Anyone seeing first signs of food shortages?

i haven't noticed anything but then again i dont go to the super market the last time i went was about 1/2 weeks ago maybe so nothing new here in New Zealand

Bottled water missing from shelves is nothing to wonder about -- ever try drinking tap water from most municipal water supplies -- terrible!!!!! (We had a new water treatment plant open here in April and the water since has either been so rotten stinky -- can barely stand to run water for anything and sure don't dare even to wash dishes with it -- or chlorine stinky -- don't need to add bleach to the clothes washer! -- that I don't see how anyone can drink it unless they have absolutely no taste buds or scent detection capabilities.) Bread missing if there's a forecast for cold, snow, freezing rain or heavy rains is common -- ditto for toilet paper, chips and soft drinks.

But -- things missing when there should be a somewhat stable supply/demand ratio is what worries me. I do know that a lot of stores won't reorder until they're completely out of something and if they run out on Sunday and their supply truck doesn't run until Thursday . . .

Interesting note in the news this morning . . . Kentucky Farm Bureau does a food price check quarterly and claims that the price of food in Kentucky dropped 2.7% from October to January. Anyone seeing any decrease in food prices anywhere??? From what I've seen, everything is going up and up and up. A six-pack of 20-oz. Perrier was $4.62 when new WalMart opened in October -- on January 3, 2009, it was $5.92. That's a 78% increase the way I see it. Chips that were 99 cents for a small bag two weeks ago are $1.29 this week for the same size (maybe) bag. A 20-oz. Pepsi has gone from $1.29 to $1.69 in a lot of the stores around here. Of course, since manufacturers are making what looks to be the same size container yet putting a smaller amount of product inside, there could have actually been a few of the 40 items that Farm Bureau bought were enough smaller from the size in October that the price was lower.

WalMart has restocked cat food, albeit the 15 or so 18-lb. sacks are now sitting on top of three pallets instead of one pallet -- to make the supply look larger, perhaps?????

Originally posted by Middlekens
Interesting note in the news this morning . . . Kentucky Farm Bureau does a food price check quarterly and claims that the price of food in Kentucky dropped 2.7% from October to January. Anyone seeing any decrease in food prices anywhere??? From what I've seen, everything is going up and up and up.

I live in Kentucky, and I sure haven't seen food prices going down. On the contrary, overall, they just seem to keep going up. Occasionally I'll find a few items on sale, but for the most part, it seems like prices are on the rise.

One example is butter. We've been buying the same brand for several years now. In the past year, the price of it has gone from around $1.50 to over $3.00 a tub. We've stopped buying that brand.

I've also noticed that certain items like ice cream and peanut butter are packaged in a way that looks the same but there's less food in the package.

Anyway, I'm not sure what items the Kentucky Farm Bureau looked at and compared, but I can tell you that that I've seen prices going up and not down. I've been really paying attention too because prior to the election when gasoline prices went down, I was hoping that food prices would go down as well. I've been very disappointed.

I haven't noticed any food shortages in my area, but I also haven't paid much attention to that lately either so who knows.

In the Central Texas area (north of S.A. and south of Austin) I have noticed our shelves getting stocked less and less... Oh there is still plenty of stuff up but not as much as there used to be..

I have to agree with the ANON posters... Less people spending money means less food on the self.... But their is still some food left on the shelf...for awhile...

All these bailouts and this credit collapsing... Well all stores buy on credit and if the backs can't front them the cash then their will not be food on the selves to buy.

I would look to see the real emptiness around February when the other shoe of this depression will drop and the banks will stop issuing credit to stores....

THEN YOU WILL SEE EMPTY SELVES....

But as of right now they are only tightening their belts before they lose their pants completely.

I have noticed a great shortage in pet food. I live in a rural part of MS and we have only two grocery stores, a super Wal-Mart and a Winn Dixie. The pet food shelves in the Wal-Mart are bare. I asked an employee about it yesterday and she said they were having problems with the manufacturer, Purina. I can't find anything on the internet to substantiate her claim.

Take this for what it's worth. It's second hand. Probably can be verifyed quickly, but I'm too lazy to make the call and don't want to sound stupid tin-foilish.

Friend told me his friend, a store manager at a national grocery chain (will leave unnamed until it's confirmed), got an unusual store mgt memo to pull a huge selection of different types of foods from the shelves, from selected canned goods, ramen noodles to baking supplies like flour, sugar, etc.

It was a big list -- biggest he's seen in his 25 yr career -- and singled out brands without clearing out the whole catagory (in other words, there was still sugar on the shelves, just not one type from Company X).

Normally, when asked to pull, the reason was so the store could reship back to distribution point for some reason or another (recalls, contract with vendor severed, etc.). Instead this time managers were asked to store the stuff in weatherproofing boxes (being sent) and placed in back rooms "until such time" as may be needed to respond to "expected unusual spikes in demand for certain key products."

There was no explanation other than that.

Another friend of mine stated something similar happening at his uncle's store in N.C. Similar memo stating similar situation. My friend joked and said his uncle had to do this back in 1982 when worries of nuke confrontation with USSR was peaked (I think tied in to "The Day After") In essence, they're doing this to respond to food shortages due to run on gocers.

Lastly -- and I'm not sure its related AT ALL, just a coincidence. Another friend works for Trader Joes. They're to have a company-wide mandatory phone conference meeting in the store this Wednesday. Big deal apparently where HQ is going to make some sort of announcement to all stores in the field at th same time. Maybe not related to this -- cutbacks and store closing is what he's worried about -- but seems coincidental.

Don't mean to stoke fear, just relating the news (well, rumor in this case) as I hear it. I've personally not seen any shortages yet.