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The global shipping crisis we’ve been hearing about for months seems to be coming to a head–just in time for holiday shopping season. Even America’s largest retail chains are finding it difficult to keep items in stock, despite companies like Home Depot, Costco and Walmart chartering their own ships to transport goods. Customers and employees are already reporting empty shelves and low inventory on key food and home items in-store.
A website called “Taste Of Home” recently asked its Facebook followers to chime in with which items they are finding difficult to locate in stores right now. “The food shortage is beginning to hit closer to home. Walmart shelves were empty of a lot of items,” user @MalakManatazach reported on the thread. Yikes!
Customers took to similar Facebook pages, as well as Reddit threads, to bemoan the Walmart shortages, Eat This reports. Reddit user @RVFullTime who says they they are a cashier at a Walmart in Alabama described several grocery shortages. “Last night our shelves were almost bare,” they warned.
In all social posts, 5 key items sold in Walmart stores were identified as being low in stock at specific locations: chicken, pork, beef, juice and certain snacks.
Of the chicken, a Reddit user that says they are a Walmart employee wrote that "chicken and beef are getting wipes out" at their Massachusetts store. It seems that shipping schedules are inconsistent, at best. There was "a massive delivery Saturday and then no truck the past two days." They reported.
For beef and pork, the story is quite similar: People are trying to stock up on both for holiday cooking, but finding higher prices and lower inventories. This is a bad combination. In case you missed it, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data says that pork had "the largest relative price increase" in 2021 over 2020 over all other food items.
Although juice doesn't seem like an *essential* item (you should be drinking water anyways, Walmart customers have reported on Reddit that the grocery section has a notably lower supply of apple juice, lime juice, juice boxes and more. "We've been short on a lot of juices…for a week or longer now," they commented. And the same has been reported for snacks. Good luck out there, shoppers!
