store yesterday. She reports a serious shortage of usable vegetables and fruit. Everything looks like it’s been sitting on a truck for a week. As to why no home delivery: The delivery people constantly mark eggs and milk as “unavailable”, which is bullshit (we checked). Apparently they don’t want the responsibility of getting perishables like that delivered quickly in the Texas heat. So we dropped the service. If we have to go to the store ourselves, might as well get the rest of the list while we’re there. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2020, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/165 "2020-09-07T11:55:29Z")
Finally found liverwurst! But they had no bologna. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/166 "2020-09-08T00:38:22Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > Our soda supply locally has also been essentially normal. I’m a little bemused reading accounts of soda shortages in other areas. Maybe because there are local bottling plants for some of the big names? it’s the weird and less common flavors that are disappearing. if all you want is a regular coke or a regular Pepsi you’re fine. almost everyone has those in 12oz cans, 0.5l bottles and 2 liters. if you want caffeine free or some less popular flavors it’s much harder. ---
**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:** [September 8, 2020, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/167 "2020-09-08T00:46:24Z")
Corned beef hash is back. Baking soda is still missing. Definitely gaps on the shelves, but aside from baking soda not for things I was looking for, so not sure what was supposed to be in them. ---
**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:** [September 8, 2020, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/168 "2020-09-08T01:28:42Z")
You know, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I miss seeing shelves of food. I haven’t been in a store in 5 months. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/169 "2020-09-08T02:12:58Z")
Still no white wine vinegar here. I did an Amazon Pantry order today, thinking I’d just add it to that - and they don’t have any either. Cleaning vinegar they have, but any clear cooking vinegar seems to be on the shortage list now. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/170 "2020-09-09T00:09:43Z")
Walmart at the NC beach had lots of empty racks for fishing lures. And Sept is prime season for ocean fishing ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/171 "2020-09-09T00:13:31Z")
Missing Cat fud fancy feast 24 /3oz boxes, subbing 9 lives in all its sticky goodness in 4 packs Splitting one can 3 uneven ways For 3 cats. ---
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/172 "2020-09-09T22:37:11Z")
I just went into a grocery store for the first time since March last week. I had the day off work, so it was a weekday at about 10 am. I was literally the only customer in there. It was the most pleasant grocery shopping experience I’ve ever had. The reason I went was to see if they happened to have any sort of cleaning supplies on the shelf - bathroom cleaner, countertop spray, anything. There was one bottle of Mr. Clean bathroom spray and lots of magic sponges…that’s it. ---
**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:** [September 10, 2020, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/173 "2020-09-10T13:52:45Z")
Canning lids … possibly jars and rings but since we have tons of those we didn’t notice their availability. I’m guessing the scarcity is because a lot more people had the time to garden this past Spring. Plus preppers prepping hard. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/174 "2020-09-11T03:51:44Z")
I’ve been saying for awhile that I haven’s seen any general shortages here for several months except for the odd unexpected item, but picking up a few groceries yesterday I needed paper towels and the entire paper towel section was almost completely bare. No shortage of TP, Kleenex, or any other paper products, but all brands of paper towels were gone. It may have just been that one store, I didn’t check any others. They had a few mega-packs of store-brand towels left so I had to get one of those. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/175 "2020-09-11T03:56:36Z")
Yeah, but if you look, you can find them. Kindness, good tempers. My wife is a essential grocery store worker, and not a day goes by where at least 3 people are assholes to her over masks. Only in America is mask wearing a political issue. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/176 "2020-09-11T03:59:48Z")
Yeah, there was one very popular FB meme where some woman suggested to use it on any “creepy looking guy” in Walmart, etc. Now if the guy came up and “grabbed her by the pussy”, sure, but just for following her down aisles and _looking_ creepy? ADW fer sure. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/177 "2020-09-11T04:01:59Z")
There is some shortage of artificial sweetener used in soft drinks, about half comes from China. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/178 "2020-09-11T04:11:48Z")
People horde coins. Then they turn them in. People havent been turning them in. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/179 "2020-09-11T04:35:32Z")
Yes, I have and I like it better, even. ---
**Author:** ![leswax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@leswax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leswax)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268/180 "2020-09-11T15:55:38Z")
Grape Nuts Flakes cereal. I can still get the regular Grape Nuts, but no flakes to be found in any of the stores around here since March. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-shortages-are-you-personally-seeing/916268.md?page=10)