Flour shortage?

[psychmom]

Is anyone else's grocery stores out of flour? Ours (south Texas) have been for almost 2 weeks. I don't get it. 

[InBetweenDays]

I went last Friday and the store I went to (in Seattle) had some bags left, but not a ton. H went last night and tried to get some for my parents and the store (a different store) was completely wiped out.

[hocus2]

Flour was very rare here for about 8 to 10 days but now it is in stock in limited inventory. I buy a bag most times I shop since most of our baking seems to use a lot of flour. (I didn't bake much before we were shut in -- so I might buy flour a few times a year as I needed it).

You might be able to get some shipped. I think target is shipping flour.

[jenny1223]

Last time I was in our grocery store they were stocking pallets of flour so I'm assuming there had been a run on it. I picked up some extra baking ingredients assuming we'll make more cookies, breads, etc. while we're home.

[nessness]

Our store wasn't out when DH went the other day, but they were imposing a 2 bags/person limit. It's probably a combination of people building up emergency supplies and people baking from scratch more since they're home more.

[luckystar2]

Mar 24, 2020 13:15:57 GMT -5 hocus2 said:

Flour was very rare here for about 8 to 10 days but now it is in stock in limited inventory. I buy a bag most times I shop since most of our baking seems to use a lot of flour. (I didn't bake much before we were shut in -- so I might buy flour a few times a year as I needed it).

You might be able to get some shipped. I think target is shipping flour.

Don’t trust target to ship the flour. I ordered it a week or so ago. They had it showing available in stock. I placed my order and ordered a few more things because it would only ship if you met a minimum amount. Everything else shipped and target notified me that the flour was cancelled.

Luckily my local grocery store had some in when I went on Thursday. When I first walked through they were almost completely out but had a couple 10lb bags so I grabbed 1. I walked back through a little later and the flour had been completely restocked. So here it just seems to be when you hit the store. Our store started limiting purchases for a lot including only 1 bag of flour.

I use it for making pasta and pizza dough which I plan to make often now. But it’s also good to have on hand for baking or even making bread if that’s hard to find. So I can definitely see why it’s selling out.

[kooshball]

Finally, the celiacs have won!!!!

[lilafowler]

I’m in MA and we’re having weird flour fluctuations as well (right outside of Boston). The other thing I can’t find is yeast.

I have some yeast on hand because I like to bake but now I can’t just run out for more.

I’m kicking myself for not starting up a sourdough starter like I planned in the Fall.

[followyourarrow]

It's super hard to find here. King Arthur website is sold out. My favorite flour is milled here in Kansas and I looked at having some shipped, but it was $33 just for shipping.

[lilafowler]

I think since a lot of people are home they’re either baking to distract themselves from anxiety (me) or worried that the world is going g to run out of bread.

[alleinesein]

Its been hit or miss with flour. Before the stay at home order went into effect, Target and TJs had none. I did a grocery run on sunday and the baking aisle at Vons was out of flour but fully stocked with sugar. Trader Joes had some so I grabbed a bag. Target's baking section was fully stocked.

We have just under 15 lbs now so we are set for awhile. I grabbed the flour over the weekend because Im making banana bread this week and we might have to make our own tortillas when we run out.

[tcu2003]

I’m in Kansas and it was out in at least 3 different grocery stores I went to last Thursday and Friday. We have plenty (yay for the huge Sam’s Club bag I bought a few months ago), but I was shopping for my sister and she wanted some as she anticipated doing more baking while she was stuck at home.

[doggielover]

Our grocery store has been out but I think a lot of people are doing a ton of baking. I know we've baked far more than usual as have a lot of others. So many people are doing baked goods and making their own bread. Our grocery store really doesn't even have meat yet and just got produce in this week.

[sotally tober]

This makes me think of the meme floating around something along the lines of "I thought everyone is doing Keto." Haha. I'm celiac and don't buy flour, but I haven't been able to get a small bag of rice...I've had to go for the instant/90 second microwave stuff.

[wesleycrusher]

Ours was out of flour yesterday. They have also been out of butter.

[Leeham Rimes]

Yep. Flour and butter. Also salt and any kind of pancake mix.

I don’t understand what they’re doing with all this stuff besides make sure nobody else has any.

[Nonny]

I haven't been to the store since last week (Wednesday), but both stores I went to were out of flour except for the ultra tiny 1lb bags (my regular grocery store was out the week before that as well).

Most are also out of yeast. I see on FB that all my friends are baking a lot more than they normally do to keep themselves occupied.

[pandora89]

I did a bit of a pantry restock in February before things got bad, but expecting it to and even then we were very low on flour. This was before the paranoia overbuying.

[katfco]

Mar 24, 2020 13:55:59 GMT -5 doggielover said:

Our grocery store has been out but I think a lot of people are doing a ton of baking. I know we've baked far more than usual as have a lot of others. So many people are doing baked goods and making their own bread. Our grocery store really doesn't even have meat yet and just got produce in this week.

This is what I'm doing. I've made oatmeal banana cookies and banana bread so far, and this weekend I'm making individual communion bread packets for families to take ad have at home for streaming church. 

[wanderingback]

Mar 24, 2020 14:24:59 GMT -5 Leeham Rimes said:

Yep. Flour and butter. Also salt and any kind of pancake mix.

I don’t understand what they’re doing with all this stuff besides make sure nobody else has any.

I don't necessarily think it's all people hoarding, but I think more people are just buying it in general.
People are working from home and kids are home from school so going through things more quickly than usual. 

Me for example I pretty much NEVER use flour. I think within the past year I've used it once. However, with more time on my hands the past 2 weeks I've used flour 3 times. We have a small bag that my SO bought probably a year ago, so I've been using that, but it's almost gone. So I'll go out and buy a bag next week when I do my usual shopping. Normally I probably wouldn't buy flour for another year or even longer. I think more people are baking and making bread at home. Same concept with butter. 

[Leeham Rimes]

That makes sense. It just went along with all the meat/eggs/milk being gone, all the drink mix being gone, every single frozen breakfast item gone. I don’t have much faith in my local humanity that it’s not hoarding . We’re gonna be eating potato chips and pretzels for breakfast soon, lol.

[mala]

Mid-Maryland and flour at my regular store has been out every time I've gone for the past two weeks. I bought an extra bag when this all started looking like it was going to go south and kept us stocked with an extra bag since before the panic buying started. My regular store is out of all the flours, including rye and whole wheat, which is kinda surprising. I went to Walmart yesterday (and was reminded why I hate Walmart, but was there for something only they sell in my area) and they had a few bags of regular and bread flour, so I bought another bag of bread flour and specifically resisted getting any more regular flour. Can not find yeast ANYWHERE right now. I took this opportunity to start a sourdough starter, so I'm trying to learn how to make sourdough. So far, two fails, one success.

[madringal]

I have been trying to find some for almost two weeks. My MIL brought me an extra bag last night. I am not normally a baker, but we have been because its just fun for the kids and delicious for me. I still cannot find yeast.

[eddy]

I have a bag and a half right now, but I am already freaking out about running out lol. We have been making cookies every other day and bread several times a week.

I haven't seen any in stores for weeks. I am only going in the store once a week though.

Also I have a sourdough starter going since yeast is not available as well.

[isabel]

I ordered a 5lb bag in my grocery pick up order this week and only got a 1 pound bag. Kind of strange. But I should be fine since I already some to start with. I just wanted enough to be able to bake a couple things I had in mind.

[dreamcrisp1]

Yes it was super hard to find but luckily I got some at the organic store down the street.

[TBM]

My daughter had been having a hard time finding flour, and yesterday her FIL brought home 25 lbs (or more ?) for her.

She and her family live with her in laws, and the big joke between she and her H (and his brothers) is that she is FIL's favorite child. When her brought home the flour (and storage buckets) for her, they were laughing about how it proved that he loves her the most.

Now she needs to find yeast, but in the meantime I've been sending her links to no yeast recipes.

[flygirl]

Our store had no flour, but I was looking for powdered sugar, to frost a cake and that was even gone-like seriously everyone in the country thinks they are going to be Betty Crocker I guess

[gastro]

There’s been flour at all the stores I’ve been too - Costco, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods. Definitely more picked over than normal but not sold out. I live in CA and nearly everyone here is gluten free.

[bronxgirl]

I only buy flour once or twice a year, but tried to buy some today and none insight. i was at a really big supermarket, but the whole shelf was wiped clean.