I don’t know about items, by category, but in the first mad rush of panic buying in March of 2020 I was curious to see which brands of regular grocery items didn’t sell out even when others were gone. The longer they remained behind, the less appetizing they looked, and I’m talking about canned and boxed and packaged goods, not limp produce. It was as if they had “LOSER” written all over them.

I imagine that rejection on that scale must have forced some product marketers to reconsider their options.

One wonders if they were ever stocked again. I wish I had written some of the names down, but I was too busy grabbing paper towels, soup cans, flour, and powdered milk. (We never touched the powdered milk.)

RC Cola.

I love RC Cola. It’s at least 6.5x better than Coke. Very hard to find around here now, though, I’m sad to say.

Trump steaks.

When the jars of meat paste start disappearing from the shelves you know it’s really time to panic.

Brussels Sprouts.

GQ. I’m going to pay attention more.

Items left on shelves are either being stocked well or are left behind as undesirable.

During times of stocking up or hoarding I always have moments where I shake my head at what people hoard. Like when some people living in Florida stock up on milk for a Hurricane. I guess they think they are still waiting for a blizzard in Ohio.

What’s leftover is partly determined by the catastrophe that is coming. Frozen foods, raw meat, and refrigerated foods that go bad quickly without the cold, are undesirable in a hurricane. Pantry foods are always a good idea for all disasters, but even some pantry foods dangle around on the shelves, because they are in such low demand. Certain canned vegetables are usually leftover, I don’t remember which ones.

Lately processed foods as more people are into cooking fresh instead for better health.
Canned peas number one as NO child wants those.
( if one wants there child to eat more vegetables , hide it in a meatloaf of stew .

@Inspired_2write My cousin, who is in her 60’s, told me that when she was little, her father made her eat all of the peas on her plate, which took hours and to this day, she hates peas. My other friend told me her father made her eat ham and sweet potatoes, which she hated and she was getting up to spit it in the toilet, and she was throwing up because it was so disgusting, and today she doesn’t like ham or sweet potatoes (she’s in her 50’s). It’s amazing to me how parents think that they can force their kids to eat these foods but it really causes lifelong trauma.

@jca2
Yes I have seen this with my oldest daughter and her father when she was a child…I put a stop to it when I witnessed him trying that.

( I gave HIM a talking too about how does he think that a 6 foot 1 inch man needs to assert his authority to a small child..I suspect my late Mother in law was responsible for that as he was lashing out his childhood experiences onto our children which is unacceptable).

It varies by store, one store was completely out of cookie my wive asked for me to buy. Went to same brand name store three miles way and the entire shelf was filled with the same brand cookie.

@Tropical_Willie, that’s siblings for you. Store B took all the cookies that were meant for store A.

I think store A had several customers “panic buy” and store B is in a different neighborhood with different food tastes ! looked at store C which closer to store A and empty shelf for cookies.

@JLeslie Certain canned vegetables are usually leftover, I don’t remember which ones.

Mixed vegetables come to mind. Yuck! 8^P

@Inspired_2write, @jca2 Brussel sprouts were my bane. I finally cut them into quarters and swallowed them with milk like a pill.

@smudges “Mixed vegetables come to mind. Yuck! 8^P”

I buy those regularly for soup. It’s funny how people’s preferences are so different.

I bought canned potatoes many months ago when stocking up for hurricane season, and finally decided to open them up last week. I was lucky I did, because the expiration was coming due. I sauteed them and added a sprinkle of black pepper. I enjoyed them. They tasted a lot like cafeteria potatoes from childhood. My husband told me not to buy them again.

@JLeslie ;>0).

Made me laugh 1

@Tropical_Willie I’m glad. I will be buying them again! Fresh potatoes keep for a long time, so it isn’t like you can’t just buy a fresh potato, but I still liked the can for a pantry item.

@JLeslie, canned potatoes. Hmm. Additions to beef stew come to mind. Canned carrots, though: nevah.

Canned asparagus is extremely disgusting, to me.

I have to agree about canned carrots and asparagus, both are terrible.