What's suddenly not in shops near you?

[Gagagardener]

I've been trying to buy cream of tartar for all of September. None in Coop or Tesco in three towns. A friend bought the only tub on the shelves of an upmarket foodie shop further afield today. She lent me it so I could take what I needed for scones promised for a village event, but she wanted it back. There's bicarb soda and baking powder - why no cream of tartar?

Cheap supermarket brand sanitary pads

fairy washing up liquid and fairy platinum dishwasher tabs

random empty shelves still- including fruit and veg….2 weeks ago you couldn’t get lettuce anywhere that wasn’t the pre bagged washed type. This week it’s cucumbers. A couple of months ago it was butter - when butter came back in the price had sky rocketed again

All very well saying you can make your own apple sauce, which I usually do, I hate the bought stuff. But I can't seem to find any cooking apples at the mo! My son asked me to make apple crumble but it will have to be plum crumble instead. Surely right now is uk apple season?!

Sandwich bags

I can't get any ferrous sulphate iron tablets. I've been to 4 different pharmacies (Boots/Superdrug/Tesco/Sainsbury's) and no-one has any and I've run out

I can't take ferrous fumerate as it upsets my stomach and the on the shelf stuff isn't really strong enough but it's all I can get

Wrigley's Refreshers peppermint chewing gum. Can't get it anywhere and it's my absolute favourite and chewing gum is one of final, remaining vices

Bizarrely, Diet sprite or seven up!

Shake and vac!!! Cannot find it anywhere!

Weirdly, I've not been able to get own brand sparkling water or own brand extra light mayonnaise for months. The only things available in all the big supermarkets I've tried have been the much more expensive Evian water and likewise, Hellmanns. Own brand water was like 50p a bottle compared to Evian at £1.30 a bottle.

I've noticed that things go out of stock and then come back with a small tweak and dearer. For example tescos French dressing was thick and stuck to salad. Went out of stock over summer came back and now I might as well put tap water on my lettuce it's that thin.
I'm also a chef in a care home and our main frozen food supplier is out of stock of loads of food.

@Gagagardener

This is quite a niche thing to say but there is something " going on " with Cream of Tartar.

The last place I found where you could buy a tub is Waitrose. But last week the tubs were all heavily reduced as if to clear the stock. I snaffled a few tubs.

Otherwise you mostly have to buy it packaged in 5ml sachets ( Dr Oetekar ) And Nigellas scones take almost 25 ml. Useless.

When my tubs run out I'll be buying it on Amazon. 4.99 buys you enough to make a bath tub of scones.

Long life apple juice.

Choice....
The range of what's available in our Morrisons has been greatly reduced for the past few months.
Not gonna starve but often have to think on feet when buying rather than stick rigidly to my list. Can make meal planning a bit more tricky and everything a bit more expensive.

Cream of tartar - I buy it from eBay in large amounts now.

Dishwasher salt has disappeared here.

Loads of gluten free stuff.

My DD is coeliac and I do make her loads of stuff myself as GF food can be massively hit and miss and as she’s away at uni most of the time, there are some things that she’s discovered over the years that she likes

Goodfellas GF pizza
Warburtons GF wraps
Schar GF ciabatta
”Naked” McCain oven chips
GF chocolate Hobnobs
Sainsbury’s used to do lush GF profiteroles
GF Yorkshire puddings (every now and then I send her a Tesco delivery for a roast dinner)
GF flour

I don’t know whether it’s because of general supply issues, or because super markets (my local Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco at any rate) are expanding their vegan products by massively cutting back their GF products.

The last time I went shopping literally everything GF we buy was out of stock and I ended up in tears as I couldn’t feed my poor baby - she’s 21, and I know I behaved like a loon before anyone points it out - but after years of reading every packet and finding stuff she actually likes, and seeing an improvement in Free From products, it’s proper frustrating

Watermelon! My ds with food issues adores it but haven't seen any in weeks. Managed to get the lone small pack of watermelon pieces in tesco a week ago for an extortionate price but that's it

@sunglassesonthetable thanks for the cream of tartar info. Our nearest Waitrose is around 20 miles away. Online it will have to be.

It's been really interesting reading all these posts. Made me wonder if
anyone knowledgeable about supply chains/crop failures/ groceries is reading this. (Not mentioning politicians.) Or any economists/journalists? I'd like the bigger picture.

Watermelon! My ds with food issues adores it but haven't seen any in weeks. Managed to get the lone small pack of watermelon pieces in tesco a week ago for an extortionate price but that's it

I noticed that. Is it a seasonal thing?

Totally agree,even Amazon don't have any at the moment!

Round here it’s watermelon season - all the local greengrocers have stacks of the things, lovely and ripe, for very cheap. So I thought it was watermelon season!!

I’m sure I heard somewhere that potato crops had been hit due to a lack of rain. And I noticed that Tesco was out of stock on tinned potatoes on-line recently. If that’s true it will hit potatoes now, and potato products later down the line.

Plenty of whole watermelons in Booths today.

Chicken super noodles.

Salad cream!

I don't go in to shops often and my online shop hasn't had any subs. The last time I thought there was less fruit and veg on display.

@Wincher English cooking apples aren't quite ripe here in the north. I have a pile of windfall eating apples that will become a rather bland sauce when I've dealt with them; you can use any kind of apple. Some 'fall'.better than others, and the taste varies.