In the early days of the pandemic, most of us were left without toilet paper, hand soap, and hand sanitizer, unless we were Costco types who were already stockpiling for the Great Tribulation. I don’t know about you, but the scariest moments of the past year for me were the empty aisles at the grocery store. No meat, no dairy, no pasta, no potatoes. All I could think of was my grandparents during WW2 rationing.
Less traumatizing, more annoying has been the new normal of not being able to buy products that used to be readily available. Blame it on Covid, storms in Texas, raw material shortages, or trucking and distribution delays, but here are items that I was desperate for:
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| This is the only junk food my husband and I are addicted to and we couldn’t find them anywhere for about 3 months. No, we didn’t want the plain Scoops, which taste like crispy cardboard. They must be multigrain! I had to laugh when I went on Frito Lay’s Facebook page to complain like a Karen; the nation was behind me! Frito Lay claimed they had to streamline their products and shut down production of certain lines. Since they’ve been back in stores, it’s the one thing I hoard! |
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| This one confused me; why are people hoarding distilled water? I just needed one bottle for my iron and steam mop, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I think a fellow blogger told me that people need it for CPAP machines, which explained the fear of running out for some folks. |
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Apparently, Middle Child and I weren't the only ones amusing ourselves with cheap jigsaw puzzles. I can usually find ones like this for $2-3 at my local discount outlet store, but they were scarce for quite a while. Even the expensive ones were out of stock until last fall. I have a few backups now, just in case!
In the midst of lockdown, our toaster broke. I really didn't want to buy one online without checking the quality, so I went to Target and Walmart to check some out. While they had plenty of display models on the shelf, there were NO toasters in stock underneath. NONE! I still can't understand that one. I had to resort to Amazon and even though I bought the one with the best reviews, it sucks. Burns the toast on any setting above 3 (and there are 7 settings).
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| I guess this falls into the category of cleaning products that were no longer being made so that SCJohnson could focus on sanitizer?? I'm sort of picky about bathroom cleaners (I don't like liquid sprays; it must be foam and not that ridiculous purple Kaboom foam). After an entire year of not finding it in stores, I finally found this online at Target last week. And there was much rejoicing! |
What have you had trouble finding since Covid?
But if you try sometime you just might find you get what you need... Okay, I had to finish the refrain of the 'Stones' tune. I struggled to find and paid an outrageous amount from canning lids for my pickles and saurkraut that came from my garden! Not only were some things hard to find (like gallon jars of vinegar), it was odd how expensive some things were (while gas was cheap and we couldn't go anywhere).
ReplyDeleteHttps://fromarockyhillside.com
I enjoy using lyrics for my post titles sometimes. Wow, I don’t remember not being able to find vinegar, but since it’s popular in homemade cleaning solutions, I can see where people would have hoarded it.
DeleteMe too, I had the same fear in the early days of the pandemic, empty aisles at the grocery store -- no food!
ReplyDeleteOkay, and it's so funny you listed Tostitos scoops because I LOVE them too! I dip them in hummus, avocado, tabouli, I've even dipped them into bruschetta!
Aren't puzzles fun? I haven't done one in a while, but there was a time when I did them frequently. I know this may sound strange, but for me, putting a puzzle together is very relaxing and calming -- almost meditative.
I've used Scrubbing Bubbles as well, and loved it. I now use something from the Trader Joe's cleaning products. It doesn't bubble, but it cleans well and smells great. I also use their dish soap. And I started using their products at the start of the pandemic because I would just pick them up whenever I was shopping for food, rather than go from store to store to pick up different things.
I really haven't had trouble finding anything at the store over the past several months. The stores here seem to be fully stocked.
FUN post, my friend! Have a great week! X
The multigrain scoops with hummus are the BEST! I could eat that everyday, but I limit myself! LOL! And yes, Middle Child and I find the puzzles to be very relaxing. It’s a fun activity to do together. I’ve never tried any TJ cleaning or beauty products but a friend of mine raves about them. I’m glad your stores are fully stocked again. I’m still seeing some bare shelves here and products that still haven’t come back. Enjoy your week!
DeleteClausen pickles; accept no imitations, they're just the best. For whatever reason, we've only been able to find them sporadically, and then usually at Sam's in the Institutional size.
ReplyDeleteThe weird thing to me has been the sporadic, now-you-see-it-now-you-don't nature of the shortages. I shop for a shut-in lady, and she's a little fussy about some of her tastes - certain brands, but not others. So, sometimes I'll find her favorite Black Forest Ham, but the space for the brand she wants is empty, but there will be all sorts of stuff in the preferred brand, just not Black Forest Ham. Or the pasta shelves will be well-stocked, except for a completely empty shelf for the one particular type she wants.
It reminds me of the scene from 'Moscow On the Hudson', where the Robin Williams character wants to buy coffee, and is presented with hundreds of choices, while he flashes back to a vacant shelf in 'Old Country' with a single package of generic Koffee. . .
So interesting, Craig. Yes! It’s been really strange how some products came back and some never did. I find that as I get older, I’ve become more fussy about brands, just like the lady you shop for. We used to love our store brand mango salsa but I’m afraid it’s never returning, even though there’s plenty of the spicy flavors. Lol, yes we’re living the reverse of that movie scene.
DeleteI don't know if this has to do with Covid - but anytime I really start liking a product - use it a couple years - you can count on it being discontinued!
DeleteMe too! My kids have made a joke out of it - "Oh no! Dad likes it - it's doomed!" Over the years, I've had a favorite deodorant and aftershave disappear from the market once I've used them for a couple years. I used to love Raisin Mini-Wheats - shredded wheat with a raisin filling - and in due course, it too disappeared. Lately, it's dry hard ciders; I can still find dry ciders, but every time I settle on a brand, it goes out of production. . .
DeleteYes, we’ve had the same issues. My kids still complain about favorite childhood food that disappeared, like toaster pastries.
DeleteWell, I relax sometimes with some target practice but live too close to the neighbors for gun powder. Consequently I use a pellet pistol and pellet rifle and would you believe them pellets were unavailable for months, then available only via back-order wait? And even now some places are rationing, only allowing purchase of a couple tins at a time. And forget trying to locate a simple target!
ReplyDeleteSneakers and shoes. I have shortish widish feets that only certain brands properly honor and my old sneakers are thread-bare but the 'models' that fit these flippers have all been AWOL for over a year now until just this week and then only by mail-order. Wish me luck that they actually fit!! It's not quite sandal season and definitely not yet barefoot in the park.
Yeah, the water thing. There are a number of health related thingys that really want distilled water, including my big 'ole CPAP contraption.
Wide shoes are a nightmare. Middle Child and husband both have a difficult time finding any. Hubby stockpiles the same dress shoes, for fear that they’ll quit being available. Good to see you!
DeleteLima beans! Is there a shortage or just stopped selling them because I am the only one that eats them?
ReplyDeleteYou have to be the only one eating them!
DeleteLast year we had a real shortage of flour but now it's fine, in fact I can't think of anything that's hard to get at the moment. If there is, it's more likely due to Brexit than the pandemic.
ReplyDeleteI've been selling used jigsaws on ebay for really good money! I think that's about to change as the lockdown is easing though.
Flour would be a tough one if you do any sort of baking. I remember you mentioning about selling on eBay. Nice way to make a little cash to buy more!
DeleteDistilled water was frustrating as I use it for my CPAP. I also was a little worried when I couldn't find rice or beer in cans. We are also dealing with a lumber shortage. Other than that, we are doing OK.
DeleteYou might have been the one to tell me why I couldn’t find the distilled water. Yes, I remember there being a run on rice, but beer in cans? I feel as though we had no issue here, but there are like a hundred craft breweries in our state.
DeleteTo answer your last question, my answer would be "sanity" but then I am a bit jaded :) Hubby was relentless to find the items he thought we needed but I think the most elusive thing he wanted was a thermometer. Couldn't find one anywhere. Finally ordered one on line that I think came from China, LOL, because it took WEEKS to arrive through Amazon.
ReplyDeleteHere I noticed the yarn shelves and fabric shelves were completely wiped out at Wal-Mart. I'm thinking people doing crafts during the lockdown?
I got to look to see if our store carries those chips. They look deadly!
Here's a link to my new blog if you are interested; no obligations to follow along :)
https://winslowscornerofarizona.blogspot.com/
betty
Yeah! I’m so happy you are back to blogging again! I will be there! Yes, people did go insane, but I’m used to it. We have issues every time a snowstorm is predicted here. I heard about the thermometer problem. I’m sure we still have a few from when the kids were little, but I’ve honestly never thought they were important. You’re either sick or you’re not! lol
DeleteWe haven't had much trouble finding what we needed during the pandemic. When the first lockdown started last March there were lots of things missing for a while - pasta, rice, tinned chopped tomatoes, various tinned vegetables. But after the next lockdown started in December there was plenty of stock of all the things we needed, mainly because people weren't panicking and stockpiling any more but just buying their usual weekly shop.
ReplyDeleteThat’s good that people didn’t go crazy the second time around. I do remember the empty canned goods shelves. It’s funny because I never had trouble buying fresh fruits and veggies, which is my go to anyway. I tried to make them last the two weeks between shopping trips during the height of the pandemic last year.
DeleteThis made me giggle. We've been pretty lucky and haven't really had any issues finding what we like to use. We did have to switch to Method brand cleaning products instead of Ever Spring, but we typically switched between the two so we don't really feel it. I'm one of those Costco shoppers because we use an excessive amount of paper towels. Like, really excessive!
ReplyDeleteThat’s funny because we don’t use paper towels (no little ones!) but I did have problems finding paper napkins for awhile. I got the last pack at a drugstore from the top shelf. I stood on the bottom shelf and used a bundle pack of Kleenex to push the napkins towards me! Lol, would have made a great viral video!
DeleteThis is interesting, Bijoux. I am very lucky in that I didn't experience any shortages during the pandemic--except maybe once when my supermarket's meat section looked a little skimpy. But that didn't last long.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I bought a huge packet of toilet paper after hearing all these horror stories, but we didn't see the predicted shortage.
But now I'm really worried because I'm reading about a shortage of garden gnomes due to that cargo ship being stuck in Suez Canal--oh, no!
Take care!
Lol, what? Are you pulling my leg on the gnomes? And I can’t believe that a populated place like Brooklyn didn’t see a lot of shortages! I guess you never know what goes on in the world of grocery retail.
DeleteOh, the gnome shortage is for real!
Deletehttps://www.npr.org/2021/04/19/988659317/uk-sees-garden-gnome-shortage-after-suez-canal-incident
How bizarre!
DeleteWhen the pandemic first started and I wanted to make my Easter bread i couldn't find yeast anywhere! I went to just about every store around here and a few not so close and no one had it. My husband finally got me some when he just happened to be in the store when they were stocking it! I had bought a huge pack of tp right before so were ok until the shelves were stocked again. Of course, there was no paper towel to be found so I bought napkins every time I saw them! I think I finally just used up the last of those! Other than that we don't have any problems finding things we like.
ReplyDeleteI did hear that lots of people were baking, so yeast was scarce. I had problems finding paper napkins, but I rarely use paper towels, so I had opposite issue. Glad things are trending back to normal again.
DeleteFor awhile, I noticed that toilet bowl cleaning products could not be found in any of the 2 grocery stores we frequent. Luckily, I had a couple bottles and then found it in the Dollar Store, but of course, it wasn’t the same as the name brands. I wondered if people were cleaning their toilet bowls more often in the pandemic. It made no sense to me. Lately, I have noticed more product on store shelves.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like most every cleaning product was hard to find for quite a while. I remember seeing empty shelves for dishwasher detergents, too. Unsure why!
DeleteDried black beans. I found them in a can in abundance, but I don't like canned beans unless I'm making chili. I use them in a lot of my vegetarian dishes, so I was pretty pissed when I couldn't find them for months on end and had to use the canned (I know, first world problems). I also like Scrubbing Bubbles, but I use the spray, not the foam. The spray was hard to find until a few months ago. I like The Works toilet bowl cleaner because it's cheap and works really well. I still can't find it here though, so I have to pay almost $4 for Lysol Toilet Bowl. I think everything else we use has been back on the shelves for awhile, thankfully.
ReplyDeletePeople were definitely stocking up on dry goods. We did not have canned beans, soups, or canned fruit in stores for about 6 weeks. It was also shocking to see pasta sauce gone because it seems as though there’s an abundance of brands, etc. It’s annoying when you can’t find your regular cleaning products.
DeleteI had no trouble finding anything which was really weird. But the Marianna's Mexican Market right next door to me was fully stocked the entire time.
ReplyDeleteWow! That’s shocking that a small retailer like that was fully stocked!
DeleteHa! I went shopping yesterday, and found Clausen pickles, distilled water, and Tostitos Multi-grain in abundance on the shelves. Obviously, your humble blog carries great clout in the marketplace. . . ;)
ReplyDeleteHahaha! We never know who’s reading!
DeleteI still remember the loo roll panic here in the UK. :-)
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.
It was a panic here in the States as well.
DeleteThe latest shortage I've found is cat food. It was never low until the last few weeks. Why could there possibly be a cat food shortage? Oh and by the way, Dollar Tree has an off brand of Scrubbing Bubbles, that's what I've been using and it seems to work just as well from what I can tell.
ReplyDeleteWelcome! I don’t have any pets, so I haven’t gone down that aisle, but how strange to have that shortage now. I did try an off brand and it worked fine, but I couldn’t handle the scent. I’m super picky when it comes to that.
DeleteWeirdly, tofu was really scare for a while when the pandemic hit. I wouldn't have thought there were even enough tofu eaters in this area to cause a shortage. I haven't even heard of multigrain scoops but now I am going to have to try them because they sounds good. My husband did virtually all the grocery shopping for a year, so I'm not even aware of most of the shortages.
ReplyDeleteMy husband uses the same cleaner as you, but I've switched over to a Dawn/baking soda mix or vinegar, to avoid the chemicals. So no real problems finding any of that.
That is strange about the tofu! Generally, the healthy stuff seemed to be on the shelves...LOL! Be careful with the multigrain scoops and hummus.....addictive!!!
DeleteI was having trouble finding Clorox wipes but I had a friend with a Sam's Club account pick me up some. Otherwise I didn't have any issues.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t see wipes for a long time, along with most cleaning products and hand sanitizers.
DeleteSome things were in short supply here in the UK at the beginning of the year, due to Brexit, but I was able to find most things I needed.
ReplyDeleteThat’s good to hear!
DeleteI think same worries happened all around the world. Here in Turkey, early days of the outbreak, i was having trouble finding Cleaning products.
ReplyDeleteCleaning products seemed to disappear everywhere.
DeleteIt seems like companies always discontinue the products I like. I think it comes from having weird taste and not liking the chocolate version of anything. Other than the obvious, toilet paper, hand soap, etc., pate cat food has been much harder to find, and more expensive. Five out of the six cats are perfectly happy with shreds or grilled, but the sixth will ONLY eat pate, and raises hell if we try to give him anything else. Royal Cannin brand pet food, especially prescription/specialty diets has been extremely hard to find. We finally switched our dog to another brand due to supply issues. I don't know if they're blaming COVID, but I was devastated to learn that Hershey's has discontinued their Gold bars, etc. Those are so good!!! I was able to find some on Amazon, so we have a little stash, and were able to give our neighbors some for Christmas. We really like those neighbors!
ReplyDeleteLately, it's gas shortages, largely from people panic buying that are causing the issues for us.
I had no idea about pet food shortages. Ugh. And I had to google Hershey’s Gold bars. We never even had them here! They look good, though. Glad you bought some on Amazon.
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