Shortages in supermarkets and in other shops

If Tesco trimmed back their huge profits they could pay the supplier a fair price , and no shortages

Reading this thread - I've rarely posted on Gransnet - I'm wondering if anyone can help me locate sponge flan cases, which are now impossible to find. It's a complete mystery to me why they seem to have disappeared from supermarkets. Can't recall the last time I saw any, but I used to get them from Asda, Tesco and the Co-op. It's very annoying, as I used to make a quick summer dessert with raspberries or strawberries in a sponge flan case. Great with cream or ice cream. I can still find pastry cases, but they're not as good.

Mallin

Wondered what type of people still shopped at M&S. After seeing the price of M&S face flannels I now know. Daft ones !!
Last year I bought a large white bath towel at a discount store and made 30 face flannels from it. Total cost £7:98 and a couple of evenings sewing in front of the tv.
Made them for a temporary homeless shelter running over Christmas.
Dare you to be able to afford a donation to charity equal to the difference in cost between my 30 home made face flannels and 30 M&S face flannels.

There really is no reason to be rude.
Think yourself fortunate that you can still sew. I can't, due to the arthritis in my hands. Not that I want to make face cloths anyway. You have no idea how much I have done in my life to support homeless people!! A very great deal, as it happens. So, please, don't be so judgemental.

Same here in US… high prices and quality of products is poor!

From Florida, our shelves have some spots that are not full and they run out by the end of the day. There is a limit on cream cheese, prices have risen, especially in meat. Chicken hasn’t been affected. My store brand lactose free milk went up three dollars for half gallon. Aluminum foil $17. A box. Go figure. I don’t know how one feeds a family. I live in Florida. Gasoline over $5 a gallon.

We have a weekly delivery of heavy stuff and items that we use on a regular basis; I also pop into the local Waitrose to buy extra fruit and some salad items a few times a week. I have noticed that Waitrose often don't have any of their own brand goods - just gaps on the shelf. I buy their own brands regularly as they are very good and much cheaper, but they are not to be had now it seems - and this has been the case for months.

Waitrose deliveries seem to have more substitutions than previously.

elleks

I prefer any own brand beans to Heinz. I think they're very overrated.

We prefer Branson Beans to Heinz every time! Our local Tesco Extra does have many gaps on shelves, I only know this from my OH who does the shopping and apparently Tesco are in a pricing dispute with Heinz so they will cease stocking all Heinz products.

I thought our local Lidl had been robbed the other day. So many bare shelves. I was told that there are few staff in the warehouse to process the orders . As for prices - they go up by a minimum of 10p but usually 30p or more per item

Rosalyn69

I have cat food issues. My Lily will only eat Sheba trays and they are as rare as hens teeth at the moment.
Last week I couldn’t get strawberries or blueberries on line.
It varies tremendously. One gets quite good at substitution.

Have you tried Amazon?

I agree about Waitrose . We shop there as it’s the nearest supermarket to us . It’s always been good but for the past month there have definitely been shortages, especially in own brands .

Everything fine in Oxfordshire

ordinarygirl

I thought our local Lidl had been robbed the other day. So many bare shelves. I was told that there are few staff in the warehouse to process the orders . As for prices - they go up by a minimum of 10p but usually 30p or more per item

Indeed. And when a 10p price rise happens on something costing one pound, that's 10% inflation!

Perhaps they will stop issuing copper coins!

I wonder what the inflation rate will be for September 2022, the figure to be used for the State Pension increase in April 2023 (unless wage rises are greater!).

And that won't take into account the predicted huge rise in the energy price cap in October 2022.

We tend to use Lidl, Tesco (previously Waitrose), and Sainsbury’s. No problem if we shop before 4-5 pm except there have been no Tesco coffee filters for months. Plenty of decaf and French coffee filters but not my preferred choice.

Coffee does seem to be one of the problems. Supplies are quite infrequent to my local supermarkets, so I’m building up a (coffee only) stockpile as it’s the one thing neither my son who lives with me or myself are prepared to compromise on, and we prefer different types. Having been caught out in the pandemic we are making sure it doesn’t happen again. Sadly nothing else measures up, I’m happy with Aldi, or preferably Lidl for the vast majority of things, but not coffee, or dog food.

Tesco may have a dispute re. Heinz prices but that's not to help their customers.Tesco can't get the same profit margin they want !!

Our local Lidl had very empty shelve a few weeks ago. It was so bad I asked if they were closing down. The cashier said they were having trouble at the warehouse training new staff in picking shop orders. It seems to have sorted itself out now. There only seem to be occasional short term shortages.

Hit or miss with some products. 4 supermarkets in area found stock problems in all four

Aldi in my area in the East Anglia , had no skimmed milk or semi skimmed at all today.. First time I've ever seen no milk in Aldi.

Mine

Sainsburys wanted £7.50 for a jar of Kenco Coffee.....Its the only coffee my husband likes...He refused to put it in the trolley on Tues said he would just drink tea...I got the same jar in Asda this morning for £5.00...Why can't groceries be the same price in every shop

Have you thought about filling an empty Kenco jar with a cheaper, but similar looking coffee, and seeing if your DH knows the difference?

It’s surprising how we are so often focused on the brand or label that we are blinkered in our perception of the product.

Just be prepared for him being cross if he spots your ploy!

In Tesco this morning there were several empty shelves, but it turned out that they were moving things around and reorganising. Can't imagine why, as it seemed perfectly logical before, and I had to search for some of the things I wanted. I found everything I was looking for in the end.

If the idea is to make you look at new things and be tempted to buy them it didn't work on me (pats self on back in superior fashion) (and then realises that she forgot to put frozen peas on the list. Hey ho).

My cats think I am mad buying Lidl cat food, why would they eat that ? They don’t. I passed it on to my daughter and her cats think the same.

I shopped in person in Asda yesterday, first time since pandemic and having home deliveries. I hated it as it was untidy, gaps in shelves and loads of shelf edge prices missing. I can understand that as prices are changing so rapidly but customers do need to know what things cost particularly as everything is getting more expensive so quickly.

Wheniwasyourage

Yes, when doing my Tesco shop yesterday, everything was in a different place. I was in a hurry as DH had a GP appointment, so just omitted non essentials that I couldn’t find.

I mentioned this at the checkout, I thought it was a) a shortage of products so moving stuff around to mask that or b) a subtle ploy to encourage us to buy more, but the checkout chap said it was government driven, all to do with sugar and salt guidance.



Not sure if that is the reason, but that’s what he said.

(It had created a lot of work for the staff obviously).

Ah, that's interesting, Calendargirl. thank you. I'll have a look next week and see if there is any logical answer to where they have put things with that in mind. However, the only thing that struck me as I wandered cluelessly around was that there seemed to be more chocolate on display than before. Don't think that would go with anyone's health guidelines somehow!

Can't get Brazil nuts anywhere at a price that I can afford. Been out of stock at Lidl for weeks now