CVS didn't have ANYTHING on sale this week - plus shortages at other stores

This isn't exactly a coupon site but I was wondering if anyone else noticed strange shortages at their stores this week?

I'm a big couponer so I end up going to a few stores each week and I haven't seen anything like this before.

It first started out with wanting to buy bread at Aldi on Thursday - not one loaf left. Plus they were out of a number of other items. As I was pulling out of their parking lot I saw their supply truck pull up - thought to myself they would be well stocked for Friday. Went there Friday afternoon and got the one last loaf.

Another store was totally out of their bakery loaves of bread. One had only half their usual shelves stocked with coffee - the rest were bare.

The biggest shock is that in eight states CVS decided not to put anything on sale. Which is a total shock because previously CVS was doing everything they could to push using their little card. This was done without notice, it was such a strange turn of marketing.

walgreens didn't have paper towels on sale this week

originally posted by: Mousygretchen
walgreens didn't have paper towels on sale this week

Actually they did ; )

not where I am!

I went to my local Walmart Neighborhood Market tonight to buy hot dog buns. They didn't have any. Oh the horror.

a reply to: Daughter2
I hit five different stores looking for gallon-sized jugs of white vinegar. Now I realize it is pickling season but I've never seen all the shelves bare of gallons.
I did notice a lot of bare shelves at two of the locally-owned stores and even the local Kroger had bare spots on Tuesday evening. That was really odd since their biggest deliveries come in on Tuesday morning. It was strange enough that I mentioned it to my husband but I don't recall what should have been in bare spots except the vinegar.
Our Kroger has increased its "Locally Grown" produce section due to the California drought, a real boost for some of our local market growers!

Interesting, wondering if it has to do with economical issues, etc., with the businesses? No CVS here to compare that with. Only earlier in the month heard the Dollar Stores were low on many items but that's not that uncommon. As well as "shrinking" products that seems to be happening with many items overall on the market.

a reply to: Daughter2

The .50 cent Van De Camps beans at Walmart just went up to 58 cents.

16% instant increase

Big Lots increased the Price of Armour Treet from 1.30 to 1.50. (they still had a 20% sale and bought them out)

Big Lots also increased the price of their canned Chicken from 1.70 to $2.00

These prices had been quite locked in the last few years.


Buy Cheap, stack deep.

Buy low, stack high.

lol

Oh yeah, the price of eggs has gone sky high. Some months prior the avian influenza issue brought up a scare warning of the rising prices of eggs. Looks like they weren't far off-for now anyway. One source;

More than 48 million turkeys and chickens have died or were euthanized because of the H5N2 avian flu virus that hit Midwest farms this spring. As a result, nationwide egg production in May dropped 5 percent from last year, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department.

More here

That could account for other products,that have egg ingredients to go up in price, maybe even be less common on the store shelves. If not replaced by other ingredients as explained in the article above.

a reply to: Mousygretchen

CVS closed it's doors here 8 years ago... honestly I didn't know CVS was still around. RIP! Finger tips ( eww gross! ) ( i know it's paper towels, but what other paper products are in short supply? ) I hope Yinz find toilette paper and Clark bars asap.


As far as the rest.. today I bought cheddar cheese, 2 Del'monico steaks, and a sack of potatoes. $64.00 U.S dollars!
I'd ask for paper at the check out. But they only have plastic.

Our grocery store was fine. Their deep bargains were thinner than usual, but the sale flyer had about the same number of specials and the shelves are fine.

I do notice that the locally grown veggies they usually stock are fewer this year (less zucchini, cucumber, tomato), but I'm blaming the abnormally cool and wet weather for that. Those crops may pick toward the end of summer if the weather dries out and warms some.

Prices have been going up for a while (past five or six years), but if you haven't been tracking them, you may not have noticed until recently.

Most stores these days operate on the "just in time" model.

They only purchase what they think they will sell and try to get it to the stores just in time.

This model means, nothing "in the back" or extra in the warehouse.

They purchase the items "just in time" to get them to the store "just in time" to get them on the shelves "just in time" and more and more they fail to account for surges, like pickling season. They account for big surges like annual holidays, but local surges, like pickling are often overlooked by big chains.

With the Chinese economy having imploded the way it did. My prediction is goods from China will rise in price, some say fall, I think rise. However, a great deal, if not most of what is on our shelves now comes from China. When China has problems, as in their recent economic crash, it affects what is on our shelves.

With the US owing more than $80,000 for every man, woman, and child in the country in debt. Debt so deep that we can take 100% of the 1%ers money and still be in desperate debt, run away inflation was inevitable, which will hurt us all deeply. This may be the beginning of the runaway inflation that unfortunately (for me for sure) is inevitable in the US.

I wanted avocados yesterday and the supermarket by me only had ones that were rock hard.


Thanks Obama.

originally posted by: grandmakdw
With the Chinese economy having imploded the way it did. My prediction is goods from China will rise in price, some say fall, I think rise.

Why would supply and demand suddenly work the complete opposite way it has always worked?

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: grandmakdw
With the Chinese economy having imploded the way it did. My prediction is goods from China will rise in price, some say fall, I think rise.

Why would supply and demand suddenly work the complete opposite way it has always worked?

The just in time model tries to predict supply and demand.

However, the model fails sometimes to account for supply (prices rising or birds dying enmass)
at a macro level the big chains may not account for demand for a micro surge, such as a rural area where a lot of people pickle.

This model saves the stores lots of money when it works right because they aren't stuck with unsold product or spoiled product, nor do they have to pay or support large warehouses, when the model breaks because of supply or demand surprises or lack of foresight on the part of buyers; well shortages result.

a reply to: grandmakdw

No, what I was asking was why decreased demand in China would lead to higher prices anywhere.

When the just in time model runs out of product prices cannot go up, they are out of product.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: grandmakdw

No, what I was asking was why decreased demand in China would lead to higher prices anywhere.

When the just in time model runs out of product prices cannot go up, they are out of product.

Not decreased demand.
Look at the products on the shelves, China makes the vast majority of items on the shelves these days.
ie: nearly all smartphones

With the Chinese economy imploding, the factories can easily go bankrupt.
Many are privately owned, but highly highly controlled by the Chinese government.
Which is why China forbade trading stocks on certain companies during the implosion.

My theory:
Many factories will fail when the economy fails and shut down (ie bankrupt)
They will no longer have the manufacture base to fill orders.
Other countries will have to step in and make the goods at a higher cost.

My daughter's theory:
The value of China's currency will fall and the factories continue to make goods at a lower cost because of the exchange rate.

a reply to: grandmakdw

I tend to agree with your daughter to a degree but with the Chinese government subsidizing many of the industries as they have been doing for sometime to maintain output and pricing.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: grandmakdw

I tend to agree with your daughter to a degree but with the Chinese government subsidizing many of the industries as they have been doing for sometime to maintain output and pricing.

But how long can they keep it up?

The ghost cities which keep construction workers and the construction industry afloat and other prop up measures
are bound to exhaust China's resources eventually.

The stock market crash in China which many compared to the 1929 US crash is a result of all this government subsidizing.

Eventually this type of economic policy will bankrupt the entire country.
To the point where the government can no longer subsidize all the factories who are losing massive amounts of money due to excessively low prices charged for their goods.