Get Your Thanksgiving Turkey NOW

By Lori Perkins

We’ve all been hearing the media stories of doom and gloom for the approaching Christmas season, especially when it comes to ordering books as Xmas presents. And there’s been lots of stories about empty shelves when it comes to things like catfood (yes!).

One of the rumors that started circulating was that this year there was going to be a shortage of frozen turkeys, which I interpreted as the supermarket chains and big box stores trying to get us to buy our Thanksgiving turkeys early, just like they did this year with starting the Christmas push BEFORE Halloween.

But I attended my first post-pandemic writer’s conference this weekend, where I commented that I had succumbed to the shopping panic and had already bought my frozen holiday turkey. A husband of one of the writers, who works in grocery store fulfillment, told me it was true. He said the trucks are empty right now, and there’s a good possibility there won’t be enough turkeys on time. So order now—or plan on eating Thanksgiving ham this year.

The shortage of goods is due to the containment storage clusterf*$k throughout the country, with goods just piled up on the east and west coasts. But it’s not just in the US. A recent story in The Guardian profiled a chain of British grocery stores that is putting up large photos of missing stock in place of where the items would be. Let’s hope we don’t follow suit.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/oct/22/supermarkets-using-cardboard-cutouts-to-hide-gaps-left-by-supply-issues