I'm in Missouri and about a month ago I noticed a bunch of social media posts showing bare shelves at Wal-Mart. We don't shop at Wal-Mart much anymore. Even before the pandemic half the time I'd go to Wal-Mart for something specific they'd be out of it. I do most of our food shopping at the local grocery store chains: Schnucks mainly, but Dierbergs sometimes and then big box crap at Target.
Well a month ago I was in Wal-Mart to get night time pullups for our daughter as that's one of the few items we get at Wal-Mart. Also needed scrubbing bubbles and a couple other things. It was shocking. They had one box of 4t pullups and one box of wipes, both of which I bought. They had no scrubbing bubbles and very little cleaning supplies, no laundry detergent other than Tide. I went to grocery, their milk was $3.19 a gallon vs. $2.79 at the time at the grocery store. They had no butter, very little cheese, very little sugar and the frozen foods section was only a quarter full. I hadn't seen it that bad since April 2020.
So I went to the Target just up the street. It was night and day. Target's shelves were full. They had three different scents of scrubbing bubbles and at least a half dozen cans of each on the shelves. Plenty of diapers, wipes, etc. in the baby section. Shelves full of cleaning supplies and laundry detergent and their frozen foods section was pretty full. Granted they never stocked the number of Skus that walmart did typically.
Went to the Schnucks, they don't carry scubbing bubbles anyway, but they had plenty of other cleaning products, laundry detergent, and their shelves were mostly full other than things like kid's juice (capri sun) and sports drinks. Those shelves have been bare the entire summer. Yet Aldis had Caprisuns by the pallet.
Of all the places I think Walmart's been hit the hardest and my cousin spent a few years working as a rep for a consumer goods company calling on grocery stores, walmart, target, etc.. Her take is that there really is a shortage such as there's only 1M cans of Scrubbing Bubbles. And that some of these companies that have been squeezed by Walmart of the past 20 years are now squeezing back. Target will pay more per unit on much more friendly payment terms, like usually 21 days after receipt of product to their warehouse. Walmart doesn't pay until 60 - 90 days until after it gets scanned at their register. So the producer of scrubbing bubbles eats the inventory costs during that time. If you only have 1M cans and target and other companies will buy them on better terms than Walmart, Walmart aren't getting the product.
Walmart I think is just generally in disarray because people clean it out first knowing the prices are cheaper and they have everything they could want there in one place. I think they get the stuff but sell out, and I noticed this even before the pandemic. I think slow to stock shelves employees and customers who are always moving stuff around also kind of contribute to this feel. But that's interesting about them not paying suppliers for 2-3 months, I'm a bit surprised really.
Interesting. In north Texas where I live shelves are full
I'm in Missouri and about a month ago I noticed a bunch of social media posts showing bare shelves at Wal-Mart. We don't shop at Wal-Mart much anymore. Even before the pandemic half the time I'd go to Wal-Mart for something specific they'd be out of it. I do most of our food shopping at the local grocery store chains: Schnucks mainly, but Dierbergs sometimes and then big box crap at Target.
Well a month ago I was in Wal-Mart to get night time pullups for our daughter as that's one of the few items we get at Wal-Mart. Also needed scrubbing bubbles and a couple other things. It was shocking. They had one box of 4t pullups and one box of wipes, both of which I bought. They had no scrubbing bubbles and very little cleaning supplies, no laundry detergent other than Tide. I went to grocery, their milk was $3.19 a gallon vs. $2.79 at the time at the grocery store. They had no butter, very little cheese, very little sugar and the frozen foods section was only a quarter full. I hadn't seen it that bad since April 2020.
So I went to the Target just up the street. It was night and day. Target's shelves were full. They had three different scents of scrubbing bubbles and at least a half dozen cans of each on the shelves. Plenty of diapers, wipes, etc. in the baby section. Shelves full of cleaning supplies and laundry detergent and their frozen foods section was pretty full. Granted they never stocked the number of Skus that walmart did typically.
Went to the Schnucks, they don't carry scubbing bubbles anyway, but they had plenty of other cleaning products, laundry detergent, and their shelves were mostly full other than things like kid's juice (capri sun) and sports drinks. Those shelves have been bare the entire summer. Yet Aldis had Caprisuns by the pallet.
Of all the places I think Walmart's been hit the hardest and my cousin spent a few years working as a rep for a consumer goods company calling on grocery stores, walmart, target, etc.. Her take is that there really is a shortage such as there's only 1M cans of Scrubbing Bubbles. And that some of these companies that have been squeezed by Walmart of the past 20 years are now squeezing back. Target will pay more per unit on much more friendly payment terms, like usually 21 days after receipt of product to their warehouse. Walmart doesn't pay until 60 - 90 days until after it gets scanned at their register. So the producer of scrubbing bubbles eats the inventory costs during that time. If you only have 1M cans and target and other companies will buy them on better terms than Walmart, Walmart aren't getting the product.
Thanks for breaking that down. Very interesting
Walmart I think is just generally in disarray because people clean it out first knowing the prices are cheaper and they have everything they could want there in one place. I think they get the stuff but sell out, and I noticed this even before the pandemic. I think slow to stock shelves employees and customers who are always moving stuff around also kind of contribute to this feel. But that's interesting about them not paying suppliers for 2-3 months, I'm a bit surprised really.