Why foods are missing from Boise-area grocery shelves — and when the shortages may end
Blinds were pulled down to hide empty vegetable racks at Trader Joe’s in Meridian on Monday, after the store failed to receive a load of produce.
“Due to shortages and shipping issues from weather along the West Coast (Washington, Oregon and California) we are unable to receive what we ordered for you!” an accompanying sign said. “This is primarily affecting produce, dairy and meat, but all sections of the store have been hit.”
Widespread winter snowstorms that kept trucks idling, increased infections from the omicron COVID-19 variant, and supply-chain disruptions have made it hard to keep grocery stores stocked. It’s causing problems in the Treasure Valley and nationwide.
“We’re already seeing bare shelves,” Bindiya Vakil, chief executive of supply-chain consultant Resilinc Corp., told the Los Angeles Times. “Labor shortages due to omicron are going to exacerbate the issue.”
In an Albertsons Companies conference call Tuesday, CEO Vivek Sankaran said he also expects the Boise grocery retailer’s supply problems to continue.
“Omicron has put a bit of a dent on that,” Sankaran said. “So there are more supply challenges, and we would expect more supply challenges over the next four to six weeks.”
Sean Connolly, CEO of food giant Conagra Brands, which makes Hunt’s ketchup, Birds Eye frozen vegetables, Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn, Slim Jim meat snacks and other products, says labor and supply-chain challenges continue to affect large food producers and their ability to bring products to stores, even after two years of the pandemic.
“It’s entirely reasonable for all of us to project that the next month or so could remain strained within the supply chain as omicron runs its course,” Connolly told investors during a conference call last week.
The national labor shortage, though, could last much longer. A labor economist told a group of legislators and others invited by Idaho Business for Education this week that lower birth rates, reduced immigration, retiring Baby Boomers and reduced participation in the workforce were creating shortages even before the pandemic aggravated them.
A survey Tuesday of several Boise-area grocery stores — Albertsons, Fred Meyer, Walmart, WinCo, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s — did not reveal any widespread shortages. Toilet paper and cleaning supplies, which became scarce at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in spring 2020, were in good supply at each of the stores. Only a few items appeared missing.
Last week at an Albertsons in East Boise, the store was nearly depleted of eggs. On Tuesday, eggs were widely plentiful at an Albertsons in West Boise, but several displays of packaged lunch meats and yogurt were empty. At Whole Foods in Boise, shelves of meat were nearly empty.
At the Garden City Walmart, shelves holding packaged salad mixes were empty. At a Fred Meyer store in Garden City, a cooler was full of yogurt, but signs apologized to customers that the store had run out earlier.
“Severe weather has caused shipping issues, these items are temporarily out of stock,” the signs said.
At Trader Joe’s in downtown Boise, which also ran out of produce on Monday, the shelves were being restocked by produce clerks after a shipment arrived.
The store’s manager said he could not speak publicly about the shortages. He referred a reporter to the company’s headquarters in Monrovia, California. A spokesperson did not return a call.
A Fred Meyer spokesperson did not reply to a message.
The Food Marketing Institute, a Virginia-based grocery trade association, said in a fact sheet that at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, demand for groceries jumped 50% overnight.
“This surge of demand strained the supply chain and caused shortages of household staples throughout the country,” the institute said. “This demand has not abated, and consumers continue to eat more meals at home — breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks — than at restaurants.”
This story was originally published January 12, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
