Striped garlic was always the norm here, so never noticed it, outside the fact that even now there's a surplus. Cooks just fine so never bothered to question it.
Went to the store today to get a few essentials, and also hit up a hardware store for some overdue stuff, and goddamn, its bad today for whatever reason. Fresh produce was devastated worse than last time. Cabbage, leafy greens, peppers, mushrooms, fruits, all barren or blatantly stale. I was surprised by how blasted the bagged salads section was, nobody in this store buys them, so it couldn't really be demand. Meat section was surprisingly barren too, lots of empty sections or trays with like 2 sausages left on them. This was before noon, so not even a crazy shopping rush. Frozen potato section was pretty cleared up too - it was all faced, brought to the front, but shelves that usually hold bags 8 deep had 1-2. Across the whole spread, from fries to hash to tots and patties. Frozen pizza looked ok, and frozen dinners were a wasteland. Frozen vegetables seemed fine, at least.
The hardware store was rough too. I didn't notice it last time I went, but now that someone here mentioned previously that they're filling shelves with plastic containers, I saw it. The christmas clearance section, good five-six aisles of stuff, all just plastic bins, no price tags on them or on the shelves. It was straight up eerie. Rest of the store seemed mostly fine, but normally around this time of year they'd be putting early bird special lawn and reno stuff up for the spring melt, to replace the dwindling christmas stock. My shopping also took me past the pet food section, and looks like the kibble shortage is here as well. Wet food looked fine, but dry cat and dog food were pretty sparse, a couple bags here and there that the staff gave up facing, not enough to make look good no matter what.
