Post actual shortages here.

[graveday]

The only thing more scarce than baling wire in these parts is money to buy the stuff.

Is that actual wire you are talking about, or twine?  Haven't seen wire in these parts for years and years.

I suppose I could also ask if that is actual money you are talking about too, heh.

[kjeriah]

My local Smart and Final (discount restaurant supply chain open to the public) is out of antibacterial gel.  The place usually has a bunch of 12-oz pump bottles of clear gel.  The man at the counter told me that they keep reordering and just hope in comes in soon. 

[luna201]

The hand sanitizer may be just due to the massive amount of demand right now -every joe and jane is stockpiling it against the flu.

[JohnLudi]

The only thing more scarce than baling wire in these parts is money to buy the stuff.

Is that actual wire you are talking about, or twine?  Haven't seen wire in these parts for years and years.

I suppose I could also ask if that is actual money you are talking about too, heh.

I thought it was only me about the bailing wire thing.

I was looking for some a couple months ago, went to a Menards, asked for it, and got the confused dog look from about a half dozen people there.

I finally had to make do with some relatively dismal small wire spools in an area where they kept some really convoluted bungee cord contraptions.  They had no regular bungee cords.

I am starting to think that I should open a store that sells all the basic essentials that seem to have vanished from store shelves over the past 30 years.  I will call it the "Crap You Just Can't Find Anymore" store.  The median age of my customers will probably be around 50.  I can already smell the piles of filthy lucre.

[rocketgirl]

My local Smart and Final (discount restaurant supply chain open to the public) is out of antibacterial gel.  The place usually has a bunch of 12-oz pump bottles of clear gel.  The man at the counter told me that they keep reordering and just hope in comes in soon. 

Someone had a great idea a while back so I'll repeat it here.  The active ingredient in the hand sanitizer is just rubbing alcohol so you can just purchase mini spray containers and fill with rubbing alcohol (maybe $1.00 for a large bottle of RA) and spray that on your hands.  Use hand lotion after so your hands don't dry out.  The gel in the other stuff is just to spread the alcohol anyway.

[Oceana]

So, we're out of pop in our building, and I heard the Coke and Pepsi distributors are starting to skip (or stagger) their deliveries to our State buildings, which makes me wonder if with the straits our lovely State of MI government is in, facility managers are getting behind on payments for stuff...  A building full of people deprived of their caffienated goodness... OMG... 

Ahem, actually, what I wanted to post was an update to the shortage I reported in gas at the Marathon station in my neighborhood.  They've now announced they're going out of business--can't make any profit, since they see so little in gasoline sales themselves (which from what I understand is common among gas stations--they don't make money selling gas), and no one's buying the snacks/convenience items inside.

[graveday]

Hey Unrepentent Cowboy, was that metal baling wire or twine?  An old hay hauler wants to know.  Besides I need to fix my truck.

[haggismudpie]

Alright -- this is not a critical survival item, but it really annoyed me when I promised to make 300 cheese blinzes for my daughter's wedding breakfast and found out that a necessary ingredient (in my book anyway) is no longer available except as a picture on Amazon.  Baker's cheese. Yea, you can substitute, but I wanted what I consider to be the best.  I called all over the U.S. - no luck.

[haggismudpie]

Okay, I'm over it.  Will return to my buckets of beans and rice.  It was just my best recipe after Gallinas Borrachas.

[Broil]

You could use Ricotta for baker's cheese, that's available in any grocery store.

[Hope@ZeroKelvin]

No shortages  but prices have fallen like a stone.  Massive deflation.

5 lbs of beautiful Michigan apples for $1.29.  Planning to can a ton of my fav apple pie filling recipe.

Roma tomatoes for 98 cents/lb (bought 10 llbs and made sundried tomatoes).

Planning to stock up and can/dehydrate all the fruits and veggies I can while my soon-to-be-worthless FRNs have some value!

[unrepentantcowboy]

We use baling wire, not twine.

I got 20 boxes the other day to finish up this season but I had to special order them and wait a few days.

[Grower]

Do you have to do that by hand with paddles? Bale the hay with it, that is.

[graveday]

Thanks Cowboy.  The dairies here are glad of the switch to twine as it eliminates the fear of bits of wire getting into the cows.   As a result, it is harder to find the old cow magnets.  I kind of miss the wire though, it was like indestructible duct tape and I always had a few twists in my cab.  No more.

[unrepentantcowboy]

We bale hay with baling baling machines that pull behind a tractor.