Every once in a while I check in on the status of the U.S. canning lid market. Continue reading Post G22-049, canning lids revisited. Looks like 50 cents per lid is the going rate for wide-mouth Ball lids.
Tag: canning lids
Post G22-002: A Pur choice of canning lids.
Above: Used Ball lids. The one on the left clearly shows the groove left by the canning jar. The one on the right was boiled for 20 minutes, which clearly flattened that groove considerably. I picked up this tip boiling lids if you plan to re-use them from the blog A Traditional Life.
Bottom line: Ball lids appear to be widely in-stock at Walmart once again. And Ace Hardware is stocking a new brand of lids, Pur.
I bought a pack of Pur lids, thinking they had to be American-made, based on the lack of country-of-origin information on the packaging.
But after looking into it, my best guess is that I just bought some steeply marked-up Chinese-made canning lids, in packaging that managed to hide the fact that they were made in China.
I’m unhappy about that. If there’s anything worse than getting fooled, it’s getting fooled by somebody you trust. I think I can find somewhere else to buy canning supplies from now on. Continue reading Post G22-002: A Pur choice of canning lids.
Post #G21-013: Ball canning lids are back in stock.
The Canning Lid Shortage of 2021 may be over. For now, at least.
I heard a rumor, via my wife, that canning supplies were back in stock in the southern Maryland town where a friend of hers lives. The local hardware store there hung a big banner in the window to advertise that they had canning jars in stock again.
Today, I decided to check my local grocery store. And sure enough, what was a moth-eaten display of 2020 leftovers a week ago is now perfectly and fully stocked. Continue reading Post #G21-013: Ball canning lids are back in stock.
Post #G21-009: Canning lid shortage revisited.
See post #G21-013. Looks like seasonal shipments of canning supplies have begun. In Vienna, VA, lids are back in stock. (Or, at least, were as of 4/18/2021).
See Post #G21-003 for the background. In a nutshell, it’s hard to get lids for home canning right now. If you can find them, your choice is between expensive (name-brand) and potentially inferior (foreign-made). (If you doubt that inferior part, read some of the reviews on Amazon.) And, of course, the predators are out in full force, so you will see people offering to sell you lids for more than the cost of a “set” (jar+ring+lid).
I’ve now done a little shopping locally, and tracked the trends for on-line sources, and it’s time to update that prior post.
It’s clear that the situation is getting worse, but I stand by what I said in my prior post. To me, it looks like the U.S. manufacturer hasn’t yet started shipping to major retailers for the 2021 canning season. And so, I think that most of what we’re seeing right now is still the aftereffect of the 2020 canning season.
If that’s true, then things are going to continue to get worst, right on up to the point where the seasonal shipments start for the 2021 canning season. And that that point, I expect to see lids available again.
That’s a guess. But that’s still my best guess.
Details follow. This turned out to be a long post. I cover the topics listed below. I’ve put the headings in red so you can just scroll down and find them.
- My local stores.
- Canning lid arbitrage, or why the local shelves should be empty.
- Recent changes in on-line sources.
- A brief note on re-using lids.
- Only Newell, Inc. knows what’s actually in store for us later this year.
- Afterword, or why a shortage of canning lids isn’t just some quaint little oddity.
Continue reading Post #G21-009: Canning lid shortage revisited.
Post #G21-003: Is there still a canning lid shortage?
Edit on 5/18/2021:
The final section of this is now a list of options you might consider trying if you can’t find Ball/Kerr lids locally.
As of 4/18/2021, it was clear that shipments of canning supplies for the 2021 canning season had begun. In Vienna, VA, lids were back in stock in several locations. That’s documented in post #G21-013.
I figured the lid shortage was over.
I figured wrong.
Three weeks later, my local Walmart is out of stock, and lids are going in and out of stock at my local hardware store. See Post #G21-020 for a summary of how the supply looks, in my local area, as of 5/8/2021. Post #G21-023 for a 5/18/2021 update.
The original post follows:
I watched a presentation yesterday on YouTube, the focus of which is the ongoing shortage of canning lids in the U.S.A. These lids aren’t re-usable, so if you do home canning using traditional (“Ball”) lids, you need a steady supply of them.
You may not hear about it much right now, as it’s not canning season. But after looking into it, I think that’s sort-of true. But only sort-of. If you’re willing to pay a premium, or use no-name lids, there’s no shortage. (See Amazon below).
But the very idea of a brand-new shortage is a little odd. Nearly all other shortages of low-tech consumer goods were sorted out last year. And it’s unsettling to see news of a shortage of a good for which there are nearly no substitutes (other than Tattler lids, which themselves appear in short supply).
After looking at the crazy current prices for lids (see below), I’m betting that the great lid shortage of ’21, such as it is, will not persist.
My explanation is that we’re seeing the impact of the seasonality of new product shipments by U.S. manufacturers. In effect, this isn’t a shortage of domestic canning lids for the 2021 canning season. It’s the last gasp of the 2020 canning season. The 2021 season hasn’t started yet. And when it does, I bet that the lid shortage disappears entirely.
In this post, I lay out the evidence for that conclusion, such as it is.