Not sure. I found this article on the impact of covid-19 interesting, though:
"US demand has slumped dramatically – 68 percent of the US seafood sector is food service, rather than retail, and this figure is probably around 60/40 for salmon sales, so the retail sector has not been able to make up for the disappearance of food service sales,” he explains.
As a result of this drop in demand, according to Nikolik, Chilean producers are trying to hold onto their fish until the end of this year or early next year – either by delaying harvests and reducing feeding rates to minimise growth, or by freezing those salmon they do harvest. As a result he’s expecting a reduction in Chilean salmon exports globally by as much as 30-50 percent during the peak of the crisis, from mid-March."
And this afternoon, the freezer cases were more than half empty. There were just a few packages of smoked salmon. Is this just a California Bay Area thing?
Interesting about salmon. Though I haven’t been to a Trader Joe’s since February at least, smoked salmon has been readily available on every trip to the area supermarket chain (Market Basket in Massachusetts) where I shop every two weeks. In fact, I think they may have more in stock rather than less.
Probably depends on sourcing. I have a hunch that my go-to supermarket chain has more leeway to adapt when necessary. They’ve been working hard to provide us shoppers with alternatives when the usual brands they carry aren’t available.
I’ve seen that from our regional chain of Giant Food. They simplified stock for a while and are only now starting to add back some of the things that were dropped. Two months with no Grey Poupon! grin It wasn’t even shown as ‘out of stock’ just gone. Back in the online list and two squeeze bottles in our cart for curbside pickup today. We’ll see what we get.
YAY: Sweet & Spicy Candied Pecans. Really nice flavor.
YAY-ish: “Saddle Crisps”. A perfectly reasonable facsimile of Pringles, so your opinion of this will probably depend largely on your opinion of the original.
MEH: Cucumber Kefir Salad Dressing. Not nearly as flavorful as I had hoped. Put it on a salad and still had to add some seasoning, which kind of defeats the purpose of pre-made salad dressing.
YAY: roasted vegetables (in the refrigerated vegetable section). We’ve had the roasted cauliflower (not as good as my own, but quite good for something that requires so little preparation) and roasted green beans (liked these a lot). Roasted broccoli is in our veggie bin, awaiting trial.
I noticed today that the fresh sausages at Trader Joe’s are different now. The checker thought they had just changed the labels. He offered to go ask customer service for me but I was in a hurry. I would have bought some to try but I still have some in the freezer I overbought last time. I am in Washington state but the old ones I liked were sold at all west coast TJ’s I have been to. They don’t seem to carry the sweet Italian chicken ones I like the best at all but even to pork ones looked different. Not bad, just different. Has anyone tried them. I should have taken a picture.
Tried the frozen Bibimbap and wasn’t impressed. Meh. I’m admittedly not an aficionado but the meat in this was not at all like the picture on the box. 1/2” square very thin bits and not very many of them. I’m a spice wimp too so I wound up adding some hoisin to what, to me, was a very spicy sauce. Not something I’d try again.
. Tasty with lime.
