Need some bottled water?
Or your kids' favorite lunch item?
You might not find it at your nearby grocery store.
Those shelves are looking a bit thin these days.
It's not like the great toilet paper shortage of 2020, but rather just hit or miss shortages.
We found Katie Ellis stocking up on school lunch fixings for her five children.
But each week something else is missing.
"Today was paper plates," she said.
Also, small bottles of water and drinks.
"Gatorade, a lot of different juices," Ellis adds.
With the return to school, Lunchables are like gold these days.
We found pizza Lunchables in one store. Turkey and cheese, but no pizza, in another.
And the chicken wing shortage is nothing to cluck about.
"Chicken wings, and chicken thighs," we're told.
Mahogany Wintersmith would love to find scrubbing bubbles cleaner.
"Just basic stuff you need for your home, they never have it, they are just out," she said.
It's frustrating because you never know from day to day which products you like that will be in short supply.
For instance, today was our lucky day: we found the Ben's wild rice we had been looking for during the last two weeks.
The Wall Street Journal, in a new report "Why you can't find everything you want in grocery stores," blames:
- Shipping bottlenecks.
- Staff shortages at processing plants.
- Trucker shortages.
- And a Nabisco strike on top of everything else.
Walmart says it is adding more trucks and hiring 20,000 workers.
Kroger says it is building 20 automated warehouses and hiring more associates.
But in the meantime, shoppers like Debbie Caldwell say it's ...
"Very frustrating. The shelves seem to be getting smaller and smaller and smaller,' she said
And in a flashback to 2020, some stores are now putting up purchase limits sign again.
So expect continued spot shortages, so you don’t waste your money.
