Where's the flour?
 

Ventured out to a popular store to get a few essentials the other day. I cook and bake quite a bit using basic ingredients and was very surprised to find there was no flour, just an empty space where it should have been. To me that indicates more are baking and doing some real cooking. I think that is a good thing to have come out of a bad thing.

More baking is both good and bad. I’ve been baking way more, but that’s a lot of goodies for just the 2 of us. It’s been fun though! Even the King Arthur site doesn’t have any regular flour. Luckily I stocked up before the hoarding started.

I haven't been out to the stores at all in going on 6 weeks now. So I have missed all the shortages on the shelves other than what I have been told or seen on TV. My sister told me yeast and flour were gone weeks ago. You are right that people are baking and generally just cooking more than ever. Things will normalize again someday and I hope, like many others, sooner than not. I am still just so surprised at all the hoarding. Especially toilet paper! I understand to some extent food items. Preparedness is important. I have not had to change the way I cook or bake since I do these things anyway. It is the folks that have had to change everything that I feel for. So hopefully you will find flour soon so you can bake! -:)

It makes me sooo mad. There would be no shortages if people wouldn't hoard. A lot of stores here are limiting how many of an item you can purchase.

Walmart here has flour. I bought King Arthur Tuesday, several different brands on the shelf. Also plenty of corn meal and sugar. Walmart has so many truck delivering from the distribution warehouses the stores get stocked pretty fast. I went to Kroger and the employee said their trucks aren't coming as often and there were lots of empty shelves there. You will have a better chance of finding the hard to find items by being there when the store opens. Remember the employees have family and friends that want to know when an item is stocked for the next day. Be early. Also the first couple days of each month, everything will be gone from shelves fast.

I guess the flour is out there somewhere with the yeast!! I check in my grocery store every time I am in there for yeast and there is an empty hole where it "should" be. I am glad everyone out there is baking and cooking.

Check eBay...... Nothing but pure greed.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...r&_sacat=14308

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...+purpose+flour

The empty shelves and shortages have been common here in the Seattle area for weeks now. I've been trying to encourage people not yet on lockdown to make sure they have everything they need for as long as they can afford, trying for a month. Some people need to go out weekly, others have more supplies at home.

It's not so easy for those of us used to a fresh food/low carb lifestyle, it was really easy to have pantry goods for months/weeks at a time when I could eat high carb without sending my blood sugar into the 400 range. It is simply not an option for me to eat grains and such, no pasta or flour or corn meal or potatoes or just about anything else I can store on a shelf...

But think of everything -- dish sink/dish washer soap, bleach, I have a specialty contact lens solution, pet food, my coffee consumption is way up!

Last time I went to my local markets they were all out of flour but still had yeast. My friend in Arizona who has been baking with her bread machine for years has asked that I mail her some next time I go out.

Our Washington State Attorney General is not amused at the price gouging in addition to false cures.
https://www.atg.wa.gov/report-covid-...-price-gouging

Iceblossom ~ I'm sympathetic with your friend! My pet peeve ... people stocking up on items they won't actually use for some time (and maybe never did use before), and that I need now! Looking for whole wheat flour. We've been baking our own bread since several months before the COVID-19 outbreak (when my favorite store-bought bread was discontinued), and now that I need more flour, there's none to be found. I won't need to bake bread for about a week, but just not sure what I'll do then if I still haven't replenished my supply.

I've done some Google searches on the internet and the companies providing the flour say there is no shortage of the raw materials, but the sales are going so fast they are not able to keep up.

Craziness!

TFL!

Flour in my area has been available if your in the right place at the right time. Both the local grocery stores the baking isles are pretty baren, no flour and no sugar every time I've been in the stores. I got some at our local natural grocery/garden/grain/gift store, they purchase from Associated grocers, and are apart of a co-op They have plenty of flour and yeast. Just an FYI for those who plant a garden, I have always purchased my garden seeds during the winter months to be ready for spring. When I purchased them a few weeks ago at the above mentioned store, I commented, "I figure I better get these now to tuck away for spring before they too are gone, just like everything else right now." The owner told me, they are selling seeds as fast as toilet paper, they have had to place three orders for seeds, and they are still selling like crazy, he explained, he has never ordered so many seeds in March for spring planting in all his years in business, so if you plant a garden, plan on getting your seeds now and store them. It's looking to me like this virus is going to make us all into homesteaders, home baking and gardening atleast.