Is there a run on flour?

[tulipsandroses]

I went to 4 stores today and one yesterday could not find any whole wheat flour. Only one store had regular flour and it was only a few on the shelf. I don't eat flour so I don't know if this has been the case for a while. I was planning to make something for a friend and was looking for Sprouted Flour which I can get at Whole Foods or Sprouts. They had none, so then I started looking for whole wheat flour instead and none to be found. I went to Publix and Winn Dixie. Publix did not have any flour at all. Winn Dixie had a few packages of white flour on the shelf.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. Yes.

[BGBD]

2. Been that way

the whole time. You can find flour, but often as not you are limited in what you can find. There is usually some all-purpose flour when I go, but at the same time there is generally no yeast. My wife kept looking for it so eventually I just bought a pound of it from Amazon.

[murielm99]

3. Yes.

I tried to get flour a couple of times, with no luck. Recently, I was able to purchase two 2.5 pound packages of unbleached all-purpose flour. Later, I got some whole wheat. Yeast is in short supply as well. I pick up things as they become available.

We go to the store when we run out of milk. Everything else can wait. We are in our seventies, and have no one else to shop for us. We live in the country, and there is no delivery in our small community.

[WestLosAngelesGal]

4. I got wheat flour at Dollar Tree

Hopefully, you have one near you. The one near me restocks every day.

However, I had to buy yeast on Etsy.

Good luck.

[tulipsandroses]

5. OK, thanks for the replies. It will save me from running all over town trying to find some

I just looked on Amazon and I am seeing absurd prices. I will make something that does not require flour.

[Bettie]

7. If you have rolled oats you can

grind it in your blender or food processor to make oat flour. I've done this in a pinch when it was late and I was short of flour!

[Bettie]

6. I think the problem is that a LOT more people are

cooking at home now.

A lot more people have time to experiment with things like baking bread and, frankly, if they aren't working, baking bread costs A LOT less than buying bread.

The stores aren't used to stocking for that level of home cooking/bread baking.

Thus, they run out faster than they might otherwise.

[msongs]

8. maybe tons of unused flour tossed out in 6 months by hoarders who never used it nt

[GoCubsGo]

9. Flour and yeast.

It's gotten better lately. I managed to score a bag of Kroger brand white whole wheat flour this week. They had about 6 bags left. I prefer King Arthur's, but good luck find any of that in any form Fortunately, I have partial bags of their all-purpose and bread flour on hand already. No yeast to be found, other than nutritional yeast.

[Yonnie3]

10. Local bakeries are selling various flours here

They get large bags in and are dividing it up for resale. You might want to call up some in your area and see if they can help you.

[wryter2000]

11. Yup, for a while now

I ended up getting some shipped from a small, family mill in AZ. It cost me a bundle, but at least I know I can make pasta if I have to. (Assuming I can get an egg or two.)

[Hortensis]

12. Lol to the trauma many who rushed to buy are now feeling

as they need to put dinner on the table every day from pantries continually depleted of prepared foods, leaving shelves of "ingredients." Not that I don't sympathize with the effects of the relentless, unending demand on people who never wanted or needed to. Harsh breaking to harness for some.

In any case, flour disappeared very quickly in the beginning, no doubt much of it purchased by people who cooked as little as possible but had a vague notion that it was a prepper necessity. Now it's sitting there accusingly where cans of chili and packets of vindaloo should be.

On the plus side, hobby baking is reportedly seeing a nice little surge.

[badhair77]

14. I see lots of former coworkers posting pics of their latest muffins, cupcakes, etc.

Many haven’t baked in years but are now doing it as a family activity.

[Hortensis]

16. :) Yes. That's such a nice development. Our daughter's sons

liked to bake sometimes for fun, so as part of the other big quarantine trauma of crash-transitioning to remote schooling, early on she had them fulfilling science class assignments by "experiments" with baking. School's settled into routine, but they're still baking a bit as an alternative to video games and practicing their throwing. The littler one just learned to bake one of his favorites, angel food cake.

Wish we could be there.

[csziggy]

21. Just as the shutdown began, I was shopping and two college guys were looking for flour and yeast

There was all purpose flour but no yeast. I suggested they try to make soda bread so they bought baking soda and a bag of all purpose. I hope they managed to make some edible bread that way!

I've been stretching the bottle of yeast I had in my pantry unopened by making no-knead bread - have some rising right now. The two bags of King Arthur Flour (whole wheat and white wheat), bread flour, and all purpose flour are still holding out, though I had my husband pick up a bag of all purpose last week to make sure I will have some kind of flour.

[Hortensis]

24. :) Nice for them to discover a friend. I love those

intersections. It's been a couple of years now since a kid seeing me grabbing a pint of cottage cheese asked me how his grandma might have made a favorite salad with it. Taking him to the produce section and others to find potential ingredients was a gift -- to me.

I don't do much baking, and flour wasn't a priority when this started. But I'm down to about 2 cups of AP flour so have started checking for it. One cake or batch of cookies is too close to the abyss...

[csziggy]

25. I'm afraid I didn't give them much help, just made a suggestion

I figured they could find soda bread on the internet and go from there. Ironically, I've never made soda bread myself If I didn't have yeast, I would try it, though.

Publix has had all purpose flour in limited quantities, according to my husband. He does the shopping most of the time so I haven't been to the store in weeks. I make a list and he does his best to fill it - and he's been successful most of the time.

I've gone and down on baking - I love making bread, but it does not help me keep my weight under control. Same for baking cookies or other sweet dishes. I made cobbler the other day and it was fabulous, even slightly low calorie since I used little sugar, mostly Stevia for sweetening.

Oops - power just went out for a minute. Got to go.

[badhair77]

13. I am amazed at the number of people I know who are experimenting

with starters and bread making. Lots of them are brewers or craft beer enthusiasts.

[Steelrolled]

15. Availability getting much better over the last several weeks.

Now there is even a selection of brands.

[lame54]

17. It is spring/summer - not baking season...

The lockdown has created a impromptu baking season the manufacturers were not ready for because they are not supposed to be

They are trying to catch up to meet this new demand

[customerserviceguy]

18. I've seen it in short supply

I had to go to an upscale yuppie-style market to find some unbleached King Arthur flour to make sourdough starter a few weeks ago.

More people are discovering the joys of baking, I guess.

[Olafjoy]

19. Read an article by a nice lady from the flour manufacturers

She talked about how people are baking like crazy and demand is greater than even their peak season of November/December. They were not ready for this type of demand and they are trying to catch up. These days when there are empty shelves, consumers are perceiving that there is a permanent shortage of something and so when they see it they take more than they need. If the store was out of our favorite flour in December when we were baking cookies, we would come back in a few days and buy one bag. People just aren’t thinking like that these days.

[Runningdawg]

20. Yes. In Tulsa, difficult but not impossible.

Our small Hispanic Mkt has had everything I needed when I needed it until yesterday. No bouillon. I'm hoping it was in the store room waiting to be stocked. They had both flour and yeast.

[bottomofthehill]

22. Hell yes, weeks ago.

I got a bag of self rising flower and my wife is still trying to figure out to do with it. She is the baker and I am the cook in our house.

[sarcasmo]

23. Powdered Milk too, check out this site.

https://www.sausagemaker.com/login.asp

[Vinca]

26. I was going to drive up to the King Arthur flour home base and buy some, but the last time

I looked they were out of what I wanted. Read another article somewhere where they said more will be coming soon. Last week at the grocery store they had 3 giant 25 lb. bags of flour that appeared to be intended for restaurant use and that was it. Since there's no way I'll use anything close to that in the near term, I passed.

[Brother Mythos]

27. Yes, flour and yeast are in short supply in Eastern PA. And ...

it's not only in the USA. The wife spoke to our niece in the UK this afternoon. Our niece was, at last, able to buy yeast, but couldn't find any flour at her local supermarket. She thinks, however, that she may be able to buy some flour online, and have it delivered in a couple of weeks.