Grocery Shortages – October 2022

As prices are slowly raising on all of our favorite foods, we are starting to notice a good deal of outages again. Here is a running list of items that we have noticed that have empty shelves at multiple stores lately.

1. Coffee Creamer (In the refrigerated/ dairy section)

This one seems to be fluctuating a lot. Sometimes I see only a few flavors or brands in stock, and other times it looks like there is no creamer at all. I have noticed this at multiple grocery stores, so I am not thinking this is a stocking issue.

This may be related to the Nestle Company having issues back in January 2022, and still not fully recovered. This is unrelated to any milk shortages since most flavored coffee creamers are actually made with oil and not real cream or milk.

If you feel the urge to stock up on liquid coffee creamer, keep in mind their expiration dates. Click here is more information: “What happens if you drink expired Liquid Coffee Creamer?“

2. Pull-Ups Diapers

This is another one that seems to be fluctuating a lot depending on the store. I also noticed that the store brand of pull up style diapers are the ones that are completely gone.

Shoppers switching to generic name diapers could be the cause for this shortage of store brand diapers.

I have noticed that many of the big names like Huggies, Luvs, and Pampers are all changing their box sizes to be less diapers in each box but still charging the same or higher price.

3. Whole Turkeys & Turkey Lunchmeat

If you have recently went by the deli section or even a sandwich shop recently, you may have noticed that the cost of lunchmeat especially turkey has gone up.

This is mostly due to an outbreak of Bird Flu among chicken and turkey farms. The USDA expects that turkey lunch meat and whole turkeys should be back to normal levels for the end of year.

So, this shortage may not be an issue for long! I have noticed that stores are putting out whole frozen turkeys lately but the prices that I have seen are pretty high compared to last year.

I also saw a lot of smaller packages of just turkey breasts that were definitely cheaper than a whole bird but were still pretty high in price compared to previous years.

Whole Turkeys were priced from $1.69-$1.88 a lb at Walmart. While just turkey breasts were priced at $4.57 a lb.

We may just buy a whole chicken and roast that this year instead of a turkey.

4. Fruit and Grain Bars (Nutrigrain Bars)

These easy snack or breakfast bars are a staple in our house, and we typically buy the store brand. I started noticing this outage about 4 weeks ago.

Every time I would go to grab a box, I noticed that all of the options in the lower priced store brands are gone. The only ones left on the shelf is the full price brand name Nutrigrain bars.

Now I am noticing that even the Nutrigrain boxes are getting less and less available. I noticed I no longer see their larger 16 count packages, and only the smaller 8 count packages.

This probably has to do with a lot of people switching to the cheaper options at stores, but this could also be due to the rising cost of whole wheat.

The cost of whole wheat for lots of products like bread, waffles, and baked goods has been increasing for a while due to the war in Ukraine.

I believe that Nutrigrain knows that people are no longer buying their brand due to their higher prices, and that is why they have been launching new products like Nutrigrain Bites, that resemble more of a small cookie instead of the bars.

We also tried to pick up fruit and grain bars at the Dollar Tree, and all the stores were completely out. This was shocking since they usually always have the strawberry or blueberry flavors.

5. Store Brand Soda

As big-name brands like Coca Cola and Pepsi continue to raise their prices on cans and bottles of soda, I am noticing a big drop in the amount of store brand or generic brands of soda on the shelves.

I happen to occasionally drink Mountain Dew and ever since their prices have jumped up a lot, I started trying out some store brands. The Great Value brand of Mountain Dew and other popular sodas has been missing a lot lately, so I started looking at other stores.

It seems rather comical because the name brand sodas are completely stocked and even overflowing in some stores. I have seen lots of huge displays and endcaps that are barely even touched.

The store brands of sodas in a couple of different stores have been in very low stock. I think this is mainly because a 2 liter of store brand soda is around $1.00-1.25 each, and a 2 liter of name brand is anywhere from $2.28-3.99 each depending on the store.

Not that long ago, the store brand 2 liter soda was about $0.70-0.85 each and the name brand was about $1.50-2.00 each.

I think a lot of people are switching to the store brand in order to save money and not have to give up their soda.

7. Dry Dog Food

This one is hit or miss; I have noticed that certain brands will be out of stock for a couple of weeks and then it will be restocked.

We happen to use KalKan dog food, and it has recently been unavailable at Walmart, Amazon, and other various online retailers.

Thankfully Pedigree adult dog food is made by the same parent company (Mars Company), so we were able to supplement with that for a few weeks.

If your dog food is missing off the shelves, consider using an app like Walmart because they will alert you when it is back in stock, so you can order it as soon as it is available again!

8. Pediasure & Similac Formula & Pedialyte

My daughter happens to get supplemental nutrition from Pediasure and I have noticed it is very scarce at some stores. Even at Walmart, they may have some flavors and not others or they may not have any at all.

I believe part of this is due to WIC vouchers for Pediasure. We thankfully have WIC to help cover this cost for us, but each voucher has to buy 3-5 six packs at a time. (If you do not buy the full amount on the voucher, you forfeit the rest that you didn’t buy.)

So even if the stores restock, it only takes a few parents buying 3-5 packs at a time to empty the shelf really quick.

Abbott has continued to have issues with the production, and recently issued another recall on Similac baby formula due to issues with the bottle caps not sealing correctly.

The recall is for the small 2 oz bottles of ready to feed Similac in various options plus the Pedialyte Electrolyte Solution. Per the company this recall is only a day’s worth of production, but since formula shelves were already shockingly low, this is just making it worse.

9. Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha

This one isn’t technically a grocery store item, but since there is lots of Starbucks locations inside of grocery stores, I thought it was best to include it.

Customers of Starbucks all over the US are reporting that their local stores have been out of White Chocolate Mocha for the past few weeks.

Some speculation about a fire at a Starbucks distribution center being the cause of the shortage but this cannot be confirmed.

Some stores have said they should have it back in stock by the end of October, so we will keep an eye out!

10. Adderall

I just came across this one today and I figured I would include it. Apparently, it was announced by the FDA on Oct. 12 that due to manufacturing delays this could mean a lack of pills available at your pharmacy to fill prescriptions.

They are estimating that this could impact customers until late January of 2023.

11. Frozen Potatoes (French Fries, Hashbrowns, and Tater Tots included)

This has actually been an ongoing issue for a while now due to a reduced crop of potatoes. Not only has the price of frozen potatoes been spiking higher and higher, but it is getting very difficult to keep them in stock.

I believe the price spikes were trying to deter the demand with such a short supply available, but it has not been helping. Since frozen potatoes are much lower on the food supply chain, there is just not enough product to go around.

Most potatoes are being sold in produce sections and to restaurants first, and then frozen potato products are being made.

Last year’s crop was abnormally low due to one of the shortest growing seasons that Idaho has ever had.

The good news is that this year’s crop started harvesting already and it appears that they had a good yield! They expect that these potato related shortages should end within a few weeks.

Grocery Store Outages in October 2022

Since I go to a bunch of different grocery stores regularly, I’m going to start updating this list to include any outages that I notice.

I predict that we will continue seeing more and more generic or store brand items in short supply as more people are saying no to Name Brand prices.

I will also make note of items that are starting to show back up in stores! Keep an eye out and let me know if you see any outages in your area. Just use the contact info here.