Stores running out of goods? No Credit

Anyone else seeing this?

The last two months the stores here have been going from bad to worse.

They run out of things daily. When I go shopping, a lot of things are sold out.

Potatoes run out daily. We went to buy steak yesterday , and they were sold out!

I asked about it, and the Frys clerk said the store no longer can buy food on credit, so they can not buy enough and they run out.

Now I wanted to buy a comforter for my bed. Wallmart had a total of 6 bed spreads in the entire store, shelves empty. I asked, and they said there would not be another restock for a month! So I goto kmart, same thing, empty shelves. I finally found one at Frys home store.

Is this just lack of credit, or does this go deeper ? I have a bad feeling about this.

I called my grandmother who lives in Mesa and she said her store also runs out of potatoes and bananas.

In all my years I have never had to go do an 8am shopping just so the merchandise does not run out!

reply to post by amatrine

I have not noticed this. My city has a federal reserve bank. What part of the country are you in?

It's like that here in ky too. The Wal-marts have rows and rows of empty shelves a lot of the time.

My personal opinion is that scenarios like this are going to continue to escalate.
As the dollar gets weaker and we inevitably go deeper into harder times, grocery stores and retail alike are going to continue to cut back on there overhead by reducing there inventories.
Should you be worried? Hard to say. Maybe it's a simple inventory issue. Maybe the banana and potato workers went on strike.

reply to post by amatrine


I haven't seen this here really. Dicks Sporting goods is even opening a new store here.

The banks need to start handing credit again, otherwise they won't have any money.

reply to post by eradown


I am in the Southwest. Arizona.

I haven't noticed any empty shelves or anything like that around here, however it does look like stores in general are ordering less...especially when it comes to seasonal/"non-essential" merchandise. Which is completely understandable, and should have been done a long time ago. Even at the highly-rated (one of the top chains in the northeast, if not the whole U.S.) huge grocery store I work at, the amount of waste is tremendous, even though they are ordering less. I've also noticed they are bring in cheaper household "junk" (the store I work at makes almost nothing on grocery items) If credit dries up however, we are screwed when it comes to food and other store-bought essentials.

Alabama checking in.

No shortages that I have noticed. That doesn't mean there won't be any later on, though.

IMHO this is something that we should definitely be keeping an eye on. Society has become extremely dependent on ready supplies of whatever they need. I shudder to think what will happen in some of the cities should food run scarce due to store lack of credit...

TheRedneck

reply to post by amatrine


Amatrine:

As I see it, why would a bank want to lend out money at 3% for a while or possibly 30 years, when it is better to wait a year to lend out the same money at 2 points higher or 5%?

ALL BANKS ARE HOARDING CASH.

The new FDIC insurance. Guess who is paying for the higher premiums to cover he 250,000 limit; even if you don't have that kind of money?

And then there's Credit cards - They are at an all time high in terms of inteest rates! Credit lines are chopped down, and rules tightened so as to cause a customer to trip up more easily

Yup, when was the last tme you received a ZERO interest rate credit card application? I can't remember. At least one year ago.

The economy is still failing, and the answer is for the banks to lend out money.

It's that simple.

-EyesII

That's what a depression looks like but don't worry the MSM says the recession is over despite the fact there hasn't been a quarter of positive growth yet. It's also worth noting that there hasn't been positive growth even with all the money being pumped into the economy, so the real numbers are actually a lot worse than the 0.7% negitive growth reported last quarter. Government spending climbed 6.7% last quarter and because government spending is included in the US GDP the real economy (the sustainable part of the economy that doesn't rely on borrowed government money) was theoretically down significantly more than the 0.7% number suggests.

It's fine in Australia. Stores are as they have been for as long as I can remember.

reply to post by amatrine
Many stores in my area are closing but the stores which are open are still stocked. In the poorer neighborhoods the stores do not have empty shelves ,but years ago they had much better products. In Fiesta Foods a store which carries Mexican products the selection is still excellent as well as inexpensive. The stores in the wealthier neighborhoods have everything you could want ,but they are not cheap.

Originally posted by Jacob08
That's what a depression looks like but don't worry the MSM says the recession is over despite the fact there hasn't been a quarter of positive growth yet. It's also worth noting that there hasn't been positive growth even with all the money being pumped into the economy, so the real numbers are actually a lot worse than the 0.7% negitive growth reported last quarter. Government spending climbed 6.7% last quarter and because government spending is included in the US GDP the real economy (the sustainable part of the economy that doesn't rely on borrowed government money) was theoretically down significantly more than the 0.7% number suggests.

Of course the recession is over. We're in a depression now.

This is where the true problem will lie. Credit is becoming tighter and tighter with commercial credit taking the next big hit. Foodstuffs and needs will become more scarce as the credit crunch gets worse.

You can stock up now but it can't last forever. I don't know if we can all stock up for the length of time it will take. Hate to sound like a harbinger of bad news, but its something I've been thinking a lot about lately especially since I don't have much room to keep anything.

Northern Denver, CO area. No shortages or empty store shelves seen here. Albertsons is closing 5 area stores and a distribution center though. That's probably due mostly to their higher than average pricing though.

[edit on 10/4/09 by Ferris.Bueller.II]

reply to post by idle_rocker


How can we be running out of food? We live next to Mexico and we produce most of the world's food. I can understand running out of foriegn made quilts ,but running out of food would be insane. Unless it is all being shipped overseas. We must have a distribution problem.

[edit on 4-10-2009 by eradown]

I noticed this a few months ago at the League City, TX. Walmart. It was really scary to see it, but then they began remodeling and the shelves are stocked now. Maybe they weren't buying new merchandise because of remodeling? I'll will be watching to see what happens in a few more weeks. I am thinking things will be real interesting after Christmas.

The empty shelves scenario has been predicted and I have been stocking up on food and other necessities.

reply to post by eradown


We may not be running out of food (yet). But as stores continue to have trouble obtaining credit, they won't be able to buy it to stock the stores.

No shortages of any kind here. We didn't have any the last time people were having problems either. I think this maybe some kind of regional issue.

Our local Wal Mart remodeled last year. Now the aisles are very, very wide (before it was impossible to pass in some aisles) and there are large empty swaths of space where there is nothing. The store looks great, and what shelves there are, are all full, but there is overall about half the merchandise selection there was before.

I have not noticed merchandise or produce shortages anywhere else.