The nation's press has finally caught on to the nation's shortage of infant formula. That's good.
What's not so good is that they keep mindlessly repeating the same phrase over and over: "The out-of stock percentage has reached 40%." Or, even worse, "40% of baby formula was out of stock in more than 11,000 stores across the country."
What does this mean? That 40% of stores are out of stock? That store shelves have 60% of their usual quantities? That 40% of the time shelves are empty?
None of the above. "Out-of-stock percentage" comes from Datasembly, an industry analyst, and it's a term of art. Specifically, it refers to the percentage of SKUs that are unavailable.¹
SKU is short for stock keeping unit, and it's yet another term of art. Every single product a retailer sells is an individual SKU. A seven ounce Hershey bar is one SKU. A four ounce bar with almonds is a different SKU. A four ounce Cadbury fruit-nut bar is yet another.
In other words, an OOS percentage of 40% means that 40% of infant formula SKUs are out of stock these days. If you normally purchase Similac Advance in the 32-ounce size, you might find that you can't get it. But Similac 360 Total Care in the 8-ounce size might be easily available.
So in the category of news you can use, here's the bottom line:
The good news for harried parents is that that one brand of formula is as good as another, nutritionally — so if their regular brand is out of stock, parents can use another brand as a substitute with no concerns.
“It’s okay to switch between brands if needed. They’re generally the same ingredients, but maybe tweaked in very small, minimal ways, but you can switch between brand names or off-brand names from the supermarkets and the bulk stores.” Tom Herrmann, a spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Health Services, told a local Arizona CBS affiliate.
The formula shortage really is bad news, and it's gotten worse since a major recall earlier this year. But if it's causing you problems, check with your doctor. Unless your infant has special requirements, you can probably just buy whatever's available if your favorite brand is out of stock.
¹If you want to sound effortlessly knowledgeable about this stuff, SKU is pronounced skew in normal conversation. Example: "We did an audit and there were 237 skews that were misidentified in the MRP database." ²
²MRP stands for Material Requirements Planning. It's pronounced Emm Are Pee, and it's the software used for forecasting, BOM management, ordering, and other factory floor operations. Example: "We use Oracle for MRP but we're thinking of doing a big switch to SAP." ³
³BOM stands for Bill of Materials, the list of all the bits and pieces that go into a finished product. Note that MRP can also stand for Manufacturing Resource Planning, which is typically referred to as MRP II. The biggest MRP packages these days go by the name of ERP, or Enterprise Resource Planning. These software suites basically run everything from MRP to financials to human resources and more. Two of the biggest suppliers of ERP software are Oracle and a German company called SAP.
If most peoples kids are like my kids were, getting them to switch formulas was very, very difficult.
Yes and no.
I had fussy kids, but on holiday we couldn't buy the formulas they were used to.
They fussed and cried and didn't eat for a day. Then they settled down and ate.
A baby will hold out for his preferred formula for 12 hours. He will not starve himself to death.
Funny when I tell my cats that the food I have presented have the same ingredients, they still walk off in disgust when I change brands.
Yeah, it's not what's on the label - must be something about the presentation! I think it's just like how most cats seem to react to most changes - even small shifts in furniture. That's how we both know that they rule us.
Clearly you haven't gone through the appropriate approval process for shifting furniture.
Don't worry; I have atoned for each mistake after having forgotten my training & being shunned for a day or so. Always make amends with a tortoiseshell!
It is but an anecdote, but my wife was just at the store and happened by the baby section where she saw wide, open shelves. Perhaps in shifting from the 32 to the 8 oz SKUs of the "just substitute" example the 8 oz SKUs are joining the "out-of-stock percentage" ...
Here's a story on how it really sucks to be poor. If you are on the Women, Infants, and Children program for your infant or foster kid, you are allotted x cans a month. Those cans must be a specific brand and a specific size. If that specific brand and size is one of the SKUs that is experiencing a shortage (which it is!) you are SOL. You either have to go back to the store multiple times or go to different stores or pay out of pocket. All of those options are really bad for poor people.
Kevin has never been on WIC so it doesn’t affect him.
I've witnessed this problem's effect in my neighborhood, where it's compounded by the difficulty that some newcomers experience with English. So you're right - this is one benefit that needs improvement.
Wait, WIC limits you not only to a certain amount, but a certain *brand* of formula every month? WTF? Does some company pay off the USDA to make them the official WIC formula brand of the year or something? If that's true, it's absolutely mind-boggling.
Yes. The USDA has contracts with a limited number of manufacturers. Presumably, this is intended to limit costs, but I haven't seen the details.
Kevin has obviously never taken care of a baby. They can be fussy as hell and also are notorious for being impossible to rationally reason with when they refuse to do something like “accept this economic substitute for your preferred consumer item.”
Have you tried to show the baby a chart?
Well, tell the baby to suck in its mothers tits. Problem solved.
And both Tom Cotton & MoJo believe that this is one more problem for Biden to solve.
Didn't expect that such an advocate for smaller, less intrusive government (in general - not with respect to cracking down on women who don't think that their rights to their bodies must be enshrined in the Constitution) & Mr. Drum's former employer would agree on this.
I love this part from the MoJo article:
And I didn't mean to sound dismissive-sounding or callous; it's a real problem, but one that appropriate government response need not necessarily come from Biden himself. Expectations for him sure exceed what most expected from TFG.
Where is she from???? The northeast???
Clearly Biden must immediately approve a large release from the Strategic Formula Reserve! What, you mean we don't have one?!? Invoke the Defense Production Act then! ...
Anecdotal: my 10 month old niece lost her favorite stuffed animal. I searched and bought her the exact same stuffed animal as an Easter present. She looked at the replacement like I had tried to pull one over on her and waddled off to play with something else.
I don’t think babies respect SKU fungibility as much as economist wonks like Kevin thinks they should.
Kevin needs to have the "rational consumer" discussion with my 4 month old grandson - the one with digestive issues.
Seems the needed infant formula has gone from sometimes available at an inflated price to unavailable at any price.
There's no formula of any kind at our local grocery store. I'm just grateful that my daughter, at 16 months, is old enough not to need it anymore... although we had still been giving it to her (back when we could still find it) because she refused to drink cow milk. Back before the shortage, we had also tried switching her to another brand and she flat out rejected it. Girl likes what she likes.
If only the 8oz formula cost anywhere near 1/4 of the 32oz formula.
Plenty of formula where I live. More coastal hype.
Price elasticity of demand.
In my experience, sale items run out ($5 Fridays at Safeway in the middle of a pandemic, anyone?).
Substitution effect.
At other times when there's a limit of goods in a specific category (toilet paper, y'all), the cheapest units run out first.
Even in the best of times, supermarkets keep the infant formula locked up behind the cash registers, along with razor blades and cigarettes.
Meanwhile, the condoms are in the aisle alongside diapers.
I'll add, along with others above, that baby formulas tend to be, well, formulated, for specific dietary needs of different infants, whether that's for allergies, or certain extra nutrients, or digestive issues, or whatever. That's what they're for. If the specific formula your baby needs is out of stock, and especially if other manufacturers don't make the same or similar one, that can be a serious problem.
Kevin,
Tell me you've not raised a baby without saying it explicitly...
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I am curious; from the comments here it seems most(?) babies gets formula rather than is breastfed. I know formula is much more common in the US than where I live (Sweden), but what is the general message from professionals to new parents? Are they actively encouraging breastfeeding or is formula presented as an equivalent or perhaps even better alternative? I take it that there are no restrictions on advertising baby formula?