Global Supply Chain Crisis 2021: Megathread - A cozy thread for watching the supply chain fall apart just in time for the holidays

[contradiction of terns]

From what I've seen it seems to be fairly random. Did some shopping today and there were some empty shelves but it was all random shit that was sold out. One store didn't have shampoo, one didn't have men's shoes, one was out of pants, etc.

I tried to get a few photos that showed otherwise full shelves/freezers/whatever next to ones that were totally out, because there's A LOT of that.

They're almost out of every 'normal' flavor of PopTart, but they have two whole shelves brimming with 'special Halloween PopTarts', or like with the lunch meat; you can't buy bologna, but there's a full rack of ham and turkey if I were to keep taking pictures of that whole section.

Interesting you found a place that was out of shoes and pants. The grocery store chain in our area has a small clothing section in most of them, and they've removed half of the clothing racks in the location nearest to me. I don't visit the other locations enough to keep up on whether they've downsized, but I would assume that since most cheap clothing is made in Asia that we can (hopefully) look forward to a shortage of Mickey Mouse t-shirts and sweaters with the motto 'Live, Laugh, Love' on them.

 

[Puff]

Odd question, but did you notice they started putting expiry dates for how long a canned seal will hold? 18 months. I don't ever remember seeing anything like that previously. Have you eaten things that have been canned for longer than that time period? My grandma used to use wax to do all her jams, and I think I've eaten jam that was 2 years plus old. What are your thoughts? I am just talking about standard high acid recipes and stuff, boiling water processed.

Bro, I'm sure I can dig 2015 jelly out of my parent's cabinet that's still good. High acid, high sugar, pressure canning. Tomato sauce at least a few years old and pickles that are fucking ancient. Edit: Jelly I just ate was 2018. Tastes fine and I'm not dead.

 

[Fomo Hoire]

eggs (you can see the one tiny box of eggs they got in waiting to be put on the shelves)

That's actually a really interesting picture you got there, it shows how even though this is 2020 The Sequel there's still a nuanced difference between then and now.

The 2020 shortages were primarily due to an inability to package product, so over here they started selling like 30-egg crates instead of the standard dozen. I think I heard in other places they sold buckets of shelled egg instead. Basically they shifted to favoring bulk.

But the 2021 sequel is due to an inability to transport product. (ok, a little due to labor too, but generically transportation hangs over everything). So they'd rather people buy more slowly and they stick with the small package sizes.

If you hadn't said that those boxes were a tiny box of eggs that hadn't been shelved yet, I would have assumed it was a bulk box. Unpacking that few boxes of that size feels like a waste of time. But when I think about the cause of the shortage, it makes sense.

 

[Lorne Armstrong]

Bro, I'm sure I can dig 2015 jelly out of my parent's cabinet that's still good. High acid, high sugar, pressure canning. Tomato sauce at least a few years old and pickles that are fucking ancient. Edit: Jelly I just ate was 2018. Tastes fine and I'm not dead.

Nice hiss!

 

[Phalanges Mycologist]

Nice hiss!

Ah steve where would we be without him.

 

[Bibendum]

Some people ITT seem interested in taking up food gardening, but knowing KF demographics, may not have a lot of space and/or are unsure of where to start. Would anyone be interested in a long-ass garden post? I'd be happy to sperg and provide resources, but a quality post will take some time so I'd want to gauge interest first. Like if interested (or negrate if you're an urbanite bugman addicted to doordash).

 

[Phalanges Mycologist]

Some people ITT seem interested in taking up food gardening, but knowing KF demographics, may not have a lot of space and/or are unsure of where to start. Would anyone be interested in a long-ass garden post? I'd be happy to sperg and provide resources, but a quality post will take some time so I'd want to gauge interest first. Like if interested (or negrate if you're an urbanite bugman addicted to doordash).

I'm willing to contribute to this as well, also I can add forraging info as well.

 

[Sped Xing]

I dunno what to tell you. I've found lots of gas stations that were totally cleaned out on the long empty stretches between towns/cities. Major cities seem to be doing better at keeping stocked, but I have seen empty shelves in a few spots.

I'm tossing in some pics from a grocery run this evening. The employees were trying to re-stock the bread, eggs (you can see the one tiny box of eggs they got in waiting to be put on the shelves) and a few other things, but it seemed there wasn't much they could do for a lot of it. Every type of cereal had two boxes moved to the front of the shelf, then a massive empty space behind them and the remaining boxes at the far back. So they're employing some tricks to make it look better stocked than it is.

Spoiler: This is how things are in my neck of the woods

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@Art Kassul

You are correct. Ironically, sugar is a preservative just like salt. It acts as a humectant and removes and/or stabilizes the amount of water in whatever it's added to.

It's not that I think you're incorrect. I'm more curious why I haven't seen anything of the sort. I'll stop by the Brenham HEB today and see how things stand. It's between Austin and Houston, but I don't think it's right to call Brenham a "major city."

I was at a little podunk grocery store in a 1k person town much closer to my home Sunday, and there weren't empty shelves or suspiciously wide spaces.

I'm curious what HEB you were at that's desolated, but I understand if you don't want to tell us where to stalk you.

 

[RainwaterDrop]

Bro, I'm sure I can dig 2015 jelly out of my parent's cabinet that's still good. High acid, high sugar, pressure canning. Tomato sauce at least a few years old and pickles that are fucking ancient. Edit: Jelly I just ate was 2018. Tastes fine and I'm not dead.

Frozen foods aren't good for healthy eating but they hold up well too, I ate some frozen pizza from 2002 earlier this year and didn't even get the runs lol!

FDA says they're fine unless you fuck up and end up freezer burning shit or if they're thawed and frozen back again!

I tried to get a few photos that showed otherwise full shelves/freezers/whatever next to ones that were totally out, because there's A LOT of that.

They're almost out of every 'normal' flavor of PopTart, but they have two whole shelves brimming with 'special Halloween PopTarts', or like with the lunch meat; you can't buy bologna, but there's a full rack of ham and turkey if I were to keep taking pictures of that whole section.

Coming from a non-american perspective, things are normal here. I can find even imported goods with ease on local markets (it does help that the economy has tanked and most people are buying less and cheaper), some random shit is also unavailable but most of it is produced locally so it isn't hard to find. The only issues are meat becoming more and more expensive and general inflation fucking over everyone. Could be worse, however!

 

[Puff]

Frozen foods aren't good for healthy eating but they hold up well too, I ate some frozen pizza from 2002 earlier this year and didn't even get the runs lol!

FDA says they're fine unless you fuck up and end up freezer burning shit or if they're thawed and frozen back again!



Coming from a non-american perspective, things are normal here. I can find even imported goods with ease on local markets (it does help that the economy has tanked and most people are buying less and cheaper), some random shit is also unavailable but most of it is produced locally so it isn't hard to find. The only issues are meat becoming more and more expensive and general inflation fucking over everyone. Could be worse, however!

Corn is easier to freeze than can. so it's frozen in this house. Another funny one is that eggs keep basically indefinitely if you don't wash them and bury them in wood ash. They'll last weeks just on the counter.

 

[Lorne Armstrong]

Corn is easier to freeze than can. so it's frozen in this house. Another funny one is that eggs keep basically indefinitely if you don't wash them and bury them in wood ash. They'll last weeks just on the counter.

Absolutely correct. Fresh eggs, (meaning eggs that haven’t had the bloom washed off of them like the egg farms in the US do before shipping them to grocery stores), can last up to 30 days sitting out on the countertop in the kitchen, and a LOT longer than that in waterglass. Hadnt heard about wood ash but I’ll look into that, thanks.

 

[NoSpiceLife]

Some people ITT seem interested in taking up food gardening, but knowing KF demographics, may not have a lot of space and/or are unsure of where to start. Would anyone be interested in a long-ass garden post? I'd be happy to sperg and provide resources, but a quality post will take some time so I'd want to gauge interest first. Like if interested (or negrate if you're an urbanite bugman addicted to doordash).

I was actually going to look for a thread on this. We've been growing our own fruit and vege, well mainly veges, fruit is hard, with degrees of success over the last few years. With all of this starting to look like it might have longer term effects, especially being unvaccinated, I'm glad we've got different sorts of setups already in place. Looking at doing a hydro setup too.

Anyway, was going to see what others had success with, even though most are not in the same country, some things can be adapted.

Corn is easier to freeze than can. so it's frozen in this house. Another funny one is that eggs keep basically indefinitely if you don't wash them and bury them in wood ash. They'll last weeks just on the counter.

Interesting about the corn, it seems to be something we can grow really well, when we can keep the cockys out of it that is... Any special way to freeze them?

 

[Phalanges Mycologist]

Absolutely correct. Fresh eggs, (meaning eggs that haven’t had the bloom washed off of them like the egg farms in the US do before shipping them to grocery stores), can last up to 30 days sitting out on the countertop in the kitchen, and a LOT longer than that in waterglass. Hadnt heard about wood ash but I’ll look into that, thanks.

Townsends on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUYgguMz1qI

 

[Puff]

Interesting about the corn, it seems to be something we can grow really well, when we can keep the cockys out of it that is... Any special way to freeze them?

Shuck it and vacuum seal or cut off the cob and straight into freezer bags, nothing special. The really good sweet corns tend to lose flavor fast.

Townsends on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUYgguMz1qI

I was about to send that.

 

[Phalanges Mycologist]

I was about to send that.

I've got a copy of a book from the mid 1600's called "Instruction and Hints for Young Officers" and it mentions it as well in relation to setting up over winter camps and how it's also suited for transporting eggs while on campaign if you are able to keep them in sealed casks along with layers of fresh clean straw.

Really interesting read as it covers a few other food preservation methods and foods like Pocket Soup.

 

[Puff]

I've got a copy of a book from the mid 1600's called "Instruction and Hints for Young Officers" and it mentions it as well in relation to setting up over winter camps and how it's also suited for transporting eggs while on campaign if you are able to keep them in sealed casks along with layers of fresh clean straw.

Really interesting read as it covers a few other food preservation methods and foods like Pocket Soup.

You have an author on that? I wouldn't mind adding it to my collection if someone has scanned it.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Some people ITT seem interested in taking up food gardening, but knowing KF demographics, may not have a lot of space and/or are unsure of where to start. Would anyone be interested in a long-ass garden post? I'd be happy to sperg and provide resources, but a quality post will take some time so I'd want to gauge interest first. Like if interested (or negrate if you're an urbanite bugman addicted to doordash).

When Kiwi Farms...becomes actual Kiwi Farms.

 

[Phalanges Mycologist]

You have an author on that? I wouldn't mind adding it to my collection if someone has scanned it.

I've got a good scan at home, I'll dig it out and send it over the name escapes me but you can find it on Archive.org but the name of the author escapes me.

 

[Simple Moving Average]

Some people ITT seem interested in taking up food gardening, but knowing KF demographics, may not have a lot of space and/or are unsure of where to start. Would anyone be interested in a long-ass garden post? I'd be happy to sperg and provide resources, but a quality post will take some time so I'd want to gauge interest first. Like if interested (or negrate if you're an urbanite bugman addicted to doordash).

Please.

 

[Meat Target]

So how is the Cathedral copesplaining away the labor shortage as acktchually not a result of a multi-industry strike over vax mandates/people now living off gibs because it's more profitable?