The Richmond, CA Costco is out of canned tomatoes. We decided to buy another box or two (about ten 14 oz. cans in a cardboard box) since they’re a veggie we actually do use canned. You’re supposed to stock up on stuff you’ll enjoy, ergo, fixin’s for pasta sauce, right?
Mr pixxer scoured the aisles, and finally went to ask: no canned tomatoes. Sold out. He also went in search of dried pasta. No spaghetti. No little fun-shapes, either. No pasta.
We went for flour, and they had that. Also hamburger. But a couple of us were going over the chicken fridges with a visual-fine-toothed-comb, and there were no chicken thighs. I asked. Yes, really, sold out. Also no boneless pork chops.
Then I noticed the backstock shelves. The lowest level at Costco has unpacked goods ready to sell. The two shelves above that normally have pallets of backstock ready to restock the selling area when things run out. As you can see above, the backstock, at least in this food aisle, was nearly gone.
So, today was the last no-coupon day at Costco before a new coupon cycle, and I’ve never been to a Costco right before a new set of specials came out — perhaps they always run down like this? But I doubt it.
Walking around by the cheeses, I saw a couple coming toward me and, as I generally do, I smiled at them. The woman said “At least someone is smiling!” (Not, it should be noted, without some rueful humor.) Later I ran into her again in the aisle pictured above, and we just stared at the empty shelves for awhile.
In nice touch, a woman as we entered the store offered a paper towel and asked if we wanted to rub down the cart; however, it would be more helpful if that was offered before you had grabbed the cart handle and got all the way to the door.
We’re not going to have any trouble filling in those missing items, but it was quite striking to me that Costco had run out of the basics like that. I hope your preparations for seclusion are all going well.
Wash your hands :)