Get Ready for the Latest Potential COVID-19 Related Shortages

We've just about seen it all during the last eight months of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, especially when it comes to shortages of specific items on store shelves.

Things like toilet paper, hand sanitizer, gloves, and even meat have been in short supply at times thanks to consumer stockpile buying since March.

And now as we transition into fall there are a couple of looming potential shortages on the horizon.

A recent survey from the Sports and Leisure Research Group shows that a little more than half of us are planning to stock up on groceries to protect against potential shortages as the weather gets colder.

Recent cash register figures from grocery stores around the country show that we're spending on average about 11 percent more on essentials since the beginning of October. But a report in The Wall Street Journal says that stores are responding by stocking their shelves in anticipation of a possible surge in buying.

Planning ahead is also making another item harder and harder to come by.

CNN says the country is already experiencing a shortage of mason jars, with Mason Jar Merchant reporting a spike in sales that has been ongoing since August.

The two main factors contributing to the mason jar shortage? People had an abundance of time on their hands during quarantine to can food and more and more of us are canning to make certain we have food on hand in the event of a shortage this fall and winter.