The supply chain is eating up random items at Spartanburg grocery stores, here's why

Susan Dunlap of Spartanburg is creative when it comes to grocery shopping because of food shortages.

She shops for herself and her elderly mother and she said she puts extra effort in trying to find items on her mother's shopping list. Dunlap said grocery shopping almost has become like a scavenger hunt.

"I have gotten really creative in my shopping," Dunlap said. "I learned that QT sells Pedialyte, that Family Dollar sells Philadelphia Cream Cheese, and that Big Lots sells vanilla wafers. One grocery store trip is no longer enough. Instead of getting discouraged, I am now approaching grocery shopping like it’s a scavenger hunt."

Spartanburg grocery store shelves have limited supplies and some are empty leaving customers wondering what is happening to the food supply chains. The types of shortages vary depending on the store and its location. There are shortages in some frozen foods, cream cheese, and even paper products.

However, despite the periodic and scattered food scarcity, shoppers can expect to see more normalcy after the omicron variant passes, according to Anna Nagurney, department chair in integrated studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. .

The shortages, she said, show "how important people and labor are to supply chain issues."

On Thursday, Food Lion on Garner Road had only a few available packs of poultry in the meat section, but the canned food and dried goods were fully stocked. Food Lion and Ingles on Warren H. Abernathy Highway were both low on frozen potatoes, dog and cat food, orange juice and chips.

Ron Freeman, the chief financial officer of Ingles Markets, says the two main items that result in product shortages are supply chain disruptions and labor shortages.

"Both of these problems have been well-publicized," Freeman said. "The Omicron variant exacerbates both issues, as many food product and distribution companies have a large number of workers out."

USA TODAY: Grocery stores still have empty shelves amid supply chain disruptions, omicron and winter storms

Publix on East Main on Thursday was low on a number of name-brand paper products, including paper towels, toilet paper and all brands of tissues. The store had signs attributing the limited availability of Philadelphia cream cheese, Pillsbury canned biscuits and rolls and Jimmy Dean frozen products to supplier issues.

Walmart on East Main was low on avocados, onions and bananas in its produce section, along with butter and orange juices in its refrigerated sections. The store was also low on sugar and some children's medications, including liquid ibuprofen and cough and cold medicines. Both Walmart and Publix had limited supplies of frozen hash browns and French fries.

What's causing the food storages?

According to the experts, the current supply chain problems are bouncing off each other, part of a not-so-normal world.

What's promising to the experts is that many of the shortages could get better soon.

"To get things from a manufacturer to a store, there's a long lead time involved in that often," said Keith Skowronski, an assistant professor of management science at the University of South Carolina's Darla Moore School of Business.

The winter storms in South Carolina - in the Upstate two weeks ago and the Midlands last week - accounted for some of the missing shelf items and just as the seasons pass, so will many of those shortages, he said.

"Things will get back to normal at some point," Skowronski said.

A big reason is employees, said Anna Nagurney, department chair in integrated studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

She said labor, trucking, shipping and international imports are the big reasons when shelves are empty, including a 50 percent shortage in grocery store workers.

There are missing people in each sector, Nagurney said.

• 80,000 short in trucking laborer shortages

• 13,000 short in meat packing industry shortages

• 12,000 short in bakery worker shortages

• 8,000 short in beverage employee shortages

In a recent study by business consultancy KPMG, 71% of grocery consumers said they were somewhat or very concerned about shortages or empty shelves with 35% switching brands when their favorite items are out of stock.

The grocery industry has a lot of moving parts - suppliers, distributors, retailers, shippers. Those parts don't always communicate perfectly so that can lead to one store having bananas but not peppers and another one nearby being the opposite, said Yoni Mazer, co-founder of New Jersey-based GETIGA, a data analytics firm, in a statement.

He said the coordination issues can lead to "strange local product shortages," made worse by factors like inflation and a long reliance on a just-in-time shipping model. Just-in-time shipping led to smaller stock rooms in the back and made grocery stores stockpiles often the shelves themselves.

Grocery stores around the Upstate were asked about specific and overall shortages.

A spokesman for Publix said, in an email, that the supply chain is under a lot of stress.

He said there are product and labor shortages, high demand, a record amount of exporting food, shipping constraints and inflation.

"We continue to maintain constant communication with our suppliers," Jared Glover, media relations manager for the Charlotte division of Publix, "however, various product lines may be out of stock in assorted categories."

Food Lion's president, Meg Ham, said in a November statement following a White House meeting that overall food supply lines remain strong but there would be some specific supply chain issues for some products.

Grocery store shoppers should alter their expectations before grabbing a shopping cart, said Nagurney, who studies grocery supply chains at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Fact check: Photos of bare, fully stocked grocery store shelves shared online to support false claim

To cope with empty shelves, Nagurney recommends to think strategically, be adaptable and willing to go to other stores or even go without.

Most importantly, she said, shoppers should keep a positive attitude when hitting the aisles of the stores they know the best.

There are the other occasional issues that will explain low produce and missing shelf items, such as a recent lettuce recall, seasonal shortages and irregular winter storms across the east coast.

When will normalcy return?

Our local supermarkets do not differ from what is happening nationwide according to, Skowronski said.

Consumers have a heightened urgency to stockpile items, like with the toilet paper shortages of 2020, he said.

The more that people avoid the temptation to hoard, the better it will be, Skowronski said.

"Sometimes there's going to be stock outs," he said. "But people need to try and not change their buying habits. Hoarding is bad."

- Mike Ellis and A.J. Jackson contributed to this report.

Ashley Dill is a native of Spartanburg and has been on staff for the Herald-Journal for 14 years. She covers community news and can be reached at ashley.dill@shj.com or on Twitter at @ashleydill_shj.

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Supply chain eats random items at Spartanburg, SC grocery stores