Quite remarkably this ABC report on empty shelves is not far away from outlining the truth. They are still obfuscating some of the predictable reasons, and they completely ignore the vaccination mandate aspect that is going to worsen the issue, but they are nibbling the edges, nonetheless.
The backward-looking comparative statistics they cite, “15% shortage for food and beverages” overall, are nonsense. The severity of unavailable products is much higher than that. You will note from your own store visits the most unavailable products are the manufactured food and heavily processed products.
The raw material shortage inside the retail manufacturing supply chain path, combined with the increased demand on those manufactured sectors, is the direct cause of the manufactured food shortage. {Go Deep} [Example: a high demand for citric acid means complex foods that use citrus flavorings (ie. sports drinks) are in short supply. Chase that backward, and you see shortages in citrus & higher citrus costs, etc.]
Each seemingly small issue creates another small issue, which creates another small issue, which ultimately pokes holes in the supply. Poke enough holes in enough small categories from manufactured condiments to manufactured drinks, to manufactured cereals, pasta, grains, soups, pet foods, and the complex food processing system overall begins to show the larger problem. It’s a system collapse by a thousand paper cuts.
Some well intentioned people will claim the shortage of processed and manufactured food is a good thing, and people should eat more fresh foods and be healthier.
Let me be very frank about this. Without full-service fresh prepared food delivery operating normally (restaurants, hotels, cafeterias, lunchrooms, food trucks, venues etc) there isn’t enough fresh food in the U.S. retail distribution system (grocery chains) to feed 350 million people.
We simply need processed and manufactured foods.
Additionally, many of those manufactured foodstuffs (spices, sauces, etc) are additives to what people call “fresh food” preparation. If you want salt, pepper, olive oil, butter, tomato paste, pasta, flour, etc., you need processed and manufactured food.
As we go into this phase, the ABC report was correct on where these issues will be less noticeable, less fragile. The smaller grocery outlets with closer connections to the field. The closer the grocer is to the farmer, the less fragile they are in this shortage phase. “Grocers” (traditionally defined) will do better than “supermarkets”.
Also think about it like this. Does your grocery store have an in-store bakery? If so, their ability to make bread means they are less susceptible to running out of bread. If processed industrial bakeries experience issues, your in-store bakery may not. You will pay much more, but the product will exist. The key is having knowledge of where the product exists.
On a supermarket basis, the total operational excellence comes into play now. Top shelf field-to-fork operations like Hannaford, HEB, Publix and Wegmans will fare much better than Kroger, Ahold, Giant Eagle, Albertsons, Shop Rite, Meijer, Safeway, Winn Dixie etc. You can see how the former group rely more on fresh product supply chain relationships, and the latter group are weighted heavily toward low-price highly manufactured.
What are you seeing around you?
Resource Material:
Since this Plandemic has begun, I’ve planted my gardyn and aerogarden. I grow my own lettuce and veggies. I’ve taught myself to make sourdough bread, and every variation there is using the discard (a much healthier than store bought option). I still can’t bring myself to figure out the egg, milk/cream and butter dilemma I will have but have canned many many jars this past year. If “Chance favors the prepared mind” surely I’m on the right path. Don’t forget to buy shampoo, soaps and any other medicinal needs you may have. Good times brought by Brandon Administration are arriving in a town near you ..soon.
Here in south So Cal-no almond milk, no milk, no top ramen at the local smart & final.
Overland Park, KS Costco this morning appeared to be fully stocked until I looked further. Almost no frozen chicken. No frozen gluten free chicken nuggets. No frozen potatoes ar all. No frozen Alaskan wild salmon filets. Large anounts of fake beef burgers and fake chicken nuggets. I haven’t seen frozen pineapple in almost 2 years.
Went to the North Kansas City Costco Friday. Similar story.
Election Fraud put Joe Biden in the White House.
The 2022 Home Foreclosure rate and crash of the Stock Market
Bubble will dwarf the collapse of the 2008 Housing Bubble.
Many Real Estate websites are hiding the vast amount of
Pre-Foreclosure, Foreclosure, Auction, and Bank Owned
Homes. It’s a Home Foreclosure tidal wave.
In sw missouri and se kansas im seeing cold and flu meds not being restocked.
Food wise Heavy Wipping Cream, crackers of all makes, liquid coffee creamers, FROZEN POTATOES.
Silicon Valley:
Safeway out of popular pasta, top ramen, and distilled water. Probably more, but I was in a hurry. Safeway and other stores shifting merchandise in order to hide sparse shelves.
Went to two stores this morning in MD suburbs: Food Lion — shortages throughout the store are very apparent. The produce section was so empty they could not fill in the empty spaces. There was a giant display of pineapples. No bananas. No bags of citrus — only individual. No bags of onions — only individual onions. No carrots. No lettuce. Anything they had, they spread out but it was not enough. Hardly any meat, including bacon. Turkeys are not there, but there were hams! All advertised “specials” in the meat department were missing and today is the first day of the sale. Empty shelves in dairy, paper goods, soft drinks, pasta, rice, prepared (deli) foods, frozen vegetables, frozen potatoes, cat food, OTC medicines. Very, very scary and depressing. This was a big change from a week ago.
Next store: Aldi. Well stocked in produce, meat, canned goods. The only thing I noticed was an absence of variety of more complex foods (that require more ingredients, more processing) in frozen foods (though they did have frozen potatoes), and they had filled in their freezers with extras of basic frozen vegetables, in a thin way but it filled up the space to make it look less alarming. They were somewhat thin in dairy but had some of everything, including cream cheese.