I think we’ve officially jumped the shark on this whole corona virus, can’t find food, buy all the toilette paper in the world thing.
A few months ago, we had NOTHING in the beef freezer. Except cob webs and dust. We kept that empty freezer running for weeks until we could get another cow in from the processor. Then it was emptied in just about 1.5 days and we spent more weeks with an empty freezer.
Friday we have a cow going to the processor and while the beef freezer isn’t exactly full, there are actual cuts of beef in there that we still have for sale. We haven’t had this much beef at the end of the month since March. Yes we are still out of hamburger. And the ribeyes were gone before I could blink. But ribeyes disappear anyway no matter the conditions so that isn’t new.
I shared in my last post that I thought the craziness was over, and that demand would be dropping soon. This past Saturday we did revenue numbers that were comparable to pre-COVID levels. We are out of a lot of items so there is that, but the foot traffic was much lighter as well. The store is matching the internet trending.
Finally, this week we received back both OUR PORK and every single item on our order list from our chicken farmer. We haven’t had a full chicken order since early March, and we went several months with no chicken so this is a huge turn around.
The processors are still booking out into next year so we aren’t getting anything extra processed any time soon. But as retail demand slows, I think we’ll see farmers start dropping appointments. Once that starts, we’ll be able to work through our own backlog and get our pork back in the store more consistently.
With all that said, I’m not posting pictures of the freezers this week. Jeanette was taking well deserved time off and she won’t be in to restock till before we open. Just know that we have pork back fresh from our hogs, chicken in full supply, milk/cheese/dairy fully stocked, and seafood in good supply. We event got in some lamb. Beef is a bit sad but a cow is going Friday so we’ll be back fully stocked next week. After next week, I think you’ll see beef stay in stock going forward.
At least till the murder hornets breed with the locusts in India and make the next 2020 plague.