I've found that rubber bands ain't what they used to be, hardly last 3 months before snapping. They do not age well.

We went to our local Walmart SuperCenter today for the first time in a month and a half (we’ve been RVing out of state) and there were so many things they were out of! We also went looking for a new (replacement) Christmas tree and finally found a decent one after 3 stores. The “kids” will be here for 2 weeks over Thanksgiving and then again over Christmas, and we need to replace our (at one time very nice) inflatable queen bed with a sofa bed. Sigh! I’m afraid that search will be futile!

Should I buy my Thanksgiving Turkey now???

I act ually did buy my Thanksgiving Turkey last week, a frozen one of the size I wanted.

Joann, you could probably get some rubber bands at a store like Staples.

Add safety pins to the list of obscure things I could not find in any store in town!!

I had a hard time finding safety pins before the "shortages."

I plan to buy a turkey & a ham this week. Don't want to take chance of them not having any.

@LynnNM

I'm down in Roswell. Albertson's here told me they got their turkeys last week and it was way less than they ordered, so maybe?

I had trouble finding a certain brand of toilet bowl cleaner!! I can't use anything with bleach in it. My brother finally found it just yesterday. I have literally been looking for it for months.

Also have noticed almost completely bare shelves for paper products. Paper towels, napkins, paper plates, facial tissue. Funny thing is, the toilet paper seems ok, at least for now.

katlan We have to be careful what we use to clean the toilets at camp because of the septic. Vinegar works good when I can't find the toilet bowl cleaner i use.

I forgot about one short item I noticed a couple weeks ago. They had only one whole chicken in Wal-mart and it was huge. It took days to thaw out it was so big.

Add to the list: Rubber cement! Went to 3 stores--none to be found. Weird......

Why don’t you order all those things online? Walmart has rubber bands online , I just checked.

I did some grocery shopping last evening and was struck by how bare a few shelves were at Kroger - especially their brand of frozen vegetables; they are usually restocked from the weekend by Tuesday evening.

Thanks function! Good to know if I run out again. Think I'll stock up on vinegar, if they have it lol.

If the concern with the toilet cleaner products has to do with their containing chlorine bleach, there's likely no reason to restrict usage. Even as much as a cup or two of bleach into a 1000+ gallon or more septic tank every once in awhile is going to get diluted into an ineffective concentration right away and it will also break down very quickly, even as it travels down the drain pipe. So I was once told by a septic contractor.

Maybe a lot of these things are on the lost containers. I use rubber bands at work so I just get the cheaper wide ones (postal) . I did find 1 pack of the all different sizes but I don't want them. I will have to buy them anyway > I am hoping to find a ham soon just in case.

Shelves look more bare, but I haven't been missing anything yet. Not as much selection in candy as in years past. I couldn't find gummy eyeballs in the candy aisle so there went that fun idea I had for the kids.

Nabisco vanilla wafers are never in stock anymore. The flavors of Jello brand gelatin are mostly orange and black cherry. Most of the Jello products on the shelf are the sugar free ones.

And here in north central Ohio, I am not having any trouble getting most things I want, including rubber band, toilet bowl cleaner, and paper products. As for toilet cleaner, I have used white vinegar and baking soda very successfully for a long time, but for some reason one toilet has always had black marks that would never come out and this was like this when we bought the house, and the only thing that took it out was Fabuloso in the spray can. Every once in a while that comes back and I have a heck of a time getting rid of it. I do sometimes have trouble getting laundry stain remover in the brand I like, but can get something comparable. We are getting ready to head south for the winter. I hope I don't have a problem getting the things I need in S. Alabama.

I went today to the bigger town to pick up groceries and miscellaneous stuff. I didn't notice any shortages at walmart, Aldis or dollar tree. Plenty of coffee, paper products, cleaning products rubber bands and turkeys. I think it just depends on where you live and how dense the population is.

@tami_ohio

”black marks that would never come out and this was like this when we bought the house, and the only thing that took it out was Fabuloso in the spray can. Every once in a while that comes back and I have a heck of a time getting rid of it.”

Get a pumice stone. Pumice will not scratch porceline. Those stains will rub right off.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Pumie-Scouring-Stick-non-toxic-removes-hard-stains-hand-held/23098372?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIj4GKs5fu8wIVQaCGCh0hXAxdEBwYASAAEgK19vD_BwE

I ran into Walmart....to look @ lampshades(yuck!)...and checked out the turkey situation. They had tons!....but only two that were 22lbs. I might go back and purchase one NOW....to be sure I get a BIG one. ☺ But no shortages of food, paper goods....ect....the shelves were FULL!

I went to Walmart early this morning and they were stocking shelves through out the store. Looked pretty full to me but I didn't check turkeys, Wi.

Before we got our booster shots yesterday we hit 3 stores - Tractor Supply, Tuesday Morning, and Harbor Freight. All 3 places are heavily loaded with goods from China and overseas and each store looked fully stocked. I peeked through the door into Tractor Supply's storage stockroom and even their shelves back there were full, plus with extra overflow merchandise boxes sitting on the floor. Obviously these local observations not a pulse on the economy but they seemed very prepared for shoppers.

I have seen a few spotty empty shelves at Aldi but that is not unusual. It usually means they are behind on restocking and if I ask the stockers they will go into the back and bring some out.

The price increases are what is startling to me. It seems a lot of food items are up 20-30% just in the last month or three.

I stopped by my favorite Mexican market to buy some tamales yesterday. They had gone from $14/dozen to $18 since late July when I was last there.

Too bad you don't live closer to Canada, LynnNM, for our turkeys are on sale, Thanksgiving having been celebrated a couple of weeks ago.

Or, with freezer aboard, you'd visited in your RV during your trip.

ole joyfuelled ... turkey-fuelled also

This from Aldi (10/28/2021)

I just came back from Wal-mart. The only bare spots I saw were in the lunchmeat section. The entire section was bare. It's been like that for a long time, though. Every time I've gone in there over the last few months. I usually have my food delivered but I wanted to pick out the Halloween candy in person. They also finally had the Stok I buy on the shelf! They had a lot of turkeys and hams also. I bought a couple ham hocks and it still annoys me that they are so expensive.

OK....just went to Walmart to pick up a turkey.....and....they had a ROLLBACK....87cents a lb turkeys! The freezers were FULL! We purchased a 25.14lb turkey. Lady in front of us got a small one.

Yes LoneJack I agree the prices are rising. The coffee we buy at Sam's club has gone up $2 a can in abt a month.

I can't use toilet bowl cleaner with bleach because I can't stand the smell. Bleach blows up my sinuses, sometimes for a couple days before I can get it settled down. Same way with most cleaners now. And scented candles and air fresheners etc.

I had a hard time finding safety pins before the "shortages.

do you look in the sewing aisles?

The thought of a gummy eyeball shortage makes me laugh!

Gummy eyeballs are the fun way to say "Keep an eye on the prize".

When my kids were little, I'd sometimes make them sandwiches and add a gummy eyeball on top like you would get some sort of fancy thing on a toothpick at a better sandwich place. They thought it was the greatest.

Dollar tree had lots of packages of rubber bands, I bought one. I have been making lots of wreaths and center pieces to sell at our Garden club sale. I have been able to find most of the things I needed.

One item I have been looking for is my coffee creamer. The particular one I love has been out at several stores. This happened a while back too. My friend would look for it every time she was shopping too. Finally it was back on the shelves. Now gone again.

Although minor, I'm tired of only white paper towels and family pack napkins in the grocery stores. I did find printed paper towel and grabbed them, but not napkins.

Hi Raven. I haven't had trouble finding my mothers creamer, but did have trouble finding it in the version with calories. I don't buy her anything reduced fat or sugar, she needs the calories. Fred Meyer had some (refrigerated) with an extended use by date of Dec 29th so I can not worry about that for a couple of months. DH keeps real half and half for his coffee so I don't buy it for here.

HU-629454853....Not Nabisco vanilla wafers, but DH just went to Safeway for a Mom approved toddler Halloween treat and came home with 'O' Organics vanilla animal crackers. He said they had the wafers too, but he bought the little treat bags not only for the baby/nephew, but the grandchildren of a friend too - knew they would be in town visiting this weekend.

Costco two days ago on Thursday and I found paper towels in stock. Our previous three stops there in the last 5-6 weeks....none at all. The grocery stores have had them, but I'm a creature of habit and haven't purchased toilet paper or paper towels any place other than Costco in many years ;0)

Last week Walmart had only a few cans of Fancy Feast cat food. Went back on Friday and shelf was full. Bought enough to get through December. Also bought cat treats my baby loves...bought every package on the shelf...

How about dishwasher soap? My grocery store shelves have been almost bare in that department for weeks.

Hi Raven!! If you use coffeemate type coffee creamers, refrigerated and in plastic bottles, you can freeze them. I frozen several pumpkin spice bottles last Christmas and they were fine to use after thawing. I laid them down on the freezer shelf so there was a bigger air space the whole length of the bottle for expansion.

Yes, Tami, the pumice stones are magic! I used them to get rid of hard water stains and the toilet looked brand new after a minute or two.

Nice to know. Thanks

I just ordered an organic Diestel turkey from my local organic market for Thanksgiving. They were taking size requests - 12 -14 lb for me, so I'm not sure how large of one could be ordered. No mention of any shortages.