Mystery of the Missing Garlic

Two stores we’ve been to lately have been mysteriously out of garlic. When it was Giant, I just wrote it off as typically crappy service that they wouldn’t have any out on the shelves or even in the back in inventory. But Wegmans was out, too. That’s just not cool when they are out of something we use so often.

I came home to the wonders of Google to find out if there was some kind of garlic shortage. Considering that it auto-filled “garlic shortage 2011,” I didn’t expect to find news about moderating prices and rebounding production. So what gives? If garlic production is actually going up, and prices are going down, why are the stores out of garlic?

12 thoughts on “Mystery of the Missing Garlic”

  1. I buy my garlic at the Italian Market in Philly. I get the best Italian Hot Sausage there, and I get a string of garlic for 6 bucks. Last for like 6 months or longer.

  2. I haven’t noticed a shortage of garlic around here (California). Our stores are loaded with garlic. Maybe it’s something to do with your local area?

  3. Maybe it is. It’s so weird. I mean Wegmans was more picked over than usual the other day, but most things were still on the shelves. The garlic bin had 2 in it – one was rotten already and the other was going to be very soon. There was just nothing.

    At Giant, there weren’t even rotten ones in the bin. I checked with their employees since Sebastian was still in another part of the store, and they didn’t even have anything in the back to restock.

    It’s just such a random time of year and such a random shortage to experience.

    It makes sense that California has plenty since they’ve apparently been picking up the slack on lower Chinese production of the last year and a half, according to what I read.

  4. Probably survivalists stocking up for 1)Vampires, 2) werewolves 3) zombies.

  5. New twilight movie coming out. I’m stocking up to inoculate my daughter and her friends now that the protective effects of Harry Potter is wearing off. Moderately effective against teenage boys too, but a booster of Benelli is SOP.

  6. Vampire books and fears of vampire outbreak. Zombies are so 2009. Vampires are 2011. Werewolves will be 2012.

  7. Canning season. Today alone, I used over 80 cloves.

    20 quarts of tomatoe sauce. 8 quarts of salsa. 16 pints of peppers, garlic, and oil.

    The garlic and oil was the only ingredients I purchased. Everything else came out of the garden.

    In all seriousness, maybe it’s just locally out of garlic? I bought my garlic yesterday at Wegmans. And there was plenty there when I left.

  8. You have two main supply lines. One is three thousand miles and the other is what, twelve thousand miles?

  9. If garlic production is actually going up, and prices are going down, why are the stores out of garlic?

    George Bush.

  10. Yeah, here in the Northwest we’ve got garlic by the whatever-you-measure-lots-of-garlic-in.

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