Where did all the peanut butter go?
Sporadic shortages are hitting store shelves following a massive recall of Jif peanut butter, the nation’s top-selling brand. The severity of the shortage depends on where and when you’re shopping.
The same factors that created the baby formula shortage are playing a role with this one: The leading brand was pulled from shelves over food-safety contamination concerns, which immediately diminished the overall supply. This forced shoppers to buy other brands at a time when the supply chain was already strained by abnormalities in the COVID-era economy.
“In all of these disruptions it is usually a trigger, in this case a recall,” said Karen Donohue, a supply-chain expert and professor at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Business. “What’s interesting now is the consumer reaction has been further heightened, because people are on the lookout for potential shortages that would affect them.”
Like with toilet paper in the early days of the pandemic, where there’s a shortage, there’s hoarding.