The pandemic began with toilet paper shortages and now almost two years in, shoppers are seeing empty shelves pop up again and they want to know why.

This time around, the grocery shortages include dairy, orange juice and cat food.

Owner of Cranbury Market IGA Glen Rega says for every 1,000 items he tries to order, up to 400 of them can be out of stock.

Rega says his suppliers have a shortage of workers and that is exacerbated by COVID, making some of them sick. He says the issues can shift – during the holidays, baking supplies were in high demand and now juice is in high demand. But he says the cat food situation is improving.

"Cat food, if it is in stock, we try to order two cases at a time instead of one," said Rega.

Shortages are not the only issue the grocery business faces - there is inflation too. Rega says he can't recall ever having to change prices so frequently, and that it doesn't show any signs of stopping.