Why you need to do your Thanksgiving grocery shopping now to avoid shortages
We’ve all seen the stories about supply chain woes, and we’ve all seen the empty shelves in the grocery stores.
But does that mean we should be worried about our biggest — or at least most symbolic — meal of the year?
Probably not, say retail experts — unless you wait until the last minute to shop.
Everyone agrees: if you haven’t already started buying the things needed for your holiday meal, do it now.
“I would say if you’re in the grocery store and you usually don’t do your Thanksgiving shopping until the week before Thanksgiving, and you see it in the store today, pick it up today,” Doug Baker, vice president of industry relations for the Food Industry Association, told The News & Observer.
“Don’t wait until the week before Thanksgiving, go ahead and get it today,” Baker said.
“That just ensures that you’ll be able to take care of the family and have that favorite recipe that you’re used to having.”
Can’t get something? Pivot.
Baker also suggests that we go ahead and get our minds OK with the idea of substitutions, just in case we can’t find what we usually buy at Thanksgiving.
Can’t find canned pumpkin for your pie? Maybe you have sweet potato pie this year instead. Or pecan pie. Apple pie is also a great choice for Thanksgiving.
“There are going to be some constraints and challenges,” Baker said, in regard to holiday shopping.
“The thing that we’d recommend to folks from a food perspective is just plan out your most important meals and be open to substitution. If they don’t have the brand or flavor that you want, that you’re open to substituting with another brand or another flavor.”
Product shortages for Thanksgiving?
So what are the hard-to-find food items this year?
Baker tells us that there are no real nationwide grocery shortages, that empty shelf spaces are supply chain issues and mostly seem to be regional and based on taste preferences.
But here are a few of the Thanksgiving related items we looked into.
▪ Turkeys. We started hearing rumors a couple weeks ago of a possible turkey shortage, but industry experts say there should be no shortage of turkeys this year — but we should expect them to cost more. (The only access issue, they concede, may be in finding smaller birds, which was also a problem last year. This year you may be forced to go big.)
As with other items on your list, go ahead and grab one now, if you can make space in your freezer. Do not wait.
“If you want a Thanksgiving turkey ... don’t waltz into the store two days ahead of time and think you’re going to find what you want,” Joe Kerns, president of Partners for Production Agriculture, told the Des Moines Register.
▪ Pumpkin. Locally, we’ve heard people say they’ve had trouble finding canned pumpkin for pies, but there doesn’t seem to be a shortage from a production standpoint. Kristin Mitchell, the brand manager for Libby’s, which grows and processes their pumpkins in Morton, Illinois, tells us that pumpkin products should be available.
“LIBBY’S famous pumpkins have grown as expected this year,” Mitchell wrote. “Our freshly packed cans are on shelves now to make your favorite sweet and savory recipes this holiday season.”
If you’re not seeing pumpkin — or other canned goods — on the shelves in your favorite chain, it’s possible it’s taking longer to get there because of a stress somewhere else on the supply chain line (such as aluminum can production or trucking).
▪ Sweetpotatoes. North Carolina produces more than 65% of the nation’s sweet potato supply, and the NC SweetPotato Commission says we should have plenty for Thanksgiving.
“Our packing houses are working almost around the clock to fill orders and get them loaded on trucks to be delivered to stores across our state – let alone the nation,” Michelle L. Grainger, executive director of the NC Sweet Potato Commission told The N&O.
Every aspect of sweet potato production has seen cost increases, Grainger said, from fertilizer to shipping boxes and everything in between. But the price of sweetpotatoes (yes, it’s supposed to be one word, our friends at NC SweetPotato tell us) shouldn’t go up too much right now.
“Our members anticipate that while pricing will remain similar to the pricing consumers paid last Thanksgiving, they have expressed expectations that some of these costs will ultimately be passed along to consumers in the coming months,” Grainger said.
▪ Wine. The wine industry has been subject to the same supply chain woes as everyone else. And like other items on your shopping list, you can expect wine selection to be less robust this year and the prices steeper. To make matters worse, bad weather in Europe’s wine-producing regions could mean “extremely low” production again for 2022.
What items can’t you find?
Having consistent trouble finding grocery items lately?
We want to hear about it.
Fill out the form below or email us at ask@newsobserver.com.
This story was originally published November 9, 2021 at 11:33 AM with the headline "Why you need to do your Thanksgiving grocery shopping now to avoid shortages."
