Stores running out of goods? No Credit

Originally posted by kyred
reply to post by Jessicamsa

 

Where in Kentucky? The Danville Walmat has plenty of everything. No empty shelves. They were out of Zesta Saltines last week, but the shelves weren't empty, just other brands filling the space. Today, though, I bought my beloved Zesta Saltines.

One thing I do want to note, though. Usually, this time of year the men's clothing section is filled with long sleeved shirts, but T-shirts are still hanging on the racks, as well as short sleeved shirts.

I have only been to Danville Walmart one time for that lousy interview. I dunno why the manager wasted my time. He already knew the same info I gave during the phone call as the interview. I'm still upset over that one.

The one here in Nicholasville is constantly running out of stuff and some of the stuff costs more than the Lexington stores. Some of the Lexington stores have had empty shelves as well.

Yeah, there are lots of short sleeved shirts around here too. And winter is supposed to be a bad one this year.

Cincinnati, Ohio here. No we havent seen anything of that sorts yet. A few new stores have even opened up. We have a few Costcos, a jungle Jims, and several SAMS stores here. Also we are surroned by Farms and major interstates and a waterway. What I am starting to see is long lines downtown at the free food stores and the federal and state goverments welfare offices, lots of people are hurting here in Cincinnati. Winter is getting ready to set in here and things look bad for the homeless and and poor people in the city. The local goverment is corrupt and our trying to build street cars instead of opening up some jobs for the ones who need it...

Bad times and a Hard winter are coming here in Cincinnati.

Columbus Ohio checking in and I have noticed that my local Kroger seemed to have a lot of empty shelf space. I didn't think much of it at the time.

Missouri Checking in here, this has been going on in our state since last christmas, our Wlmarts didnt even order new decorating items fo rchristmas, they simply put out th eleft overs from the year before, and now, shelves are empty all over the store. They just did big remodels in all the Walmarts I frequent, one of the things they did was to widen the isles so that three carts could all pass at the same time.
I didnt think anything about it, except that it was way more convenient than the congested isles they used to have. Then I realized, more space between the isles, less shelves they have to fil....hmmmmm

reply to post by TheRedneck


It's even worse for independent truckers. My mother and stepfather went that route for a few years. The company they were working for cut back on loads, and wouldn't pass on the fuel surcharge you know they charge the customer. So now they have parked their truck, and are driving a company truck again.

Owner/operators that leave that company for work elsewhere can't come back. It's ridiculous.

Originally posted by Circle

Originally posted by amatrine
Anyone else seeing this?

T

My my how you are suffering you poor old American Thang!! My God, your Country per head of population, has been consuming more resources than any other Nation on Earth. 25 obscene per cent to be exact. Try living in Ethiopia or Bangladesh and see how its like to survive. They have nothing.

I am not saying we are worse than another nations? Where did that come from ? I am showing what is going on now and trying to see if this is going on anywhere else.

I don't know what's scarier......the fact that some of you are experiencing this or the fact that some of you are supporting the fascist, monopolistic, tyrannical company called Wal Mart!

I'm in SoCal. I'm not experiencing any of this. But I also shop at Costco and local mom and pop grocery stores.

Still lots of food here.

But I have notice the sales and discounts are far less than they use to be. Using the store 'savings card', I use to get 20-25 dollars off my cart of groceries each time I went. Now it is only 7-8 dollar savings on the same foods in the same amounts.

reply to post by Zosynspiracy


I go where I can get the best price, and usually Wal-Mart is that place. There's nothing wrong with it, and more people are doing it. If you aren't doing it now, you will do it in the near future.

reply to post by SpacePunk


There is nothing wrong with it? I take it you know nothing about Wal-Mart or the effect it has on US workers, mom and pop stores, etc. You might as well be shopping at China Inc. And don't give me that crap that Wal-Mart is so much cheaper than everyone else. I've compared prices from Wal-Mart to all types of places. If saving $.50 on a bottle of soap is worth it to you..............it's a free country! And no I'll never shop at Walmart or any subsidiary i.e. Sam's Club.

So far many people in this thread have admitted to shopping regularly at Wal-Mart. How many of you bitch and complain about the state of the US economy, our foreign policy, war etc? Typical of my fellow Americans, bitch and complain yet when it comes down to it their actions speak louder than words and they buckle and fold.. Nothing will change in this country until people start putting their money where their mouth is. And to think so many ATSers are shopping at Wal-Mart doesn't give me much hope.

Originally posted by SpacePunk
reply to post by Zosynspiracy

 

I go where I can get the best price, and usually Wal-Mart is that place. There's nothing wrong with it, and more people are doing it. If you aren't doing it now, you will do it in the near future.

Not necessarily true.

People can manage with higher morals, they just cut back on a luxury or two and use that money to buy from less corrupt people.

I would rather do without one or two things and support smaller business with the saving, than support a morally corrupt system just so I can have an extra bit of cake.

I guess it just depends on whether a person has a moral standard and chooses to sacrifice something minor to assist their local community.

I'm a Kentucky resident, and when we went to our local Whole Foods, I noticed a couple of shelves were empty of the store's own brand of spices. They've been moving things around, so I assumed they were just cleaning the shelves or something. Last week when we went back, the empty shelves were filled with the spices.

I don't buy too much at Kroger, but we went in last week to buy a few items. I was surprised that there was only one 5 pound bag of bread flour on the shelf.

I can't tell you about Wal-Mart because it's very rare that I go there.

There's an international grocery store in town that we've been going to for about 13 years. My husband and I were both shocked to see how bare their shelves were. I presume business must not be good for them right now and so they're ordering less.



[edit on 5-10-2009 by cornblossom]

I am free to shop where I want. At least for now.

Now I went to Wallmart looking for a quilt , the one they had at Annes linnens was $100. The same one at wallmart was $60. I compare shop at home.

I just go where they best prices are. We are a one income family. Must be nice to have the luxury to go where you want to. We do not have that luxury.

My old bedspread was ripped to shreads and feathers all over my room, and had to be replaced. I was looking for the cheapest way to replace it, yet find one that was not going to fall apart in a month.

Freedom of choice also means free to shop where you want.

O do not shop for food at wallmart, it is actually more expensive there. Frys here has the best deals there.

Back when I was able to work to, we shopped safeway,. but can not afford them anymore.

Anyway way mute point that I am even explaining myself. We need to stop judging others on everything from where they shop to what they drive.

When times are hard, and the only place you can buy a load of bread ( being hypothetical) is wallart, are you going to starve instead ?

reply to post by Zosynspiracy


Around here we have one Albertsons, one Thriftway (sure-fine store), and the Wal-Mart. Prices at Albertsons is 50 to 100 percent over Wal-Mart, so much higher that I consider it a boutique grocery store more than anything else. The sure-fine store is anywhere from 10 to 25 percent higher. They all carry the same items for the most part, the only thing we do not buy at wal-mart is meat.

So, if you want to pay more for the same item, more power to you. If it makes you feel morally superior then good for you, we all need something to make our lives sunnier.

reply to post by amatrine


Yeah well it's just me and my wife, we have no kids. And we've spent the last 10-15 years establishing ourselves in our careers so that when we do in fact have kids we won't have to shop at Wal Mart to "get by". I'm not implyiing you're the stereotypical Wal-Mart shopping American with more kids than you can support so please don't take offense but it's time Americans start speaking with their pocket book and not so much with their mouth and we can start with destroying the monopolistic freedom destroying company called Walmart.

A poster earlier hit the nail on the head: It's not the Albertson's, Krogers, Targets or Wal-Marts of the world that are having the short-term credit issues. It's the suppliers.

I've been hearing about this for some time and I believe it's getting worse. The regular supplier of, say, Kroger fish. I'm making this up, but it illustrates a point (and protects the person who told me the real story). Let's say that supplier has relationships with five different fishing fleets. They take a percentage guaranteed each week of the total catch, package it by weight and type and sell it in bulk to Krogers.

That supplier's risk is banking on just how much Kroger will buy. If it buys them out, terrific! If slightly under, the supplier takes a small hit but not enough to really feel much pain. If orders are really under, the supplier panics, and is forced to sell its fish at extreme discount to other stores. This happens once or twice a year, it's a write-offable loss. If it happens a lot - then the real problems begin.

You see, since the supplier uses short-term credit, it's going to do anything it can to pay the bank off. So the pain then rolls down hill. The supplier then takes its time to pay the fishermen, perhaps even delaying payment more than 90 days. If this happens enough, then the fishing fleet can't buy the fuel it needs to trow for more fish because their credit is even shakier.

Suddenly, we have a supply problem. Even when Krogers is willing to buy, if the fishing fleet is unable to go out or out of business, there may be a delay as the supplier renegotiates with new fishing fleets, or even worse, Kroger has to negotiate with a new supplier because the other broker went out of business.

This all bleeds into delays - and empty shelves.

Seattle here and I haven't seen shortages yet but I don't shop at
satan mart. From the looks of y'all's posts, just maybe satan mart has bitten off more than it can chew and is in trouble?
What I have noticed though is new weird brand names, smaller sizes and more expensive prices!

reply to post by SpacePunk


Albertson's is NOT a boutique grocery store, even after their fancy remodel. In fact it's in my opinion bottom of the barrel along with Krogers, Safeway, King Soopers, Schnucks etc. Dierbergs is a higher end grocery store. Vons is bottom of the barrel. Pavillions is ok. Whole Foods, Mother's Market, Wild Oats are "boutique" grocery stores. Along with Bristol Farms etc. I guess Im a grocery store snob but then again my cell phone is 10 years old and I don't have a flat screen t.v. Albertson's being 50-100 percent higher than WalMart is an exaggeration as well. 50% maybe but not 100%.

Oh and having lived out here in CA for the last two years and going back to the midwest you guys have some of the best grocery stores I've ever been in. Dierbergs is amazing!

VERY interesting you are noticing this! I started noticing slightly less stocked shelves about 6 months ago. I thought it was just me being paranoid and "looking" for ominous signs thus was noticing things that were actually normal.

It wasn't empty shelves everywhere but a few here and there and just less of many things, especially in hunting/fishing/ camping departments (of course that could be in line with the lack of ammo, etc, people buying "survival" stuff)

It is becoming increasingly noticeable here in Michigan but that could be due to people having ALOT less money to spend thus stores are buying less. Either way, YES it is happening, for whatever reason.

[edit on 5-10-2009 by I_am_Spartacus]

reply to post by Melissa101

Try JB Hunt, Crete, and I'm pretty sure Heartland is still hiring. Yeah, they're all OTR and a pain in the patoot to drive for, but there are still jobs for good drivers.

Construction, though... I worked on and off in construction for quite some time, and there's absolutely nothing around here. If a job in construction does come open, there's 1000 people waiting to fill it.

TheRedneck