To be fed up of supermarket low stock

[BradfordGirl]

Since Christmas stock is so low in the supermarkets. I have tried different supermarkets and going at different times, it makes no difference. Today I had to go two supermarkets so I could buy bread, milk and ham - so hardly an exotic shopping list. The supermarkets all have some large empty spaces in their fruit and veg section and lots of other things missing. And trying to get eggs is not easy.
The only supermarket with good stock is the co-op. I went in as I had been a few places trying to get eggs and was a bit taken aback to see shelves fully stocked. Unfortunately it is quite expensive.
But I am getting fed up of all the other supermarkets having permanently low stock.

I'm in the USA too, and don't have a problem getting anything. The shops are well stocked, although fruit and veg is very expensive. Lidl is restricting the number of eggs people can buy, but I only buy one box (of 12) at a time, so it doesn't affect me.

The empty shelves at Tesco are as much due to a slimmed down staff and a weird system of distribution. Their chilled stock comes in on random cages. So you typically have tons of a fast selling yogurt, pork pies, lots of cheese and fresh soups all on one cage.
The yogurt will be overstocked and then get put on a cage in the chiller ( trapped behind all the new deliveries). So because it sells fast will look empty because the priority is the delivery. The other shelves on the yogurt section get stocked once the random cage they are on gets put out.
Staff is the bare minimum so a delivery on Saturday will still be being worked on by Monday. So yes if a specific thing on the shelf is empty it’s stays that way until the cage it’s come in on gets worked. Or someone asks and staff go and hunt for it in the cages out in the chiller. Mind you ifs it’s at the bottom or in the middle there’s no hope of getting it or seeing it.
When you have a shift with quick experienced staff on, the shelves get filled up and it all looks fine. It only takes a slower member of staff on their own in the afternoon and the shelves look terrible again ( even though there’s stock out the back).

It's a global issue. Some things may improve this year as other countries step up supply of things which normally come from Ukraine but shortages and price rises will continue for many items. It's a bit rubbish but we are not suffering as much as some parts of the world.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022%E2%80%932023_food_crises

I think that's partly true. The price increase is a global problem, but I am in Sweden and there is absolutely no shortage here. No empty shelves, we have staff, drivers etc. It's not at all like in the UK.

Thanks to everyone posting who actually works in the industry - so useful to find out what the reasons behind the shortages are and how it all works.

Sympathies too to the checkout staff whose fault it all is 😃I was frontline NHS so I feel your pain.

@MrsFezziwig there are big changes in the market for some raw materials too.

For example, you might find your local shop has no value range tinned carrot soup.

The carrots that manufacture buys may be the “wonky veg”, rejected on quality standards for supermarkets.

That was fine, there was a market for that wonky veg - sold for processing in soups.

But in the last year:

1. the number of people prepared to downgrade to “value” carrots has soared - so that market increases
2. with the high cost of fuel, alternative sources like Biofuel are increasingly cost effective, so you get anaerobic digestion plants stepping in to buy the wonky veg too

So there are less wonky carrots available for the soup manufacturer to buy.

I don’t want to give any more specific ingredient examples as it’s outing 🤣 but believe me, we’re competing to buy some things against entirely new markets.

There is so much going on right now!

I find online as bad. I stopped doing online shopping as at least I can choose sensible substitutes for myself.

@Testina Yes this happened with timber, prices and supply went crazy because of things happening that quite frankly didn't make sense, like burning for energy instead of for lumber, they now fallen right back.

But what i do not understand is that i can shop in France and Spain and do not see the shortages i see here in the UK and its been going on for at 18 months.

Its not constant and things ebb and flow but the differences are noticeable over time.

I've been trotting about two towns this morning trying to get cold and flu remedies for the family who all seem to have the flu like illness I'm just getting better from, some creamy cat treats, cat soups, and various veg including tomatoes and broccoli.

Two Boots, Two Lidls, Two Sainsburys, a Waitrose, and a Wilko, gaps everywhere and I've come home without half my list again.

I didn't want to be away too long so I shall have to try Tesco, Morrisons and perhaps even Asda this afternoon.

At least in Communist Russia you could queue up for your basic items.

Honestly, had there ever been a time when you consistently couldn't get tomatoes? Or Broccoli?

It's driving me crackers.

Re meds your local spar, co-op, newsagents. I suspect because the media have squawked about shortages med wise people have cleared the shelves and now have a decade supply of lemsip, cough medicine, etc. It's annoying

I've just done Coop, One Stop abd Savers.

I got cough sweets in Savers.

Forget supermarkets the locusts have been and gone.

Ireland are struggling too with a shortage of 200 medicines including coughs and colds as reported in the Journal today:

www.thejournal.ie/shortage-of-medicines-in-ireland-5964157-Jan2023/

Think people are stock piling stuff - anyone remember the toilet roll debacle at the start of covid 😀

This is not about stockpiling. Fresh things are in the shortest supply.

I've just been clucking in Morrisons with several other women about the empty shelves in Boots and the last time any of us saw broccoli 🥦 No tomatoes 🍅 there either.

Is this really going to take my whole day?

Tesco next. If I draw a blank there I'll have to drive two towns over to Asda FGS.

We use a farm shop who go to the big fresh markets in Liverpool, Manchester as well as local suppliers. That long cold snap froze the ground and the growing vegetables. Your potatoes, carrots actually froze then when harvested, rotted fast. The sprouts on the other hand loved it.

Fish have you seen the weather out there, that's been a huge challenge. Chicken, we're importing 40% so it's dearer.

Ukraine the bread basket of Europe. Their crops are reduced

@verdantverdure - you covered it off well. It's multitude of things but Brexit underpins a great deal of it. Eggs and chicken are a very specific non Brexit reason as is anything relating to Jacobs (strikes) . It's customs, staffing shortages across many sectors, some sectors making cuts to try and keep costs lower due to huge energy hikes. I'm afraid a lot of people simply didn't realise how integrated a lot of the food and goods sector was with the EU nor how many young , fit and working people from the EU would bugger off due to having to jump through hoops and being made to feel unwelcome. Still the visa processing centre set up in the business centre I work in has been full for the last month of families from Asia and Africa and Phillipines-and doesn't seem like all high skilled professionals either - so we are still getting immigration- but it's being hush hushed and it's all rather pointless for no gain - easily predicted!!

@Testina I work in the area too and don't won't to post as its too outing. 😂
Yes I do agree fully with you (Supermarket's tight specifications being now flexible to meet new customer demands ie. Sustainability), which impacts in biofuels industry etc
However, why this is not happening in EU memeber states? (As you know the above changes are global).

Agree. Although j went to Aldi this morning and got everything I needed. They were stacking so I guess they'd had deliveries this morning!

I find it's quite random things, for the last few weeks I've had to go to two supermarkets to get my shopping. Nothing out of the ordinary but for example Morrison's last week had no mushrooms or broccoli at all. I wasn't even being fussy about a type of mushroom they did not have a single one.

I have family in the Netherlands, where I visit regularly, and they have one of the highest levels of inflation in Europe alongside the UK.

What they don't have are the gaps in supermarket shelves like we have. I've never had to shop around like I have over the last year or two in the UK. Not to find the best prices, but to find stock. It never used to be like this.

I can remember having to go to two shops if I was looking for something exotic as often the amounts supermarkets kept were very low.
I have never had to go to multiple supermarkets in the past to get as such ordinary supplies as bread, eggs, broccoli, pears or chicken.

I take it you are in Bradford @BradfordGirl and that's where the shortages are?

I'm just outside of Nottingham and Tesco was stocked well. I got fresh broccoli, aspargus, carrots, cauli, cabbage, mushrooms, leeks (I'm on health kick after my xmas binge ). Also got small oranges, grapes and bananas. There were strawberries but I dont like winter ones. Didnt look for pears as I hate them. Loads of bread and cobs and uncooked chicken.

I admit that the orange section had been ravaged and there was a couple of bare crates but still had a stock.

My Tesco is a big superstore if that makes a difference, but I also have a Sainsbury superstore on my doorstep and a big Asda and they had fruit and veg and bread as DH pops in while he's out on his lunch.

Tesco have no tinned potatoes and I always like those. They've not had any for 4 weeks - but they did the same thing in 2018 and I thought they'd gone from the shelves for good and it took 5 months for them to come back. It is annoying when they take things away with no rhyme or reason.

Eggs - a month ago Tesco had none and they were putting in restrictions, but fully stocked now and it was the same in Sainsbury's near me. My friend tells me Aldi are always short stocked of eggs. Could the bird flu be the issue? Although I read on BBC that the chicken food came from Ukraine and it's costing more to buy and farmers are annoyed that supermarkets wont take this increase into account.

One thing I will complain about is the price of everything these days.

The egg shortages aren't all to do with Avian Flu. They're to do with the fact that suppliers haven't raised prices for farmers so they haven't restocked. The industry were warning of this in the spring of last year.

Granted Avian Flu hasn't helped but there are some fixes that could help. Eg farmers now cannot insure easily for Avian Flu. Thats a humongous risk to take as a business.