Products

Where Did All The Groceries Go?

Chip and soda isle at Bfoods West

DEAR BLOOMINGFOODS OWNER-MEMBERS & SHOPPERS,

Although concerns about the overall health of the US food supply chain have mostly subsided, we are still experiencing longer-term out-of-stocks with some of your favorite brands. In an effort to keep you updated with the latest information, we’d like to share some of the primary factors that are creating these out-of-stocks. Additionally, we’d like to share a few of the brands and types of items with which we’re experiencing longer-term stocking challenges. 

The primary factors that have affected the availability of some of your favorite grocery items are:

  • The initial stockpiling and panic buying led to “pipeline” shortages

  • Transportation & distribution disruptions and delays

  • Production and facility capacity is greatly reduced (production hours have changed, physical reconfiguration of some facilities for safer work experiences has slowed production and employee health concerns have altered shift work)

  • At home cooking and eating while restaurants operate at reduced capacity results in increased consumer demand for in-store groceries

  • Travel restrictions and agricultural distribution disruptions have curtailed the supplies of imported products (i.e. canned tomatoes)

  • Shortage of raw materials (i.e. rice is harvested once annually and with the spike in demand, some reserves have been depleted until the next harvest in the fall.)

  • Weather: the regional apple crop that we expected later this summer has been destroyed by late spring frosts

  • The surplus of produce (fruits and vegetables) that would normally be sold to shuttered schools and restaurants is causing quality issues in warehouses across the country

  • The whole agricultural sector is being affected by a shortage of seasonal workers

  • State regulations regarding Hot Bar/Salad Bar/Buffet style services have dictated what we can and cannot offer (our Kitchen and Deli staff have implemented some creative solutions!)

These are a few of your favorite brands that are experiencing availability challenges:

  • Amy’s Frozen foods

  • Amy’s Canned soups

  • Field Day (all categories)

  • Seventh Generation cleaning supplies and paper goods

  • Many varieties of tofu 

  • Bob’s Red Mill

  • Lundberg Family Farms rice

  • Bubbies pickles (some varieties) and horseradish

  • Applegate Farms frozen sausages

  • Follow Your Heart Vegenaise

We are frequently communicating with representatives from our distributor, United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) and will continue to monitor product availability and do our best to provide reasonable alternatives for long-term out-of-stocks. In spite of the difficulties of this pandemic, our mission still remains the same. We will continue to do everything we can to provide healthy, high quality, sustainable, and environmentally-sound products at a fair price to our community.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. 

Sincerely,

The Bloomingfoods Team

Return of Reusable Bags

Woman carrying black Bloomingfoods canvas tote filled with produce

During this pandemic we have focused on continuing to provide our community with local, fair, and healthy products as safely as possible. As restrictions ease and new information arises, we will continue to modify our own safe shopping measures in response. Today we would like to provide you with an update on a changing measure -- the use of reusable shopping bags. 

Effective immediately, you can bring reusable shopping bags back into the co-op. We had been restricting their use. However, recent information released by the CDC suggests that surface to person contact is not thought to be the main way COVID-19 is spreading. This new information, combined with the negative environmental impact of using more paper bags, has prompted this change.

If you do elect to bring in reusable bags, we ask that you please plan to bag your own groceries.

We will continue to remain diligent in cleaning and sanitizing surfaces in our stores, and still highly encourage our customers to frequently wash and sanitize their hands. We also recommend wiping down your reusable bags after each use. 

Thank you again for your support and understanding.