In a stay at home economy, demand for grocery items has soared, leaving grocery stores and consumer packaged goods makers strugling to keep shelves stocked.

Items such as flour, canned soup, pasta and rice remain in short supply. Not long ago seeing their sales falling strongly, even makers of canned food are enjoying strong demand.

Though measuring out-of-stocks is very challenging, retail data firm IRI has numbers showing a very steep rise in empy shelf slots at grocers, as shown in the graphic below, as produced by the Wall Street Jounal from IRI data:

Though out-of-stocks have been falling a bit lately, to about 10%, but still well above the 5-7% range seen before the start of the pandemic.   

Any Feedback on our Supply Chain Graphic of the Week? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback section below.

Your Comments/Feedback