The Latest Shortage Is A Condiment Packet?

Since the pandemic began about a year ago, we've seen and dealt with shortages of some items that I never thought we'd ever be dealing with. Products like paper towels and toilet paper were the first items to be cleared off the shelves along with cleaning supplies and sanitizers.

The cleaning supplies and sanitizers I can understand, since all of a sudden we need to keep everything we touch, sterilized as much as possible to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. But toilet paper? C',mon. What was the logic for that? Did people really need to hoard toilet paper? Alcohol, I understand, but not TP.

Over the past year, pretty much everything is back to normal, and you can find what you need on store shelves without limits on the amount of items you can buy at a time.

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But now I just heard of another shortage. It's not a shortage of an item in a store, it's an item found in a restaurant. That item is ketchup packets. According to CNN, the shortage is a real thing. Apparently it stems from the fact that over the past year, with many people getting takeout from restaurants, the amount of packets of condiments have increased.

When I first heard of this, I had to laugh, thinking this can't be true. But here we are. I have a solution. If you are getting take out food and taking it home, don't you already have a bottle of ketchup in your refrigerator? Use that instead of taking condiment packets with your takeout. That's what I do. Any condiment packets I find in my takeout generally gets thrown to the back of my refrigerator, never to be seen again, or thrown in the garbage. But I guess most people don't subscribe to the same way I think.

But, if you are getting takeout and eating your food where a bottle of ketchup isn't readily available, I understand you need those packets. CNN notes that Heinz has taken steps to increase production of ketchup packets to meet the increased demand, and it will increase as people begin to attend sporting events , festivals and other events that also sell food.

In the meantime, I have a few packets of ketchup in my office refrigerator, so I'm all set. Hmm, I wonder what the going rate currently is for ketchup packets?

via CNN