Anyone seeing first signs of food shortages?

Hi everyone,

I'm still praying everyday that this somehow, by miracles and the Grace of God, does not descend further into chaos. Unfortunately, this doesn't appear to be the case.

I'm opening this thread as an early warning system for food shortages. Not sure if this is bad or not, but the local Krogers in Duluth, Georgia was shockingly low on bread and organic milk as of 11 p.m. 10/15. The canned goods aisle was also pretty beaten, although stock work had not commenced.

I spoke with some assistant manager about the issue, and no one seems to know the cause as to why the bread aisle has not been replenished. I'll check today to see if that situation has been corrected.

If not, it may go further into the issue that suppliers and shippers are struggling to get credit to pay for the delivery to stores.

Anyone else have any stories to share?

I work at Sams Club and I haven't really noticed much yet, I work on the other side of the store though. I'll make it a point to check out the water, bread, canned goods, and rice/ flour isle today when I go in.

Going to be good to know how to plant vegies!

kissinger once said you can control country's with oil, and you can control people with food.

Not sure if food shortages will surface in a massive way, (right now the shelves are stocked full and actually the resteraunts are still packed) i'm in Boca raton, fl though, so don't know if this represent's "america" fairly

I believe There are big changes coming in our lives (fascist world gov't coming). In order to gain leverage in getting people to go along with this, massive pain and suffering will foot the bill ( for a significant) period to get alot of people to accept such a seemingly unfair form of gov't. wether something as drastic as food shortages will occur i don't really think that will be the case, but who knows.

This problem of food shortages due to lack of credit for shipping would only manifest thru Corruption because the gov't could backstop and insure this kind of food shipping easily, if they make it a priority.

I don't see any food shortage, what will happen is that is going to be food but people will have not means to buy it.

As the crisis deepens and it hits the rest of the nation and people keeps losing their homes, their credit and their employment, food will be available but it will be not means to get it.

That is why in times like this the crime rates and violence starts increasing.

I've noticed over the past three weeks that some items at our local Wal-Mart are in short supply and some things are not on the shelves at all. Not many but some. I bought the last bag of dog food of the brand I buy yesterday. It's not alarming to me yet but it is noticeable.

I just chalked it up to the fact that they hadn't gotten around to re-stocking yet but since you brought this up, I'm thinking it could be the beginning of something negative. I'll be sure to look closer the next time I'm there which will be a while since we live paycheck to paycheck and I only buy groceries twice a month.

I hope this is nothing but with the way things have been going lately I'm not so sure anymore.

Have not noticed anything here in Arizona. Just the drastic increase in price.

We are paying twice what we were for the same food a year ago.

Ama

Sometimes big chain stores goes by demand, they stock on items by priority of demand.

Perhaps the shortage on dog food is either a late shipment or just somebody forgot to submit the order for it.

reply to post by behindthescenes


I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary at the local grocery stores. The shelves look stocked and full of supplies. The only exception is that about 2 weeks ago I was shopping and I couldn't get any sugar. The shelves were totally empty. I thought that was odd because sugar wasn't even on sale.
When I went to another store to buy my sugar, there was plenty.

I'm not sure why there wasn't sugar at the first store I visited, but I have a theory. I work in a restaurant, and there have been times that we ran out of a certain critical item...such as flour, potato, romaine lettuce, etc. We've had to go the the local grocery store to buy enough of that product to get us through one or two days...enough to last until our next delivery.

I wonder if the empty shelf of sugar was because a restaurant that uses a lot of it ran out and had to buy all they had???

I don't think we will see something like this for a while yet. While without a doubt the markets are tumultuous at best, mainstream America has yet to see the effects of it. I believe it will take at least three to six months before we will begin to see what is going to happen, if anything.

respectfully

reluctantpawn

haven't noticed this recently. we used to shop at walmart once a week and we seemd to always hit it right before they were about to restock because they were always out of almost everything. it wasn't a food shortage - just thursday. =)

Nope i got a whole room full of food, i see it every day.. no shrotage here.. as for the stores. I've seen certain items being clear of the shelves often.. but they seem to restock it fairly quickly.. however i never used to see empty shelves anywhere in this store and I have also notices the the stuff that less stocked (front looks full empty in back of the shelf) is the stuff that's staple items and really cheap items like ramen and canned goods.. they seem to be less well stocked lately more often..

I'm a stockpiler and I look at this stuff all the time and have been for years.. I'm seeing some difference, the one that really shocked me is the backed beans section of the local market was wiped out.. majorly every brand was gone, only a few cans were found.. that to me is very odd when every brand is gone, sure sales can wipe out one particular brand but every brand.. that's a bad sign. This was in a major chain in a larger city.

One of the town i sho in is a smaller town but well trafficed its the county seat in a more rural are, so they get business from allover the place.. major shopping for many counties.. they have a total of 3 super markets, there is not more than a weeks worth of food in these stores combined for all these people that sho there they turn over rate is very high, all it would take is a weeks worth of halt in the delivery of items and the stores would be empty, and if it got to the point of half unstocked it would proceed even faster as people start to panic, they would snap up anything that was left.

Not sure if this has any significance but...


It was announced only yesterday that Coles (Australia) is going to be deleting loads of brand name items. They will be replaced by packaging that has the Coles name all over it. It was stated that it would be a 'trial' and oonly in some areas. Methinks low socio-economic neighbourhoods.

This will effectively take away choice and people will be forced to buy whatever is available, or go to another grocery outlet perhaps in a more affluent location.

I happen to know that generic products are usually made by the big brand manufacturers but under an agreement with the grocery chains. Often an an ingredient is left out, or more of this and that added. In other words the quality is altered and the item is priced accordingly. I know this because I work for a company that supplies several leading brand names of bread, hams, cheeses, delicatessen meats, cakes, pastries and cleaning products to the Australian market. We also use imported grains.

Reminds me of old black and white footage from the Soviet Union that I have seen when the bakery stocks only 1 type of loaf, or two types of canned goods. Everyone eats the same stuff.

I do not like this idea and I think it is a sign that something more is about to happen. Coles and Woolworths currently have a monopoly here in Oz and they have effectivelyl run the "little corner shops" out of business. They have also forced out green grocers in malls and Australians are pretty much captive to them. We do have other supermarket chains (Aldi from Germany) and recently we were told that COSTCO was coming to our shores. I look forward to the competition and choice this will provide.

Just thought it was worth a mention.


take care
res

[edit on 16-10-2008 by resistancia]

Originally posted by resistancia
Reminds me of old black and white footage from the Soviet Union that I have seen when the bakery stocks only 1 type of loaf, or two types of canned goods. Everyone eats the same stuff.

I do not like this idea and I think it is a sign that something more is about to happen. Coles and Woolworths currently have a monopoly here in Oz and they have effectivelyl run the "little corner shops" out of business. They have also forced out green grocers in malls and Australians are pretty much captive to them. We do have other supermarket chains (Aldi from Germany) and recently we were told that COSTCO was coming to our shores. I look forward to the competition and choice this will provide.
[edit on 16-10-2008 by resistancia]

This "Wal-Martization" has been occurring for some time here in the states as well. And, yes, I completely agree with your assessment on how products are slowing becoming less about choice and more about generic and afluence, like in the old Soviet Union.

But drastic, everybody gets the same thing, environment only will occur when the economy completely collapses and our government will be "forced" to provide MRE's to the general population to keep them basically fed.

reply to post by soldiermom


I encourage you strongly to try to get as much food storage as you can. The Mormon church may have some odd aspects to their doctrine and practices, but one idea they have that's very practical is that they encourage all members to keep one year's worth of food storage, in case for whatever reason they have to be self sustaining for a long period of time (I know because my in-laws are Mormon).

I would say this is a good time for everyone to build up as much food storage as possible. If a food shortage is beginning to happen, try not to purchase that whole year's worth at once, but rather build up to it by getting two weeks or one months' extra worth of food the first time (and keep it somewhere it won't be pillaged by the kids!).

Blessings,
F

no shortage of food in any of the countries I have been in recently.True inflation is rising but this is due mainly to the increase in fuel prices which have a direct influence on the price of food.

it looks like we will have some time to go before things like this become a problem. no one i know is worried about food.

Having grown up in the small grocer environment (my parents owned a pair of local grocery shops), and having worked for several local grocery chains for the better part of the the last decade, I can give a little insight into this.

The reason for less food on the shelves is that people have not been spending as lavishly as before. Most stores order their food on a credit system, so since people have been spending less, they stock less, as it is not beneficial to stock massive quantities of goods that have to be rotated.

You will typically notice this in the perishables; bread products, fresh fish and meat, fruits and veggies; and in the higher priced-lower profit margin products (and low volume products) such as fine liquors, top shelf spirits, caviar, imported cheeses and meats, and fruits and veggies from distant areas (bananas, pineapples, coconuts, and mangoes in Canada, for example)

I included the top shelf spirits and fine liquors because most stores don't move too many bottles of Johnnie Walker Blue Label, and in tight times such as now, if they move their entire stock, many stores will not restock right away until they are asked, as the money that could be put towards buying a case of JWBlue can stock alot of other goods that people are more likely to buy, such as toilet paper and rice and canned foods ("opportunity cost" for you economic minds out there).

There isn't a shortage at the moment, but due to the lowered spending, and thus the lowered stock at stores, it makes it so much easier to empty a store out, which could create a panic that could theoretically sweep the nation, especially if it is a slow news day for MSM. The funny thing is, despite the panic, as long as the credit market stays fluid, the stores will be restocked in a couple of days. The only things right now that would bring about a food crisis would be the obstruction of the transportation side, from port/field to market, or on the finance side, if the banks freeze up the credit markets.

I think the truckers will just be happy to have jobs, and the price of oil is down, so we should be okay on that side. Now if only we had thought to put protections to insure that credit is continually available, especially for small businesses, in a certain legislative act just passed instead of tax breaks for wooden toy arrowheads.

Just my .02

This post caught my eye and reminded me about a dream I had last night. To preface this, I've been having weird dreams lately.

I remember being in some super store and seeing the aisle that was usually full of milk jugs, totally empty, and on the other side of the aisle where the eggs should be, every single shelf empty. People were running around throwing things in their carts like they were stock piling.

I've never had such weird dreams before, but the past week or so, I've had some really, really strange ones.

I see a severe shortage on a very local level:
i30.photobucket.com...

Otherwise, I don't see any sign of food delivery disruption in a few local markets.

In Kentucky earlier this week the shelves in a Kroger store were partially bare. I was at a target store today and they had their shelves pretty well stocked. I still played it safe and stocked up on canned goods etc. I figure why take the risk?

[edit on 17-10-2008 by gypsy1035]

reply to post by cornblossom



Not sure where you are, but where I'm located, this is a busy time of year, what with fruits and vegeatables being harvested. My local grocery stores have been known to run out of sugar at this time of year, due to all the canning that people are doing with their fresh harvested goods.