[z92]

I don't get how food consumption can increase in a pandemic. Should be constant in or outside a pandemic situation. Possibly somewhere crops are getting rotten because of newly imposed export restrictions, or for some other things.

[Broken_Hippo]

Food consumption changes: Pre-pandemic, a good amount of meals would be eaten out of the house. School lunches, breakfast on the way to work, lunch break at the work cafeteria or a fast food place (sure, some folks bring lunch, but many places don't offer a break room that is adequate).

All of this - and things like toilet paper - shifts to consumer goods instead of bulk goods, which takes different equipment and processing in factories, often at different times. A portion of school lunches in the US are the result of government subsidy foods: Cheeses, potatoes, and so on are very low cost to public schools.

In short: Consumer foodstuff demand has increased.

Additionally, more folks are spending a bit of time with food, changing the demands. Plus, home and slightly depressed/anxious with newly found free time means you have more time to eat - and many have taken up eating more.

And then you do have crops that couldn't be picked, disruption in shipping (food travels far), and disruptions in factories that complicates things.

[mnw21cam]

In the UK, last year we had a terrible shortage of bread flour in the supermarkets.

Actually, what we had was a sudden reduction in the amount of flour being used by bakeries, and an increase in the amount of flour being used at home. There wasn't a shortage of flour - there was a shortage of small bags to put it in for selling at a supermarket. The industry was all set up for selling a decent proportion of flour in really large bags.

Likewise, for simple goods like vegetables, dairy, and beer, some suppliers have suddenly had their customers disappear, because they normally sold to restaurants, pubs, and caterers, where other suppliers have not been able to keep up with demand, because they sold to supermarkets. The obvious solution is for the suppliers who previously sold to caterers to sell to supermarkets instead, but it takes a while for these contracts and logistics to be sorted out.

[uxp100]

Yes, similar in the US. First all flour was sold out, then as it became available again it was bulk bins first, and then brands that sold in 1 and 5 pound bags last.

Interestingly (well kinda) the similar yeast shortage is still not back to normal. The shortage was partly related to packaging and the yeast at my grocer is still in the post COVID foil packaging and not in the packages it was before. (Luckily I had yeast in the freezer)

[mnw21cam]

We had a load of news stories on TV about dairies and brewers pouring their milk/beer down the drain, and people spluttering about how they couldn't find any beer or milk on the supermarket shelves. That isn't a supply/demand problem, that's a logistics problem.

(Also - seriously, you have 1 pound bags of flour over there? Most bags here are 1.5kg (3.3 pounds), with some specialist flours in 1kg (2.2 pounds) bags. 1 pound seems a little small.)

[uxp100]

The "normal" flour is in 5lb bags. I went and looked, and the specialty stuff I had is indeed in a 1 kg, not 1lb, bag.

[exhilaration]

We had flour shortages in the US as well. I wonder if that was the case across the Western world.

[azalemeth]

In the UK at least, it's very much due to new-found export (and import) restrictions. The price of food has slightly increased since brexshit, whereas its availability has plummeted: the number of varieties of vegetables stocked by my local Tesco, for example, has plummeted, and the stock sells out almost immediately after delivery.

[DrBazza]

> The price of food has slightly increased since brexshit, whereas its availability has plummeted: the number of varieties of vegetables stocked by my local Tesco, for example, has plummeted, and the stock sells out almost immediately after delivery.

Zero problems in any of the major supermarkets in my area in the South East. My food bills haven't increased notably either, if anything, looking at my bank statement right now, they seem lower over the past 4-5 months than the year before.

The only anecdotal thing I have noticed, is that there a few new brands on the shelves that weren't there previously, but that's probably just observational and confirmation bias, because I was looking for something, I saw it.

[refraincomment]

How does Brexit even matter if border checks are suspended for imports?

Just the usual scaremongering.

I also shop at Tesco and the stocks haven't changed at all.

[simonh]

Oh I agree, what limitations on stock there are, are probably down to Covid and it being winter.

Still, why even have brexit if we're going to do our level best to pretend we're still in the EU as hard as we can. Is being subject to full export restrictions, hammering British businesses, while allowing many European goods to flow in un-checked really the brexit you signed up for?

[aembleton]

Tesco here in Greater Manchester doesn't seem to have been impacted by availability. Where about in the country have you experienced this? Have you tried a different supermarket?

Aldi, Lidl, M&S, Morrisons and the local greengrocer all seem the same as usual here.

[swarnie_]

> the number of varieties of vegetables stocked by my local Tesco, for example, has plummeted, and the stock sells out almost immediately after delivery.

Are you in a really shitty area or something? I only saw what you described in the first week of lockdown one. Nothing has noticeably changed in my local Morrisons for the last few months.

[azalemeth]

I'm in an urban area that perhaps is a bit poorer than some others nearby, yes. The bigger out-of-town supermarkets have better stock but my usual urban Tesco (and to a lesser extent the two Sainsbury's Locals nearby) just don't have that much stock. It changed a lot in Lockdown 1 and hasn't really recovered.

[mnw21cam]

I certainly noticed a few months ago that the supermarket in my local small town seemed to be better stocked than the larger supermarket in the nearby medium sized city.

[dageshi]

I recall this being broadly the same during the first lockdown as well pre brexit.

[bryanrasmussen]

>I don't get how food consumption can increase in a pandemic.

depression spurs eating binges.

being inside what to do, oh lets make more advanced food. lets bake cakes with the kids instead of sending them out to play with friends. etc. etc.

so increased consumption in combination with other, probably more important, pandemic problems.

[alexf95]

But with most restaurants closing your will also have to subtract the food that would have been used there. Obviously most of them tried to change to a takeaway service, but I am pretty sure their overall customers went down by alot during all of this.

[gremlinsinc]

Restaurant supply chains are a totally separate beast. Bulk foods being supplied were mostly sent to landfills. Tons of potatoes for example that were only ear-marked for restaurants went straight to the dump.

Supplier A only supplies to restaurants it's normally a safe bet, so that's all they do. No restaurants buying - holy shit - my entire crop is excess...

I'm not a farmer but this is what I've read.

There's also the fact a lot of panic buyers might buy too much, then end up throwing a bit away because of fear that when they need it - it won't be there, but then it just spoils at home, etc.

Also food banks are taking a lot of the food. More people actually have money for food (one thing the govt does do is make sure people don't starve (usually) maybe more if you have kids).

TLDR: You can't just move all restaurant food to consumer/grocery like it's a commodity in Factorio... it takes a lot to shift global supply chains and get new contracts on how deliverables are received, etc...

[herbst]

If i cant go to a restaurant i still have to eat. I dont think this would lead to a huge difference. At least not for me.

[melomal]

> I don't get how food consumption can increase in a pandemic

There are a lot of people comfort eating and generally grazing out of boredom. I'm sure I've been eating a little more than I should with the crappy foods. Plus, people are saving so they are probably buying more foods to stock up on and thus throwing it all away.

[Ekaros]

Not to forget availability of labour. Which travel restrictions affect. Also processing has challenges. When your line worker might be out of service for week or two it can affect output, same goes for increasing the hygiene standards. And those also involve costs which will be moved to consumers.

[tomp]

It only took a global pandemic for the fake argument “immigration doesn’t suppress wages” to finally be cancelled.