Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com,
I had no idea that things had gotten so bad. Earlier today, my wife spoke with the manager of a local grocery store because she wanted to place a large order for some canned goods. What she was told surprised her, and it certainly surprised me. The manager of this local grocery store told her that there are numerous nationwide shortages going on at this moment, and he indicated that there are lots of products that he simply cannot get right now. When my wife told me what he had said, I decided that I had to look into this, because I hadn’t heard that canned goods were in short supply. Well, it turns out that the manager that my wife spoke with was right on target, and that should deeply alarm all of us.
One thing that my wife was specifically told was that there is a nationwide shortage of aluminum cans, and this is having a tremendous impact on the soda industry.
In fact, things have gotten so bad that Coca-Cola has been forced to publicly address the situation…
Coke Life, Mello Yellow, Sprite Zero, Fresca and more. These are among some of the products you may have had trouble locating on store shelves in recent weeks.
And you’re not alone.
When asked about the situation, Coca-Cola told one Twitter follower: “We are seeing greater demand for products consumed at home & taking measures to adapt, working to mitigate the challenge during this unprecedented time. We appreciate your loyalty to our beverages; please know that we’re working hard to keep the products you love on the shelves.”
Apparently the big reason why there is a shortage is because people are consuming far more beverages at home than usual, and this has created a huge demand for canned drinks.
Right now, Coca-Cola and Pepsi are primarily focusing on using their limited supplies of aluminum cans to produce their core products, and this has made less popular flavors very difficult to find…
Both Coca Cola and Pepsi have reportedly been forced to focus on their most popular flavors in order to keep them in stock, making the less popular flavors harder to find for the time being.
Unfortunately, we aren’t just facing a shortage of aluminum cans.
According to the Wall Street Journal, some of the biggest food manufacturers in America are admitting that there are nationwide shortages of “flour, canned soup, pasta and rice”…
Grocers are having trouble staying stocked with goods from flour to soups as climbing coronavirus case numbers and continued lockdowns pressure production and bolster customer demand.
Manufacturers including General Mills Inc., Campbell Soup Co. and Conagra Brands Inc. say they are pumping out food as fast as they can, but can’t replenish inventories. Popular items such as flour, canned soup, pasta and rice remain in short supply.
Of course those are precisely some of the key items that preppers tend to stock up on.
I think that millions of Americans can sense what is coming, and they are gathering supplies while they still can.
Meanwhile, the nationwide coin shortage continues to get even worse.
This week, I was stunned to learn that Kroger has announced that it will “no longer return coin change to customers”…
If you pay with cash at one of Kroger’s cashier checkouts, you won’t be getting coin change for a while, and it’s indirectly due to the coronavirus.
Kroger spokesperson Erin Rofles confirmed Friday the grocer will no longer return coin change to customers. Instead, the remainders from cash transactions will be applied to customers’ loyalty cards and automatically used on their next purchase.
That is serious.
This coin shortage is being caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is likely to last for as long as this pandemic persists.
If we have already gotten to the point where the federal government is unable to produce enough coins for all of our businesses, how long will it be before we start witnessing a shortage of dollar bills?
At this point, even Walmart is acknowledging the stress that the nationwide coin shortage is putting on their operations…
Walmart has also been impacted been the shortage. In a statement to WMAZ, Walmart spokesperson Avani Dudhia, “Like most retailers, we’re experiencing the affects of the nation-wide coin shortage. We’re asking customers to pay with card or use correct change when possible if they need to pay with cash.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has also deeply affected the meat processing industry. Numerous meat processing facilities all over the nation have been shut down in recent weeks, and this has limited supplies and pushed up prices.
In fact, we saw some pretty dramatic price increases during the month of June…
Once again, meat prices went up.
Overall, beef and veal prices rose 4.8%. Pork prices grew 3.3% and bacon got 8.1% more expensive. Hot dog prices grew 4.9%.
I have repeatedly warned my readers that meat prices were going to go up substantially, and so hopefully a lot of you out there stocked up before the price increases hit.
What we have been witnessing over the first half of 2020 should be a major league wake up call for all of us, because it has become clear that our system is far more vulnerable to shocks than most people ever imagined.
If COVID-19 can cause this much chaos, what is going to happen when a crisis that is far more severe comes along?
Even though I write about this stuff on a constant basis, I was stunned when my wife told me that we couldn’t get the canned goods that we wanted because a nationwide shortage was happening.
It has become very difficult to keep up with how fast things are changing, and I expect events to accelerate even more as we head toward the end of 2020 and beyond.
If you still need to get stocked up for all the chaos that is coming, I would do so quickly, because supplies are only going to get tighter the worse things get.
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So they keep making cans of Pepsi and Coke, but they stop putting out Mr. Pibb? And you want to tell me this isn’t a racist country? Next thing they’ll be out of hot sauce, but they damn sho’ won’t be out of mayo! Goddamn crackas!
Coin shortage?
Methinks it’s more of a general cash shortage with clever spin applied. This is a classic example of limited hangout strategy. TPTB admit to a coin shortage with hopes the sheep will overlook the concurrent paper dollar shortage. Most sheep perceive coins as low-value and therefore are willing to tolerate their absence. Meanwhile the beast advances one step at a time.
Piggy banks and a likely Covid slowdown or shutdown at the Dept. of Engraving.
Wonder if these shortages have anything to do with the climbing industrial and precious metal prices?
These shortages have to do with lots of issues hitting all at once. Remember when China shut down in January? China makes just about EVERYTHING so them shutting down was a big deal. Then you had the production facilities including meat and most food stuffs shut down due to virus. Then there was a problem with shipping product and so on and on. When you have a JIT supply situation any break in the system affects everything down the line.
My friend works for the largest supermarket chain in SC Texas and they have many sources for stuff. When the toilet paper went missing they suddenly stocked the aisles with scented TP (manzanilla of all things) from Mexico. Now Mexico is having virus issues so more shortages are baked in the cake. If you prepped early on then pat yourself on the back.
At the local Kroger, it looks like they are spreading out what they do have. I noticed a particular cereal that was stocked in 4 different locations in the cereal aisle. Saw the same thing with some canned beans. Also, refried beans went from $.69/can to $.93/can in less than 1 month.
Hang on to your shorts, boys and girls, the ride is about to get exciting.
As long as canned food price are going up I’m putting more effort into buying brands like Goya or local products that are a bit pricier.
Since early March, I have walked almost every aisle in the stores just to see what is not there. I was shocked one week when all the canned beans were gone, but there were plenty of dried beans and pasta. 3 weeks later and canned beans were back in stock, but there was a shortage with the dried.
I try to go every couple of weeks to restock what we have consumed and to replenish the perishables.
There are items in stores like Big Lots and Dollar General still on shelves while the bigger grocers are lacking. I picked up several bags of various dried beans at the Dollar General, ditto toilet paper. Selection is limited but at least it’s on the shelves….for now.
It was the same for lumber. In 4 weeks a 2×4 jumped from 1.98 to 3.34 as lumber shortages are hitting as well.
I went to Aldi yesterday (like I do). I got there about 6:30 PM and the produce was cleared out. Three overripe bananas were the only ones they had. Oranges? Gone. Hamburger and hotdog buns? Cleared out. It was weird. WTF?
FYI, I hear that appliance manufacturers are months behind in production – mostly because they had to shut down their Mexican factories due to COVID. They do have all three available colors: stainless, stainless and stainless.
90 to 180 days on appliances, congrats you’re a third world shit hole now.
I think it’s more trade war or reserve dollar related than covid. I’ve been watching the cracks in my location since the start. Stuff that is made here is flowing, stuff that is not isn’t, more like a trickle, and it’s a slow trickle.
dimensional lumber is going thru the roof price wise as well.
Treated lumber is just about non existent. Mills are running what they can and telling us this is what i have this week take it or leave it. besides a shortage of yellow pine feed stock we are starting to hear they are having difficulty sourcing the copper sulfate and other treatment chemicals.
“Treated lumber is just about non existent” 100% truth
congrats we’re a third world shit hole now.
“There Are Already Nationwide Shortages Of Aluminum Cans, Soda, Flour, Canned Soup, Pasta, & Rice”
And this is a bad thing? I think this depopulation thing may backfire and we may actually get a healthier population due to the lack of crap food products, homeschooling vs institutionalization and lack of medical resources. That’s a Win-Win-Win for humanity!
Kroger wasn’t giving change in coins today. The ground sirloin that is now close to $9 or $10 a pound was on special for $3.99. No one is buying it at those prices so I keep getting ground sirloin for $3.99 while all the lesser grades are 50-100% more. It is one of the little ironies, not unwelcome, that I can buy a higher grade of meat for less than before, even though the official prices of what I had been buying are higher.
There did seem to be a lot of open space in the soup aisle. ALDI was wiped out in several areas yesterday. No white garbage bags, no gallon zip top bags, stuff like that. Frozen food section 100% stocked.
I have noticed potatoes are not available in abundance.
I’ve noticed about a 20% increase in prices here in SoCal, but we’ve been very blessed for many years since much is grown here. And a lot of goods that used to be regular price leaders (like $5.99 coffee) are no longer being discounted. A few days ago I did find an incredible bargain of .99 cent pork chops at a local chain. Every now and again they’ll offer a similar cut at $1.29, but this was the first time in years I’ve seen them that cheap.
King of the fearmongers.
As soon as you read Michael Snyder, you can stop reading and move on to the next article.
I remember the day, recently, when the news stories said one in five Wendy’s did not have any beef. And, there will be shortages of beef, in the near future, was the punchline. There was no shortage.
The toilet paper shortage was more of a mismatch as there was a 40% shift from work/school to home use of the toilet. There was plenty of one ply, used at work/school, at all times.
All these stories do is cause artificial shortages.
“Overall, beef and veal prices rose 4.8%. Pork prices grew 3.3% and bacon got 8.1% more expensive. Hot dog prices grew 4.9%.”
That is the value of FRNs going down.
As of Wednesday evening Sam’s Club in Fullerton had a couple thousand pounds of rice available in varying quantities, maybe a thousand pounds of flour in 12 lb. bags, at least one pallet of Barilla pasta and all kinds of canned foods (except regular sized cans of green beans that we usually get- plenty of big cans, though) and plenty of canned soft drinks.
The fresh meat cases were pretty thin, but we were there an hour before closing time. Didn’t look for dried beans but plenty of refrieds, barbecue and other varieties available.
The glaringly obvious empty shelves prevalent a few weeks ago are pretty much gone.
Prices are definitely on the upswing, too.
alcohol,peroxide,lysol disinfectant spray are nowhere to be found around here–
It’s times like these that separate those who talk a good prepper game and those that live it. Of course part of living it includes grousing about the shortages “you are experiencing too” while you continue living your life like nothing has changed. That and remembering to keep that shit eating grin off your face. 🙂
I just keep planting new rows of beans and more potatoes and cabbages every single week. The greenhouse is about 1/3 of the way done. Three new litters of piglets and another calf this week.
Not saying we’re prepared, but it could be worse, we could still be stuck in NJ.
Where are you getting the seed potatoes to plant? (serious question)
i suspect local is better but here are some internet sources–
if you’re far enough south try sweet potatoes also–
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=seed+potatoes+online&t=hk&ia=recipes
Thanks for the link. Just so you know, due to the time of year, you have to dig pretty deep to find any that are not “out of stock” and even then, not sure what we will get from those who claim to have them. Delivery is in about 2 weeks so we’ll see if they are worth the cost.
This piece shocked me to my core. I would have never believed that Snyder would have a wife. “Sorry, honey, but the world is ending again today.”
There is some panic buying, the majority of the problem is the supply chain disruption. Roughly 50% of all food consumed is out of the home: restaurants, schools, cafeterias. That’s mostly dead.
Grocery stores are thus seeking huge sales increases, but the wholesale suppliers to the commercial supply chain rarely also supply the consumer supply chain. Even if they do, the sizes and types of products are dramatically different.
I can buy carrots in a restaurant supply chain trivially, but I have to buy 10 lbs for $3.99. In a grocery store, the price ranges from $0.99 to $1.59 per pound but I can buy it at whatever (small) quantity I want. Ditto for onions, lettuce, meat, etc.
Soft drinks: restaurants generally serve from a well – no can needed. There are few, if any, well dispensers in homes so people have to buy cans or plastic bottles.