Local grocery stores have worked to combat supply chain issues that have plagued many national chains which rely on their own warehouses for products.
Darrell Wiley, president of J&J Foods in Gainesville, said they have experienced some supply chain issues, but their shelves are still stocked.
“We have less variety in sports drinks for example and juice pouches, but at this point, we have some flavors in most sizes of both of those, where I’ve seen in other stores just bare shelves,” Wiley said.
Wiley said flexibility with suppliers is the real reason J&J Foods has been able to overcome issues that large chains have struggled with. Specifically, J&J has about six sources for rice and vegetables, five sources for canned goods, four fresh meat suppliers and two or three dairy suppliers.
“The primary source for products for national regional chains is their own warehouse,” Wiley said. “They don’t have that flexibility … they’ve got to get it from their own warehouse.”
Quality Foods, a local grocery store chain with stores in northeast Georgia and South Carolina, has reported similar success in adapting to ongoing supply chain woes. Warren Brown, vice president of operations with Quality Foods, said they were only dealing with a few problems as of the last week of January.
“Nobody’s got canned biscuits right now, and I don’t have the answer why. We still have some issues with ramen noodles, there’s some cereal issues, and some of that had to do with Kellogg’s being on strike,” Brown said.
However, Brown said Quality Foods has relied on multiple suppliers, just like J&J. Both Brown and Wiley said the big thing they are hearing is their supply of meat is much greater than what can currently be found at many large grocery chains.
Brown said the availability of meat at Quality Foods comes down to how it is packaged.
“As long as we get product, we cut our own meat,” Brown said. “But most companies are what they call case-ready where it’s cut in a plant and boxed up and shipped to them in the package with a label on it … well, if there’s COVID in the plant, if there’s shipping issues in the plant, they can’t fix their problem on their own.”
Pricing of meat products fluctuates on a near-weekly basis, according to Wiley. However, he doesn’t believe that prices have shot up as much locally as they have nationally.
“Like everyone, we’re seeing the commodities increase in cost,” Wiley said. “Where one commodity goes up, another one has stayed the same. Right now, beef is running a little higher than it was, pork has stayed pretty much the same … we’ve seen increases and decreases in prices in fresh meat and produce.”
http://accesswdun.com/article/2022/2/1074599/local-grocery-stores-adapting-to-supply-chain-issues