And Walmart’s store brand is not necessarily comparable to the name brand. For example, Walmart’s over-age-50 vitamins contain a little less of each vitamin/mineral than the Centrum brand. That seems to occur on a lot of products. So, while the Walmart price is lower, you’re getting less product.
You’re right, of course. But I do think that while Walmart gets standard product, they’re also where ‘seconds’ are sent. My views on this are based on several purchases from Walmart that were missing pieces or defective out of the box, admittedly a small sample. But there are companies that don’t want their products in Walmart because of the quality question, so I’m not completely in left field.
Years ago I read an article about how Walmart will actually visit manufacturers’ production facilities and tell them how to make the product more cheaply, which often means a cut in quality. One reason not every company has products in Walmart.
Walmart will get what’s leftover after the first stores get their stuff so long as the quality is above a certain level. If a certain lot happens to be a very good one, Walmart will have just as good a product. It’s more fair to say that Walmart’s quality will vary widely week to week compared to the consistency of, say, Vons.
Tropical fish owners, grab food when you see it. I ended up going to 5 stores before I found some only moderately overpriced flakes at a grocery store.
Even Petco was wiped out with only 1 ounce $11-13 (??!) containers on the shelf.
I know, I usually suggest online sources :), but checking the search string “flake fish food” on Amazon, Walmart, Petsmart, and Chewy looked encouraging, as far as I could tell.
One challenge I have is finding bird food that isn’t heavy on the millet, which doves don’t seem to like, at least if Misty and her predecessor Ava (RB) are/were typical of their species. This has been a thing as long as I’ve had a bird, and I usually cope by making use of the bulk section at Winco for things like wheat kernels, raw sunflower seeds, and oat groats. They do seem to stay healthy on such a diet.
I was out Saturday and the local store had almost no facial tissues (but plenty of toilet paper), and the soup aisle had a limited selection.
I suspect that people are stocking up on tissues for winter colds - and stocking up their pantries with foods for the winter.
Yep, I’ve seen this, too. And I’m part of the problem, I always buy several dozen cans of assorted Progresso soups as soon as the weather begins to chill. It used to be I could do it in a single shopping trip, but this year I’ve already done runs to three different stores and still not been able to get the range of varieties I want.
Note: they really need to stop making so much ‘wedding’ soup. Every store I looked at has a HUGE amount of those, spread out to fill the gaps for lack of things like Beef Vegetable.
Or maybe that’s the soup the consumers like least. Like jelly bean jars being left with more and more black jelly beans as the other flavors are preferentially picked.
I wanted to buy some frozen vegetables a couple days ago and the whole section was picked over, with very little selection, except for broccoli. There were bags and bags and bags of broccoli. Apparently Bush I wasn’t the only broccoli hater …
I was in a smaller Target yesterday and the toilet paper aisle was decimated. There wasn’t many paper towels either but the almost total absence of toilet paper was very clear.
I’ll have to look when I’m there later to pick up some dishwasher detergent (using “same day” services such as ordering for pickup got me a $10 gift card). I did notice during 2020 that Targets seemed to have more problems that way than other stores I shopped at. Is it that Target customers have more tendency to do the “clear the shelves for my hoard” thing, or that the company has more issues with getting supplies to the shelves, or both?
Update: at the Target I went to, cleaning and paper seemed a little sparse, but pretty close to “the stock crew hasn’t gotten here yet”, not “panic shoppers cleaned us out”. Oddly, craft and party supplies also seemed understocked.
My mom reported a mayonnaise shortage earlier today. Sugar and flour were also in short supply, and apparently canned veggies are starting to get sparse again. The cracker aisle was very picked over as well.
She can’t find small bottles of her favorite champagne either.
Effectively no canned cat food at Tractor Supply – about the same six cans that apparently nobody will eat. And almost none at Tops; even the Friskies, which had mostly been at Tops when nothing else was, was gone – and Tops had a sign out saying that canned cat food was one can to a customer.
Most of the few remaining cans were tiny; not even one day’s food for one cat in one of those cans. They’re meant for single servings for cats who are fed two or three times a day.
Am really glad right now that I’ve still got a couple of months’ worth in stock. (No, I did not take my one-can allotment.) But this is getting worse, not better.
– there was dry food, a few gaps but not many. But some people’s cats are used to eating only canned; others are expecting their canned as humans might expect something additional to bread for dinner even if they’re used to bread being part of it; and some cats due to their stage of life/health can’t eat dry kibble.
(Mayonnaise, however, we’ve got. It was even on sale. And the baked goods/sugar/canned milk/etc aisle was pretty full. Paper goods aisle had large holes in it, but there was some of everything.)
My two transitioned to the 4Health brand’s gluten-free line at Tractor Supply once they were old enough to stop eating kitten food. The shelves at the local stores have usually looked as you’ve described over the past couple months. Even their website has an alarming lack of cat food at times. I hope it gets better soon, or I’m going to be ordering $100 in cat food again whenever it’s in stock.
No Vegenaise (vegan mayo) to be found in my town. Road trip!
FWIW, you can buy Vegenaise from Amazon. I don’t know what it costs in a safeway or equivalent, but it’s $8.49 for a 32oz jar there. That strikes me as expensive, but if the alternative is a road trip…
I went to Vons yesterday and just now got back from Costco. Both had plenty of everything except Vons didn’t have the little bottles of katsu sauce that I like but I doubt that’s due to a shortage. Although I didn’t need it, I specifically checked the paper towel and toilet paper sections just for you guys. Both had plenty of Charmin and Bounty as well as generics.
My experience is the same as yours, Haj. I wonder if being on the west coast near seaports makes a difference?
Did you check the canned cat food?
No but clearly I should have done so. Next time, I promise.