Walmart continues to be a one-stop-shop for many people, suiting customers’ needs for clothing, appliances, entertainment devices and even groceries. As seen in many recent Reddit threads, however, shoppers have voiced their concerns over food shortages, and particularly, a lack of frozen chicken in their local Walmart stores. Some have documented photos of empty aisles, footage of missing chicken in their store’s meat sections, and continue to share related stories.
One user notably took to the social media platform last month and shared a photo of one Walmart customer purchasing approximately 45 containers of chicken breasts. According to their post, this was the entirety of the store’s offerings available at that time. “My man bought all the chicken breast in the store…,” they wrote in the caption.
Hundreds of fellow Reddit users still chime in to this day, with one suggesting that a chicken shortage might be due to people hauling in items to prepare for a doomsday-like-situation. They questioned, “Are people hoarding it like TP from early last year or is there a production shortage?” Countless commenters noted that their local Walmarts had either run out of chicken or were about to.
Another theorized a reason for this, writing,”Right now it’s cheaper to buy the parts than whole chickens I believe, so restaurant owners are buying all chicken parts.” Someone else noted, “The store I work at is like this too, we’re barely getting any chicken at all, maybe a day’s worth we get per truck.”
Walmart has yet to officially confirm whether or not there is a chicken shortage in their U.S. stores, but they did reportedly admit to having issues in an email sent to Thrillist.
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A representative for Walmart wrote, “This is not just an issue isolated to Walmart, it is affecting every chain—it’s an industry issue—from impacts due to COVID absenteeism within the supply chain due to quarantine requirements by employers in supply chain, as well as school and day care closures tied to COVID, and several winter storms across the country over the past six weeks. We are working hard with our suppliers to increase inventory.”
As reported by Thrillist and CBS News, there has been a nationwide chicken shortage since May of 2021, and a chicken-tender-specific one since December. Whatever the reason may be or regardless of how many stores and chains are affected by a chicken shortage, buying large quantities (like in that Reddit user’s post) won’t help the problem.
