In the last few weeks, and in some cases the last two years, we have seen and heard a lot of stories about people struggling to find certain items when they make a shopping trip to grocery stores locally and across the state of Michigan.

There are a lot of contributing factors to this. Obviously, the pandemic continues to play a role in disrupting a lot of areas of our lives. In other cases, reasons that stem from the pandemic, such as worker shortages due to illness or "The Great Resignation", shortages of drivers causing shipping delays, or shortages of products themselves that are filtering all the way down to the store shelves.

Oddly enough, there are some things that are still easy to find still such as eggs, most dairy products, and frozen pizzas among other things. Thankfully, toilet paper doesn't seem to be hard to find right now unlike in March of 2020. But there are some items that seem to have a common theme such as pet-related products (especially for cats), saltine crackers, and chicken among others.

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So we were curious about which items are becoming the hardest to find and put the question out on social media Wednesday. We were amazed by the number of responses that came in, and especially some of the items that seem to be recurring in the current shortages at stores. Some people also posted about things they are not having trouble finding and other options for people searching such as different products, different stores, etc. Others had a little sarcasm.

Here are some responses:

The chicken fridge was empty at Meijer in Battle Creek on Monday. - Ana

 

The produce dept. is well-stocked at any store I visit. It's mostly the convenience items that are out of stock. I get it though, families are busy and don't get much time to prepare meals. - Matt

 

Kitty food, the good kind! - Marlene

 

Distilled water, meat, bread, syrup to name a few. (Especially) cat food.  And the prices have gone up tremendously. Sour cream was 99 cents now $1.75 - Cindy

 

Frozen hash browns, frozen vegetables - Judy

 

Chicken, yogurt, pineapple juice, dog food. All missing on Monday at my local Meijer. - Karen

 

Saltine crackers (in any brand) - Debbie

 

Pancake sausage sticks, color marshmallows - Alice

 

Saltine Crackers and soup - Duane

 

Meat!! - Courtney

 

Arm and Hammer toothpaste. There was none - of any kind. The shelves were almost completely bare. - Rebecca

 

Pails of cat litter. Who keeps buying up all the dang litter?! - Sonja

 

Frozen hash browns - Heather

 

 

Chicken and cat food - Jada

 

Cat food - Ruth

 

Chicken - Janie

 

Distilled water for my CPAP, so I've decided to buy a distiller and make my own. - Kris

 

Depends on the store. At Dollar General, you can't find the shelves because the aisles are packed with carts full of totes with products to be unpacked and shelved - Glenn

 

Boston Market Meals, Saltines, Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches - Kathy

 

Common sense - Nick

 

Nothing - Tanja

 

Low prices - Cathy

 

Common sense - Ken

 

Walmart is faring better than Meijer in BC. Oreida products have been missing for a long time off and on, but especially now, mainly hashbrowns. - Andrew

 

Good looking women - Bob

 

None!!! - Janet

 

Allll of it - Jenn

 

People with masks. - Bryan

 

Cat food. Fancy feast gravy. - Sherry

 

Where to begin…. go to Meijer on Wednesdays because that seems to be when all the vendors actually stock the shelves! - Rachel

 

Unbleached white flour. Canned cat food - Carl

 

I went to Walmart Saturday night and they were out of so many things one whole meat display was completely empty and the other was almost empty. Not sure if it’s because it was after 7pm or what - Kara

 

Oh my goodness !!! Unsalted saltine crackers ! And a green v-8 juice !!! Haven’t been able to get those two items at meijers or Walmart for months !!
But it’s weird u can go to family fare and they have had them ??? -  Dawn

 

Cat food!! - Bonnie Jo

 

Definitely cat food. And kitty litter a lot of times. Not as much variety of crackers - Kristine

 

bottled distilled water - Brenda

 

Peak Sweet Tea in individual bottles - Camilla 

 

Chicken.. canned soup, kleenex - Shannon

 

Ice Mountain water.
Cat food
Meat
So much more - Brandi

 

Pancake mix - Sherria

 

Saltines, tater tots, grape juice, chicken in a biskit - Jenny

 

Tyson bagged chicken. - Teresa

 

Soda Crackers - Tammy

 

Meijer was out of juice boxes, frozen chicken nuggets, mandarin oranges, cook and serve chocolate pudding. - Nikki

 

The pellets and pads for my kitty's box. - Jenn

 

Questionable Foods That Can Still Be Found in Stores

Here is a baker's dozen of foods Michiganders say they don't like, but for some reason, these items always mysteriously appear on the Michigan grocer shelves, week after week.

 

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