[emersonbiggins]

6-oz Star-Kist tuna can was 95 cents at my grocery store yesterday. Ugh.

[Kingcoal]

Keep up the informative posts, Mack, it's good info. Sounds like people are cutting out the luxuries; Barbecues, steak a couple times a week, etc. Ramon noddles should do very well in the coming years!

[kpeavey]

Nice post, your input is an excellent addition to the site.

I have a few areas of interest in the supermarket industry that you may be able to shed some light on.

Out of stock items
Discontinued items
Delivery schedules
Sales volume per customer
Large volume packaging

Out of stock items. When an item is found to be out of stock for a brief period of time, do shoppers tend to skip that item or use a substitute brand? If substitution is the response, is there a tendency toward higher grade or lower grade products?

Discontinued items. I've projected in other posts that companies will discontinue product lines in order to streamline their operations. This would result in those items being discontinued at the store level without fanfare. Has this been occurring? To what extent? Does the store find a replacement product or simply frill the shelves with more of what they still carry?

Delivery schedules. Has the recent increase in fuel prices altered delivery times, frequency of trucks, capacity of trucks or any other trucking procedures?

Sales volume per customer. Has the number of items sold changed in any way. This may indicate that people are stocking up or altering their shopping frequency with extra purchases or cutting expenses with fewer purchases.

Large volume packaging. Is there a noticable trend in the bulk items, i.e. big sacks of sugar or flour vs the 5 pound sacks, family pack meats vs individual steaks, the big pack of toilet paper vs 4 rolls at a time.

Finally, I am interested in the ability of the store to respond quickly to a sharp increase in sales volume as a result of some external event. An example would be batteries and bottled water when a hurricane approaches. What would be the criteria for a store to receive a delivery out of its regular cycle.

Any information you can provide would help paint a picture of the trends as food and fuel prices rise.

Thank you.

[JJ]

thanks for posting, I work in a grocery store also. And keep trying to quit smoking. I did twelve years ago and wish I had never smoked a cigarette. Our local paper printed a list of stealth price increases, for example the sixteen ounce flat of bacon is now 12 ounces but the same price. Yesterday I was looking for something to eat for lunch, looking at the sardines, and i noticed 2/1.00, so I picked one up. It seems about the size of a quarter. I didn't look at the weight, but the can was like 2/3 the size of the old can, but in the SAME box (rattles around).
I work in produce, potatoes went from 2.99 to 7.99 a bag for an eight pound bag, everything else is falling in line. The last two weeks, my boss has come in gloating with record sales ceritificates saying we have set alltime store records for AWESOME UNPRECEDENTED SALES. He's really excited (he gets a percentage of sales, as did all employees until last year). I told him you will set record, unprecedented sales from here on out, as you are not selling any more, rather the prices are higher. He just stared at me.
He has been listening to myself and my co-worker talk about peak oil for two years now; he absolutely doesn't believe it. We were talking about the Fortis/6000 bank collapse thing last week when he left on vacation. When he came back this morning, my co-worker told him about Indymac and Fannie Mae/Freddy Mac. My co-worker said he looked like the gates of hell had just closed on him....

edit:
did you notice the size of the loaves of bread changed? four inches longer but an inch narrower all the way around...

[killJOY]

Why the hell can't you get lemon juice anymore?

It seems always to be OS.

[JJ]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('killJOY', 'W')hy the hell can't you get lemon juice anymore?

It seems always to be OS.

[Jack]

Great post, Mack12345!

Thank you for your informative posts.

[burtonridr]

I didnt even notice the change in the size of cans and things!!!

I did notice the can of mandarin oranges was just below 3/4 full from the can I just bought......

Ridiculous!

[JJ]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jlw61', 'T')hanks! I wish we had more front line posters like you. The tuna thing caught me by surprise and I will be looking for that the next time I go shopping. I'm not greatly unhappy about it as 6 oz of tuna is more than my wife and I can eat at a meal after I've mixed it into some dish.

As for the other things, some of it just reflects my impression of what's happening at the grocery stores and helps explain why certain items (such as grilling accessories) are going away.

BTW, are strike-anywere matches readily available there? I found only one place so far that carries them here in central Virginia.

Also, recently there was a huge increase in soup prices, here... have you seen that, there?

[Daniel_Plainview]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Mack12345', 'D')ecresed there standard can size from 6oz to 5 oz in my store .

[eric_b]

Interesting to hear.

I supported myself stocking grocery shelves for many years, usually working 3rd shift.

So I'm familiar with JIT food delivery. lol. We're in the age of a large regional warehouses shipping food out to local grocery stores as needed, several time a week if not everyday. It's all trucked.

'Same price, smaller package' syndrome is everywhere these days. Now would be an interesting time to work grocery. I've often wondered, as have many others, what peak oil is going to do to the grocery store.

[setag]

Mack, i do remember you and was hoping you would check in. You are on the front lines and the info is helpful. Good job on the report and the preps you are making are impressive.

[AQIUS]

good post

[jlw61]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JJ', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jlw61', 'T')hanks! I wish we had more front line posters like you. The tuna thing caught me by surprise and I will be looking for that the next time I go shopping. I'm not greatly unhappy about it as 6 oz of tuna is more than my wife and I can eat at a meal after I've mixed it into some dish.

As for the other things, some of it just reflects my impression of what's happening at the grocery stores and helps explain why certain items (such as grilling accessories) are going away.

BTW, are strike-anywere matches readily available there? I found only one place so far that carries them here in central Virginia.

Also, recently there was a huge increase in soup prices, here... have you seen that, there?

[JJ]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eric_b', 'I')nteresting to hear.

I supported myself stocking grocery shelves for many years, usually working 3rd shift.

So I'm familiar with JIT food delivery. lol. We're in the age of a large regional warehouses shipping food out to local grocery stores as needed, several time a week if not everyday. It's all trucked.

'Same price, smaller package' syndrome is everywhere these days. Now would be an interesting time to work grocery. I've often wondered, as have many others, what peak oil is going to do to the grocery store.

[Serial_Worrier]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'I') believe the reason Costco is so successful is they only stock one SKU under each food category. One brand of toothpaste, one kind of frozen potatoes, etc. They buy the most quantity at the lowest price and pass savings on to the consumer.

Modern supermarkets stock 10,000's of products when people need only meat, pasta and bread, veggies and some canned goods. And toilet paper and toothpaste.

These monster stores are expensive to heat and cool and require miles to drive. They are dinosaurs.

[Ang]

Hi Mack, great post. Your positive attitude really came through!!!! Good to hear about your weight loss and as a former smoker, I encourage you to try again, you'll get there. I've noticed a lot of changes at the grocery store, however I'm just grateful they still have food on the shelves.

Be sure to get some practice time in with your weapons. I've been to the range off and on for the past year and still feel I need to be a little more comfortable with them.

Keep us updated!!

[eric_b]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'I') believe the reason Costco is so successful is they only stock one SKU under each food category. One brand of toothpaste, one kind of frozen potatoes, etc. They buy the most quantity at the lowest price and pass savings on to the consumer.

Modern supermarkets stock 10,000's of products when people need only meat, pasta and bread, veggies and some canned goods. And toilet paper and toothpaste.

These monster stores are expensive to heat and cool and require miles to drive. They are dinosaurs.

[kokoda]

I am also starting to work on my general fitness level. Actually that seems to be occurring naturally as I now do a lot more walking, gardening, etc.

I haven't started stocking up yet but I have started learning gardening and am growing some of my own vegetables.

I haven't owned a gas guzzler for years. I kind of prefer driving small cars anyway. I am now actively trying to avoid driving as much as I used to. Where possible I will now walk or catch public transport. It is amazing how much fuel you can can save just by avoiding short trips in the car.