The Halloween fast food thread

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

I've seen pumpkins around here for a few weeks, but there aren't many. That's because there is a pumpkin shortage this year, I know this because we have to order fresh produce for meals in the restaurant, and baked goods for my wife's treats in her bakery, and this year it's been harder to find distributors that have enough stock for everybody, and for the pumpkins that we have been able to get, the price has gone up, it's not a ridiculous amount, but still more than it was in previous years. Though, we have been reassured that there will be plenty more pumpkins coming in a few weeks.

[Murfreesboro]

I'd wondered about that. We usually see them before now. I wonder what happened? I was unaware that the agricultural states were having oroblems, other than California, I mean. And I thought most of that crop came from the Midwest.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Honestly, we weren't given a specific reason for the shortage from any of our distributors, so it could be crop related, or it could possibly be a corporate reason.

For example, when a large chain like McDonald's offers a new seasonal limited-time only menu item, whether they need vegetables or meat for that new product, they will always receive priority allocation of inventory because they purchase in such large volume, so that causes a shortage of product that affects the whole industry, and small independent businesses get hit the hardest because we have to pay more for the small amount of product if/when it's available to us. The distributors just push us aside because we simply can't compete with large corporations.

So, if the shortage isn't crop related, then I guess that some company needs a large amount of pumpkins for their seasonal menu this year.

While we are on the subject of pumpkins, when the forum wasn't working I was on the front page checking the usernames and threads to find out which ones would still work, and I saw a funny typo, I've been here for 5 years and I haven't noticed it before.

a.png (37.24 KiB) Viewed 5 times

[Murfreesboro]

I wouldn't have noticed that, either, if you hadn't called my attention to it. It's a cute typo.

I did finally see a large haul of pumpkins at Kroger yesterday. I guess they're a large corporation, too. I hope yours arrive soon and aren't too costly.