Demand for Baking Goods Is Up 3400% as Shoppers Stock Up for Winter

Just about everybody seems to be stocking up for winter now. Like a gang of over-
prepared chipmunks, we’re buying up all the pantry ingredients and getting ready to hibernate if we have to. With coronavirus still spreading nearly unchecked, cold weather coming, and an uncertain holiday season on the horizon, consumers are purchasing pantry products in droves, reports Bloomberg. Demand for baking ingredients was up 3400% from the same three weeks last October — not as big of a jump as the 6000% back in March, but still pretty impressive. 

But the biggest difference between the first rush on shelf-stable ingredients and this one is that stores and producers can be a bit more prepared than last time — companies like General Mills, Campbell Soup, Conagra, and Stonyfield Farm are buying up supply lines and adding production lines — meaning that more Cheerios, Annie’s mac and cheese, Goldfish crackers, Cape Cod potato chips, and organic yogurt will be ready to go soon. 

At the store level, markets are trying to avoid the empty shelves of spring by bringing in private label brands to fill in the gaps from the big names, especially in the two weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. Among the hardest things to get, says an Albertsons executive (Safeway, Vons, and others), are cleaning sprays, wipes, hot dogs, and of course the poster child for pandemic shortages, flour. 

Part of the reason for the shortages this time around, though, is due to the shortages from spring — companies haven’t managed to catch up to the high demand yet, and they won’t be able to until demand drops. Which it doesn’t seem likely to do anytime soon — leading General Mills to estimate that inventories might return to normal by next June.