Part of the scarcity consumers are seeing on store shelves is due to pandemic trends that never abated — and are exacerbated by omicron. Americans are eating at home more than they used to, especially since offices and some schools remain closed.
Retailers and food producers have been adjusting to those realities since early 2020, when panic buying at the start of the pandemic sent the industry into a tailspin. Many retailers are keeping more supplies of things like toilet paper on hand, for example, to avoid acute shortages. Worker illness is also impacting grocery stores. Stew Leonard Jr. is president and CEO of Stew Leonard's, a supermarket chain that operates stores in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. Last week, 8% of his workers — around 200 people — were either out sick or in quarantine. Usually, the level of absenteeism is more like 2%.
Weather-related events, from snowstorms in the Northeast to wildfires in Colorado, also have impacted product availability and caused some shoppers to stock up more than usual, exacerbating supply problems caused by the pandemic.
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