Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2020 11:59 am Post subject: How are queues and stock at your local Costco?
It seems when panic shopping struck about a month ago all food,medicinal, and cleaning stock was being ransacked. Leaving only things like appliances, clothes, and miscellaneous home goods.
Now it seems like toilet paper, paper towels, and cleaning supplies go early in the morning but most food stuffs is still available in the afternoon.
Queues are long in the morning, particularly before senior hour on Tuesday,Wednesday, and Thursday but normal in the afternoon.
I live between Torrance and Lakewood Costco, shopping both.
How do you perceive things in your neck of the woods?
I got a 12 roll pack of TP the other day from Staters. Just FYI. Was shocked.
Anyway, ordered some sh from Costco via insta rite now, but the site has all stores in limbo schedules rite now. The TP/PT industry screwed the pooch with their production at the outset of this thing. Seems like they would've been churning this out at max capacity 24/7 to profit from the demand, but who knwos. Maybe they were creating a shortage on purpose so we could all go around with a stinky left hand.
What irks me more than shortages and outages as far as instacart goes is having to wait around and check your phone and comp over and over to see if a shopper/deliver popped up earlier than the latest estimate. Even if one does, more than one item is either a replacement or a return to shelf of a replacement you don't want. Every store is running about 3 days ahead of sched if you wanna buy from them. Planning ahead is a must. Course you could also brave the store experience and masks, etc. That's worse afaic. _________________ GOAT MAGIC REEL SEDALE TRIBUTE EDDIE DONX!
The normal state of affairs for most toilet paper factories is they run 24/7.
There are two types of TP. Commercial and residential.
Demand for Commercial TP has cratered because people aren't going to work or to stores. A small exception is vendors that sell both to businesses and retail customers. Restaurants that have become popup grocers are also selling commercial TP because it is not being used inside the restaurant right now. But that is a bucket in the ocean.
Demand for residential TP has skyrocketted 140%.
Most factories that make both don't want to spend the time and money to switch because the altered demand is mostly temporary. Some people may permanently work from home or buy more online vs shopping in brick and mortar stores but the demand shift is mostly during the pandemic.
Read to many horror stories of new instacart shoppers stealing your groceries. Times are tough and many are desperate. Police ain't arresting folks for petty crimes(especially for food) and DAs aren't prosecuting.
Joined: 02 May 2005 Posts: 90310 Location: Formerly Known As 24
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 8:35 am Post subject:
Yeah, TP is a high volume low margin business (mostly because of the bulk to unit ratio, fill a truck with far less than legal weight) that is kept filled just in time, no back stock or significant extra production capacity. When the demand spikes, there’s no way short of building more capacity to fill it, and no one is going to make massive capital outlays only to mothball that capacity very soon (as it would take years to recapture the investment). _________________ “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” ― Elie Wiesel
I'm staying away from Costco, (except the gas station) too many people, luck for us my wife has always been a TP hoarder, so we are still good at around 100 rolls on hand... _________________ “Always remember... Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools, and accepted by idiots.”
I went to Van Nuys Costco on Friday just before the close, and there was Kirkland toilet paper. Organic whole milk was nowhere to be found though. No chicken meat either.
Same as unleasHell try to stay away from Costco just because in my area it is also usually crowded. Under the circumstances try to make more online orders especially it it concerns clothing. Not long ago found agreat offers via https://cools.com/shop/womens-dresses with considerable discounts. Knowing the sizes it is particularly easy to buy clothes online and not put the life at risk by going to offline shops.
Last edited by Ogrounder on Wed May 13, 2020 8:21 am; edited 2 times in total
Joined: 14 Apr 2001 Posts: 144483 Location: The Gold Coast
Posted: Tue May 12, 2020 4:06 pm Post subject:
I worked a household hazardous waste collection Friday and someone brought in 2 gallons of hand sanitizer. That will come in handy around the office. _________________ RIP mom. 11-21-1933 to 6-14-2023.
Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 52680 Location: Making a safety stop at 15 feet.
Posted: Tue May 12, 2020 4:15 pm Post subject:
Went to Costco for the first time since a pre-pandemic visit in January.
This time in Tacoma last Saturday morning because we needed to stock up daily use items that are much cheaper there than buying at the market in the small town where our house is.
It was quite sane. Definitely the least busy of any other Costco visit I've made (and no line to get in and check out lines were only 1 deep). They had everything we were looking for and didn't notice any obvious shortages of anything else. _________________ You thought God was an architect, now you know
He’s something like a pipe bomb ready to blow
And everything you built that’s all for show
goes up in flames
In 24 frames
Bears reminding to not be a lil punk ass and order more than you need. (Not you directly but in general for anyone).
Got a few bottles at Target the other day, but not the 91% that I usually get. Now I just need antibacterial hand soap refills.
Found some Amazon brand on Pantry last night. Just checked and they're already out. Hasn't shipped yet so keeping fingers crossed I don't get the cancelled order email. _________________ "Suck it up. Don't be a baby. Do your job." - Kobe Bryant
It’s a shame the polish dog was removed a while back, instead of bringing it back, they’re cutting even more items. RIP combo pizza, salads, churros, hot turkey provolone, and açaí.
It’s a shame the polish dog was removed a while back, instead of bringing it back, they’re cutting even more items. RIP combo pizza, salads, churros, hot turkey provolone, and açaí.
I'm not surprised, some of the items like the burger were never good sellers....I'm surprised the combo pizza is getting the axe though, that was a pretty popular item.
There is supposedly a chicken processing shortage and Costco Torrance is selling a box of 20 lbs of chicken quarters. This is Costco but usually 10 lbs of chicken is da max. That is a lot of freak'n chicken.
Re Costco Food Court burgers. No fries to accompany the burger makes it kinda pointless.
Cali regulations killing self serve soda fountains is really gonna make Costco Food more of a PITA.
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