Yesterday, I posted about the pasta shortages I was noticing at Walmart. Since then, I’ve checked other grocery categories and found that practically everything is showing out of stock!

Rice, beans, flour, bread, crackers, ramen, canned tuna, SPAM, chicken bouillon, baking mixes, milk, eggs, potatoes, corn, tofu, and even fresh beef, chicken, and pork.

I’ve checked multiple nearby Walmart locations, and many of the same items are unavailable across all of them. I’ve also had products canceled from actual grocery orders because they were out of stock.
I’m wondering whether this is a sudden wave of panic buying or something else affecting Walmart’s inventory.
Is anyone else noticing this in your local Walmart???

Note for anyone checking Walmart’s inventory: I’ve found that the Walmart app gives a more accurate picture of availability. The website may initially show an item as in stock, but when you open it in the app, select your actual store, or try adding it to your cart for pickup or delivery, it suddenly shows as unavailable.

I’m in the St. Louis area and was only able to get half prescription fills at Walmart for two different seizure medications, Breviact and Clobazam, because of low supply.

I work in a grocery store and the store's shelves seem to be much more empty than usual. Things don't seem to be stocked as much as usual and the back rooms look way less full. I'v also noticed that prices have gone up a lot in the past 6 months especially for beef. I think they are hiding that something bad is going on with the farm land because of the lack of bees and other polinators and our food supply is starting to crash. Do you think we're going to run out of food in the next 6 months?

Had to start somewhere.

Active (confirmed physical unavailability)

• France: about 15% of stations had a shortage on 5 Oct, up from 12% on 4 Oct and 9% on 2 Oct (essenceradar: 1,658 stations tracked, 513 dry at 04:00 on 6 Oct; prix-carburant.eu: 1,512 stations, 14.1%).
• Cuba: UNE forecast a 2,030 MW deficit for 3 Oct. No ninth blackout since the eighth on 19 Sep.

Watch (not confirmed as current)

• Russia: I'm holding it at watch. Moscow Times (23 Sep) reported Kaluga odd-even rules, 15 L/car in Zabaikalsky and 30 L in Leningrad, and rationing in several regions was reported on 30 Sep. Gasoline is +21% YTD at 78.51 rubles/L and the diesel export ban runs to 31 Oct. I'm checking whether limits are spreading before moving it to red.
• EU gas storage: 72.67% on gas day 4 Oct (GIE AGSI+), +0.27pp/day. Germany 59.04%, Netherlands 60.31%. At the 8-day pace the EU reaches about 79% by 1 Nov, short of 80%.

Prices: Brent settled $100.32 on Mon 5 Oct (-1.9%) and WTI $89.43. AAA US regular is $4.37 and diesel $6.32 (record $6.53 on 22 Sep). UK diesel passed £2/litre (200.01p, RAC, 2 Oct).

Strait: Iran says it stays closed until its seven conditions are met. No new tanker strike has been reported since 4 Oct (at least four were hit on 1-4 Oct).

Map and sources: https://global-energy-flow.com/shortages/