Favorite foods missing from grocery shelves

#Middlebury #Seniors

You’d think that the grocery store shortages would be long gone by now. But no … they never completely went away. Only the missing items have changed.

My neighbor and I laugh and compare notes about “the toilet paper of the month,” recalling the long period when getting name-brand toilet paper was impossible around here. At this point, the missing item is a type of soup that has been gone for nearly four weeks. A particular flavor of baked beans, gone. No-salt canned green beans, vanished. Jasmine rice, steel-cut oatmeal, low-sodium tuna … no more. Even the tags are missing from store shelves in all three shopping locations here, and managers can’t order them.

My neighbor and I weren’t laughing today, however, when we realized it had been a full month since a certain chocolate bar had been seen on shelves in any store here. “We’re in trouble,” she said, and she’s right. “Do we dare order it online?” she wondered? We’re considering doing just that.

The worst, though, was when I couldn’t find the one cat food my elderly kitty is supposed to eat. For health issues, she can’t have anything else. I finally called the manufacturer and was told that they were unable to produce it due to lack of ingredients. Eventually, and just in time, it became available and I ordered a three-month supply. But it’s something I now track on a weekly basis.

Here’s what I found after contacting a few food manufacturers: Many of them are cutting out, forever, products that were slow movers. If certain food items have vanished from your store’s shelves, it might be time to do an online search. Look for “discontinued foods.” You could discover that it’s time to stop looking because those items just aren’t coming back.

© 2021 King Features Synd., Inc.