Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

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Ramjet
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by Ramjet »

My wife is having a hard time finding spices
InMyDreams
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by InMyDreams »

EnjoyIt wrote: Fri Nov 20, 2020 10:35 am Weights. It is impossible to find good gym equipment these days. Everywhere is sold out, and if it isn't, there is a 2x-3x markup.
I should sell my extra hand weights...
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by stoptothink »

InMyDreams wrote: Fri Nov 20, 2020 8:36 pm
EnjoyIt wrote: Fri Nov 20, 2020 10:35 am Weights. It is impossible to find good gym equipment these days. Everywhere is sold out, and if it isn't, there is a 2x-3x markup.
I should sell my extra hand weights...
Both my brothers, several neighbors, and a handful of friends have inquired about the contents of my garage gym since I found out I have a broken back and won't be able to lift much of anything for 6+ months.
just_cruisin
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by just_cruisin »

Used golf carts
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by Alan S. »

jcar wrote: Wed Oct 21, 2020 9:21 pm I ordered a new gas range on line in late March. They had no availability until September. They honored the March price which was great as this range went up 300.00 between order and delivery.
And appliance repair parts are hard to get. Been waiting for a control panel for a Jenn Air downdraft for 6 weeks now. The supplier cannot even get an accurate date from the manufacturer, and their CSRs are just providing bogus ETA times when they have no idea. It's about time to find a new name for customer "service".
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by HomeStretch »

Ramjet wrote: Fri Nov 20, 2020 10:53 am My wife is having a hard time finding spices
Check out Penzeys.com. Wonderful quality. Shipping lead time is a bit slower during the pandemic.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by radiokurt »

Alan S. wrote: Fri Nov 20, 2020 9:03 pm
jcar wrote: Wed Oct 21, 2020 9:21 pm I ordered a new gas range on line in late March. They had no availability until September. They honored the March price which was great as this range went up 300.00 between order and delivery.
And appliance repair parts are hard to get. Been waiting for a control panel for a Jenn Air downdraft for 6 weeks now. The supplier cannot even get an accurate date from the manufacturer, and their CSRs are just providing bogus ETA times when they have no idea. It's about time to find a new name for customer "service".
I work in supply chain and some US manufacturers are having trouble with absenteeism, plant closures, etc. Asian manufacturers seem to be coming out of it, but some stocks are wiped and it will take time to build back up.

Not sure what part number you're looking for, but it looks like some places have stock.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by radiokurt »

Ramjet wrote: Fri Nov 20, 2020 10:53 am My wife is having a hard time finding spices
Penzeys, Amazon, Ebay are good sources.
MadHungarian
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by MadHungarian »

Woo hoo!
Went to local Costco today, and they actually had the good old Kirkland-brand nitril gloves back in stock!!!! Didn't have a ton of them and they certainly weren't overly visible, but there they were! I really thought those things were gone forever. They were my favorite gloves. I was practically dancing in the store there.
$30, limit 1 twin-box package (400 gloves). I think the old pre-Covid price had been $20.

I felt like Robin Williams there in "Moscow On The Hudson" when he came back from a Moscow queue having found four rolls of toilet paper in his socialist paradise! (Oh wait, that's cutting a little too close to home these days in our covid world...)
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by iamlucky13 »

Another addition to the thread I encountered today.

$100 bills.

I made a large cash withdrawal today for a private party used car purchase. They said they had to issue a significant portion of it in $50 bills because the stimulus funds have led to a large number of people making large withdrawals to spend the money, resulting in a somewhat limited supply of $100 bills.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by willthrill81 »

Many bottle jacks are out of stock right now. I suppose that many are made in China.
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JoMoney
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by JoMoney »

willthrill81 wrote: Wed Mar 24, 2021 9:47 am Many bottle jacks are out of stock right now. I suppose that many are made in China.
My local 'Harbor Freight' has them, and the one's they're selling are almost certainly all made in China.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by willthrill81 »

JoMoney wrote: Wed Mar 24, 2021 9:57 am
willthrill81 wrote: Wed Mar 24, 2021 9:47 am Many bottle jacks are out of stock right now. I suppose that many are made in China.
My local 'Harbor Freight' has them, and the one's they're selling are almost certainly all made in China.
Our local HF has some, but many are out of stock. They actually have pretty thin stock on a number of items.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by abuss368 »

Toilet paper!

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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by Elsebet »

abuss368 wrote: Wed Mar 24, 2021 10:25 am Toilet paper!

Tony
What area are you in? We are in NW PA and every area store I visit (even Costco) has tons. Our Wegman's even put them out front in the lobby they have so much stock.

I have not had too much trouble finding items, but it is hard to get a doctor or veterinarian appointment right now as a new patient.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by abuss368 »

Elsebet wrote: Wed Mar 24, 2021 1:27 pm
abuss368 wrote: Wed Mar 24, 2021 10:25 am Toilet paper!

Tony
What area are you in? We are in NW PA and every area store I visit (even Costco) has tons. Our Wegman's even put them out front in the lobby they have so much stock.

I have not had too much trouble finding items, but it is hard to get a doctor or veterinarian appointment right now as a new patient.
It is plenty now! Along with hand sanitizer!

Tony
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by iamlucky13 »

abuss368 wrote: Wed Mar 24, 2021 10:25 am Toilet paper!

Tony
Yes, I already mentioned $100 bills just a few posts up.

/ Jeff Bezos humor :twisted: :moneybag
HomeStretch
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by HomeStretch »

Availability is not a concern but I have noticed some changes that seem to be permanent:
- our usual local grocery store is carrying fewer products so trying to find alternate sources for a few favorite brands.
- Some items that I was able to have delivered from Walmart.com during the pandemic are now only available in-store.
- grocery sale items are out of stock very quickly. Not sure if stores are stocking less or people are keeping their homes better stocked.

The grocery store crews doing shopping for curbside pickup and home delivery at 3 local chain stores have greatly increased. The services were overwhelmed and shut down during the height of the pandemic.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by InMyDreams »

Warning: Zombie Thread. Revived already once this year.

OK, the light cream thread made me reminiscent about this thread.

I've noticed bare shelf space recently. By no means everything (and not water!) and presumably a supply chain issue.

But. I have family in town this weekend. Earlier this week I thought - oh, yeah, I should get some of those home test kits, then we can all be more relaxed around each other.

Too late - I got one box (2 kits). I have two visiting households (3 peeps), Friday thru Wednesday. Fortunately the visitors rented an airBnB apartment. I'm letting them decide how to use the kits.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by Shady »

I’ll add to the revival of this thread. I came home to essentially a pallet of rice cakes last week. My wife informed me there’s a nation wide shortage and she panic bought them. I never eat them but she likes them to bring to work. I guess the Quaker brand is non existent and all that was available online was an off brand. Who would have predicted a rice cake shortage?
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

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I removed an off-topic post regarding relationship issues.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by chazas »

Electronics. I was supposed to have backyard speakers installed this year. Unfortunately I dithered picking equipment until May. Speakers were backordered until now, the Sonos Port is backordered until November.

Fresh Step crystal cat litter. Out of stock locally and on Chewy, very high prices on Amazon. So far Target has had it for delivery (but not in store), fingers crossed.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by EnjoyIt »

chazas wrote: Sat Sep 04, 2021 7:36 am Electronics. I was supposed to have backyard speakers installed this year. Unfortunately I dithered picking equipment until May. Speakers were backordered until now, the Sonos Port is backordered until November.

Fresh Step crystal cat litter. Out of stock locally and on Chewy, very high prices on Amazon. So far Target has had it for delivery (but not in store), fingers crossed.
I had an extra Sonos amp I did not need. Sonos is selling them new for $650 with a delivery date of Nov. I sold mine on eBay for about $900.
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heartwood
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by heartwood »

Charmin toilet paper again!

WSJ story this past week: Americans Are Stocking Up on Toilet Paper Again
https://www.wsj.com/articles/americans- ... 1630431042

Oddly enough we were at Costco yesterday. They're running a promotion on P&G products, buy $100 worth after discounts, and get a $25 Shop Card in the mail.

Plenty of everything at Costco except Charmin. Lots of Bounty, Cascade and other P&G. No Charmin. Plenty of the Kirkland brand TP.

I hate stories like the WSJ one. It just gets people to buy more than they need (FOMO!) exacerbating any shortage or creating one.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by ResearchMed »

heartwood wrote: Sat Sep 04, 2021 8:34 am Charmin toilet paper again!

WSJ story this past week: Americans Are Stocking Up on Toilet Paper Again
https://www.wsj.com/articles/americans- ... 1630431042

Oddly enough we were at Costco yesterday. They're running a promotion on P&G products, buy $100 worth after discounts, and get a $25 Shop Card in the mail.

Plenty of everything at Costco except Charmin. Lots of Bounty, Cascade and other P&G. No Charmin. Plenty of the Kirkland brand TP.

I hate stories like the WSJ one. It just gets people to buy more than they need (FOMO!) exacerbating any shortage or creating one.
We've started noticing similarities to Spring, 2020.
Things like 6-packs of Diet Coke... several stores can be out, and not just for one day. It seems to be recurring.
Kleenex in boxes; only the packages of the little pocket packs are sometimes available.

And Cheerios are hit or miss. Sometimes there's one size box; other times, there are none to be had. This also happened earlier this year, but I don't remember it happening during that Spring, 2020 craziness.
(Yes, I contributed to some of thatcraziness :oops: )

There are also just various unpredictable empty shelves. Our Instacart shopper will sometimes send us photos of empty shelves where "the item of interest" should have been.
However, it's hard for me to make a real comparison to, say, 2019, because back then, we weren't using Instcart, so we'd see it all firsthand. Or not see some of it...

However, Clorox wipes and such... those seem to be readily available now... now that we recognize how airborne things are.

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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by rich126 »

Some things do seem to be out of stock frequently. Due to a couple of moves over the last few years we had a lot of stuff in boxes and still have a bunch in boxes but we seemed to accumulate a ton of paper products so we have enough to last a very long time. And it wasn't asif we tried hoard or stock up last year.

Although I managed to get one in a couple of days finding a reasonable price laser printer was harder that expected. Paid $130 and my guess is that was probably $20+ more than older prices.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by chazas »

EnjoyIt wrote: Sat Sep 04, 2021 8:13 am
chazas wrote: Sat Sep 04, 2021 7:36 am Electronics. I was supposed to have backyard speakers installed this year. Unfortunately I dithered picking equipment until May. Speakers were backordered until now, the Sonos Port is backordered until November.

Fresh Step crystal cat litter. Out of stock locally and on Chewy, very high prices on Amazon. So far Target has had it for delivery (but not in store), fingers crossed.
I had an extra Sonos amp I did not need. Sonos is selling them new for $650 with a delivery date of Nov. I sold mine on eBay for about $900.
I have the amp which was ordered for a previous configuration that didn't work out, the installer is giving me credit and taking it back. Supposedly doesn't work well with outdoor satellite/sub configurations.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by tim1999 »

Not so much a shortage, but I've noticed that several niche brands of clothing that I like that usually have online 4th of July, Labor Day, mid-year, etc. sales with 25-50% discounts have had none of these sales this year and have been selling almost everything for full price all year long. There was one post-Holiday sale in January, I'm glad I caught it the day it started because most of the sale stuff was gone a couple days later.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by TomatoTomahto »

Admission time: I enjoy a sandwich made with Hebrew National sliced salami. No other salami, including Hebrew National unsliced, works for me. I have not been able to purchase this for months. Probably better off :D
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by jlawrence01 »

Lately, a restaurant that has an open dining room past 6 pm.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by likegarden »

Every 5 days or so I go grocery shopping at Walmart and notice that certain items at times are not available. I asked one of the persons filling shelves how come some items are not there. He helped me to find bags of prunes, then said Copid virus or fear of it keeps workers at the suppliers at home. (possibly keeps Walmart's workers also home) Today I only could find one bottle of Tide 37 fl.oz. detergent. Certain cereals and one brand of 1% and 2% milk were not available. We have to do a little stock piling of items, but for milk that is switching brands.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by samsoes »

heartwood wrote: Sat Sep 04, 2021 8:34 am Charmin toilet paper again!

WSJ story this past week: Americans Are Stocking Up on Toilet Paper Again
https://www.wsj.com/articles/americans- ... 1630431042

...

I hate stories like the WSJ one. It just gets people to buy more than they need (FOMO!) exacerbating any shortage or creating one.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by pahkcah »

I shop at local Walmart to buy sugar free Gatorade. Shelves have been wiped out for past few weeks. I figure back-to-school shopping. Unfortunately (at least near where I live), sugar free Gatorade at BJ's and Costco only comes in variety packs with cherry. I can no longer consume cherry Gatorade since last colonoscopy, as medical providers recommended mixing the prep stuff with clear or white Gatorade, and I chose cherry because it is white. :(
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by SnowBog »

At a local ice cream store, they had a sign apologizing on their limited options. It went onto say that one supplier was only making 40 vs. their normal 200 variations, and they were unable to get any from another supplier for 2+ months.

Both were noted specifically as issues with labor shortage. (The first clearly in the plant, the second wasn't clear of they weren't making any or weren't making enough to supply to this small store or their distribution couldn't deliver to this small store.)
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by 02nz »

Maybe this one isn't all that strange, but it still surprised me: At Trader Joe's yesterday, they had no paper bags at checkout. Cashier said they've been out for a couple of weeks.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by Mr. Rumples »

For three + weeks, none of the Kroger's I go to have had much in their line of frozen vegetables. Have switched to Walmart. On the other hand, Walmart is out of their brand of Coca-Cola style cola for a month and the olive oil selection is limited, but Kroger has their's without a problem.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by hmw »

I usually buy Juicy Juice Apple juice that comes in small tetra pak for my kid's school lunch. I have not been able to find any at the local grocery chain for the last 3 weeks, or at Target.
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hmw wrote: Mon Sep 27, 2021 10:11 pm I usually buy Juicy Juice Apple juice that comes in small tetra pak for my kid's school lunch. I have not been able to find any at the local grocery chain for the last 3 weeks, or at Target.
This is real. I have no kids, and these didn't exist when I was a kid so I've never even tried one, yet I noticed the shortage last weekend when I was in the soft drink isle at a local Food Lion (Delhaize/Giant/Hannaford). The reason I noticed was there were just "holes" in the shelves behind me. It was the juice side of the isle, and there was juice available, it is just that it was in large bottles only. It piqued my interest so I did a search and found this: https://www.mother.ly/life/news/news-tr ... e-shortage

I'm guessing now that there have been spot shortages, the typical TP-effect occurred and parents everywhere are sucking them up when available.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by heartwood »

Various sausages: weisswurst, bockwurst, knackwurst and similar. Plus what I can find is very short dated (or at one store today, 3 weeks past date but still in the cooler.) I'm talking Shaller & Weber and also store brands at major markets.

I tried 3 stores today and found only weisswurst. Bratwurst is available. Maybe Oktoberfest!

The short dating seems to be coming to many items we buy. So either not available, or or iffy beyond a few days to a week.

Regular half and half, sour cream and similar have dates a week from now. The organic varieties are 3 - 5 weeks.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by Rd123123 »

Metamucil! CVS advertises sales for it in their mailers, but my wife says the shelf space where it sits has been empty for months with printed notices that it is unavailable. And yet, Costco has it occasionally. There is a psyllium husk shortage for some reason. COVID truly is a multi-system disease, I just didn't expect how much it would gum up the supply chain of all things!
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by 1moreyr »

Motorcycle tires have been difficult to find for months. I now have a spare set for next year. Yes I know this makes me part of the problem

Liverwurst? What happened to cans of liverwurst? Other than on Amazon at $20/can it can’t be found. Discontinued?????
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by Random Poster »

Chicken broth. Local Sam’s Club has been out of it for a while.

Cotton rounds. Been missing for weeks at Target.

Good and Gather (Target store brand) canned goods. Corn, beans, peas—all missing.

Granite for cemetery headstone. Buried someone a few months ago and the cemetery said at the time that we should get the headstone within 3 months. Now it is looking like a 6 month or longer timeline.

I’m starting to think that consumers are losing patience and confidence in the system, and so when people do find something that they have been looking for after a while, they will buy multiples of it to be safe, leading to more shortages and increasing the lack of frustration and so on.

I’m not looking forward to Thanksgiving shopping at all…
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by UpperNwGuy »

1moreyr wrote: Sat Oct 09, 2021 5:52 am Motorcycle tires have been difficult to find for months. I now have a spare set for next year. Yes I know this makes me part of the problem

Liverwurst? What happened to cans of liverwurst? Other than on Amazon at $20/can it can’t be found. Discontinued?????
It's rarely sold in cans anymore. It's in plastic tubes in the refrigerated deli section.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by Dan999 »

Campbell's chicken noodle soup, available but the cans have way less noodles than before.

Toasted Crackers not in local store for 2 weeks. Available from Amazon or Target at almost $10 per box vs $4 usually. Made by Kelloggs. Strike??

Paper products and cleaning supplies still available. Plenty of Clorox wipes.

Suave aerosol hair spray not in local store, but available at target online.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by Mudpuppy »

My latest difficult to find item is the bread I use, but like a couple others on the thread, I am very particular about my bread and only use one specific brand. I've tried some alternatives, but they don't sit well with my body, so I'm not risking those reactions anymore. I'll make something else for lunch if I can't get the bread.

I have been able to find Charmin toilet paper and Lysol laundry sanitizer with no issues though. And the white-capped Pur water pitcher filters were finally back in stock at Target this weekend, after being out-of-stock for months. Just in time, as it's time to replace the last filter from the package I bought earlier this year.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by TomatoTomahto »

I have not been able to find my wife’s favorite milk: Grassmilk. I also enjoy it frothed and in my coffee; she sometimes drinks it straight up.

Btw, I don’t want to add to the shortage, but it’s a wonderful tasting and frothing milk, so I’d buy some if you drink milk. It froths as well as half and half, but comes from cows that have eaten what nature intended.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by mw1739 »

Both grocery stores we regularly use have been out of Sriracha hot sauce for at least a month.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by Lalamimi »

hmw wrote: Mon Sep 27, 2021 10:11 pm I usually buy Juicy Juice Apple juice that comes in small tetra pak for my kid's school lunch. I have not been able to find any at the local grocery chain for the last 3 weeks, or at Target.
this stuff is made in China, so that's the reason its sitting on a cargo ship.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by EnjoyIt »

Shout stain remover/scrubber.

Can’t even get it online.
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Re: Oddly Difficult to Find Items During the Pandemic

Post by JAZZISCOOL »

pahkcah wrote: Mon Sep 13, 2021 7:26 pm I shop at local Walmart to buy sugar free Gatorade. Shelves have been wiped out for past few weeks. I figure back-to-school shopping. Unfortunately (at least near where I live), sugar free Gatorade at BJ's and Costco only comes in variety packs with cherry. I can no longer consume cherry Gatorade since last colonoscopy, as medical providers recommended mixing the prep stuff with clear or white Gatorade, and I chose cherry because it is white. :(
I'm having a similar issue at the local Kroger store. They're often out of the larger bottles and are stocking my least favorite flavors in the small bottles. But at least I'm forced to try out other flavors and the "blue" flavor which is actually pretty good. :D
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