Food shortages

Lots of photos circulating of empty supermarket shelves. What’s your experience of shortages? What type of products?

I shop online so haven’t seen empty shelves in my area (Sydney’s Inner West), I order from Woolworths each week. Last 2 orders were almost complete. Some fruit and vegetables missing from last order.

I usually order a box of fruit and vegetables online from separate supplier - they start back at work this week so I guess I’ll find out then how widespread the fruit and veg shortages are.

Toilet paper brand of choice was supplied!

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Woolworths Beerwah SE Qld Thursday.
Nil toilet paper, tissues, paper towel due to supply issues.
Fresh meat shelving sparsely filled.
Frozen vegetables and some other frozen lines shelves sparse or brands out of stock.

No shortages of discretionary products and junk foods.

Hopefully the big supermarket chains have some commonsense. If they are short transport capacity, there is the option to not load Coke, bottled drink products, snacks, chocolates, biscuits, etc. It will save significant space on the trucks that do run to deliver only what is essential.

P.S.
We use a local butcher, F&V, and others who have more direct supply lines to local or not so distant producers. So far no major issues there.

Assume this topic might fit into one of the existing Covid supermarket supply discussions.

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There were lots of things missing from all the sections of the Aldi and Woolworths supermarkets on the southern Gold Coast.

The most notable absence was… toilet paper. Completely cleaned out, if you’ll pardon the pun. That line of shelving was once residence of all the different varieties of toilet paper.

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Haven’t been to the supermarket, but when I did an online shop from Coles (delivery tomorrow) there were many items n/a for cat food, which is a pest when the cat is a fussy eater. I didnt get much for myself but chook thighs are in short supply here, apparently, I could not get the larger quantity I wanted. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that what I did order will still be available when picking and packing happens.

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ALDI at Carlton, NSW, yesterday appeared to be fully stocked. No empty shelf/fridge space noticed. We don’t go near petfood or confectionery though.

We were ready to visit a second supermarket if necessary, but had no issues getting everything we set out to get.

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Have been to Woollies an Coles in Tassie the past two days, and no stripped shelves like those reported elsewhere. Some shelves needed restocking as less than 50% full, which isn’t uncommon. Only products which seem to have limited availability are long life milks, where shelves have been labelled as such.

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Our local situation has not changed much. Sunday afternoon Woolies was still short or empty of the same stock items as,

Bread, fruit and Veg, milk, cheeses and cold goods all seemed to be well stocked as normal. There were no massive lines of customers stocking up with rice or flour or pasta or … anything really. Woolies had notes on the shelves they are having delivery transport issues for restocking.

Mr Banducci said the key problem for Woolworths was getting fresh produce and groceries through its distribution centres and out to stores.
“In our distribution centres, which is really the key pinch point for us in this process, we have absenteeism of between 20 and in some cases 40 per cent,” he told the ABC’s RN Breakfast program.
“The absenteeism is a direct and indirect consequence of Omicron.”
Similarly, rival Coles said about a third of its distribution centre workforce was currently absent, with about 10 per cent of in-store staff out of action.

It could be weeks before it returns to normal.

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Just arrived home from our click and collect visit to East Tamworth Woolies. Most of the items we ordered were in stock, just missing out on cauliflower, red tipped bananas and mixed dried fruit. My wife ducked in and managed to grab oranges and broccolini, which were listed not available when we did the order yesterday. There were a few other items listed as not available which we didn’t urgently need.

We were appalled at how poorly packed everything was- they gave us plastic bags instead of the paper ones we asked (and paid $1.50) for, and some bags were almost empty with as few as 3 items, a 1l carton of milk, 50ml vanilla essence and a small jar of mustard was all there was in the first bag I picked up. I managed to rid us of about a dozen plastic bags when packing things into our boxes in the car, but we still ended up with 18 of them when unpacking at home.

The shelves were a bit sparse in the fruit and veg section, but my wife didn’t venture anywhere else.
I went next door to visit Dan and grab a few vital liquid supplies, and the shelves seemed reasonably well stocked there.

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Visited our local Woolies today and getting fresh chicken seems to be an issue. Limited stocks being delivered and limited cuts selling out quickly. The deli staff said they have been told supply will be constrained over the coming days and appears their supplier has to try and honour their KFC contract first. Seems like it is fast food at the expense of fresh produce.

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Three days after my visit to WW, the situation is if anything a bit worse. Many shelf items are missing. They meat section was bare, but they still had chicken breasts and necks for sale via the deli counter. All the quick cook food was gone.

I suspect that with the massive influx of people into SE Queensland, the demands on the supermarkets have increased far more than in many other parts of Australia. Constant restocking would normally fill the gaps caused by the ingress of tourists during holidays, but with the supply issues there is minimal restocking, so we get to see the effects. This is why I think that we in SE Qld are seeing more shortages than reported from other parts of Oz.

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And what we ended up with was 10 cans, 7 of which are all the same and a variety Toby simply will not eat, because they didnt have any of what I ordered. I’ll look into getting a refund.

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Due to all the publicity this is receiving, I suspect that a lot of the empty shelves are a result of “panic buying.”

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i needed a kg of philly cheese today Coles had one packet. A lot of empty shelves but tissues, some toilet paper were being unpacked.

shortage are still due to people having Covid and not working. My vegie /herb box arrived from a farmer. No issues but some things are smaller size due to end of season.

I can get them from a supplier but need to go and collect. Working so no chance of getting there. As pick up is only one day a week. The produce is amazing

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Covid, no deliveries and no one to unpack

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There may be a bit of panic buying but supermarket management have been clear that underlying issue is with deliveries and some production issues esp re meat - too many people off work with Covid or as close contacts.

Like you annaa63 I get a box of fruit and vegetables delivered. Much fresher than anything I can but in my suburb.

Have also found that small groceries shops still well-stocked - our local Indian grocer didn’t have any empty shelves, so if nothing else, we can live on dhal and rice (my husband was born in India so would be happy with this!)

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My fresh produce box comes directly from the farm. I know the farmer. I pick and choose what I want and it’s delivered.

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No shortage at my local independent grocer. The majors seem to be having some trouble stocking, but I can always get what I need with a little persistence.

I note the toilet paper panic buying is back. There must be people with spare rooms stuffed with it! I will never understand that.

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Bring in the Army!

Bring in the Army!

Bring in the Army!

There! I’ve said it three times and got that one off my chest.

Is there any sane logical reason why our most respected and senior leadership has not asked the troops to front up? IE at the distribution warehousing and transport depots. Trucks optional.

Isn’t managing warfare about logistics and winning because you can do it better than anyone else?

It seems crazy that National Cabinet knows there is a crisis that will take time to clear. Perhaps there is a reason not to act?

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I live in rural southern Queensland and shopped at our local supermarket last Tuesday. Toilet paper was sparse but not empty however my TP is on a subscription and gets delivered so I’ve never had to really worry, even at the height of the TP hoarding, I had rolls in my cupboard and an order due in a few months, with knowledge the company was ensuring that they kept supplies for their upcoming orders because even they sold out of stock not earmarked for orders.

My spouse went a few days before to buy some eggs and they were very low. There were no eggs available when I shopped. I had to return to the supermarket on Friday for a couple of things and there was only whole chickens or crumbed chicken products available but they were expecting a delivery that afternoon. The egg shelf was full, the tp was in the same situation, sparse but not empty.

fruit and vegie wise, given a lot of our stuff often comes from close by, there weren’t many gaps on the shelf at all, not really any more than might occur if everything was normal really.

I think we are very fortunate here, in that respect.

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Many of the shelves at Karalee Coles were empty last night, even the bird seeds had almost run out with many of those bays empty….

TP was noticeably absent even with shopping restrictions in place, I don’t think it is entirely overbuying, supply of materials to make products and products is also a great and growing problem.

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