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Empty Shelves

 A recent trip to the grocery store felt particularly sad. Most days, I am in and out trying to get through my list as quickly as I can. This evening I was not in a rush - it was after dinner and not too late. The supply chain disruptions have produced a variety of effects - empty shelves, prices of items sometimes double of what they used to be pre-pandemic. A young guy in the checkout line right before me had many boxes of ramen noodles, a bag of carrots and a bag of apples. In any other time I would have assumed that's what this person likes to eat but now I paused to wonder if he might have been priced out of things he does like to eat. I have adjusted my buying behavior to work around both what is available and how stuff is priced. 

Given my dietary choices, I might not be shopping for the most high demand (and therefore scarce and expensive) food, so I don't experience the impact nearly the same as many others. Since I had the time to browse around, I did notice people being far more deliberate about what they picked from the aisles. This is not the typical grab and run style that is popular with grocery shoppers on week-nights. This topic is being widely researched and there are many angles to explore. Are we stocking up on perishables more to have a sense of comfort and safety about food, are people switching to meat substitutes because its harder to afford, is pasta flying of the shelves because its comfort food and so on. Every food group could spawn its own kind of study. But being in the grocery store is not a happy experience these days.

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