Link – Why is there a shortage of canning jars and lids?

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A reader was thoughtful enough to send me this link and there’s some interesting details in it. Specifically:

What consumers didn’t know was that canning lids (around since 1884) and canning jars (around since 1858) are no longer being made by Ball and Kerr, the two big manufacturers of American canning supplies. A few years before the pandemic, these companies had sold out to a mega-corporation called Newell Brands.

….

Since Ball and Kerr were just two more of multiple brands bought out by this company, consumer demands for any one product are not a priority for the mega-corporation. When the 2020 pandemic created a huge demand for canning supplies, Newell Brands decided it would not try to sell Ball and Kerr products at every store handling canning supplies as in the past, but only through online giant Amazon and select major chains such as Walmart and Ace Hardware stores.

I didn’t know that. Did you? I’ve not verified the information on my own, but if true it would mean that domestic production of canning supplies is all under one company which may or may not care about how available those items are.

There are, of course, offshore options. When theres a void in the market you can usually rely on the Chinese to swoop in, create a knockoff version thats 1/10th the quality at 1/2 the price, and then flood the market with it under several different names. Everything I read says that the Chinese canning lids are 50/50 in terms of efficacy.

Clearly canning lids have sort of migrated into the Uncertain Goods category. Fortunately, I’ve been able to stock up on a healthy amount of them, albeit much later than I should have.

 

19 thoughts on “Link – Why is there a shortage of canning jars and lids?”

  1. Ball and Kerr probably relied on the lids and cans as a large, if not all, percentage of their income. The new owners maybe not so much which puts it low on the radar.

  2. I have noticed over the last 20-30 years that the target the company/cprporations become the more closely they are linked to gommermint regulations and controls. Effectively marching in lockstep with demands of our overlords. This has become the nature of the majority of firearms makers (exceptions) ammo suppliers, powder makers. Just look at the proliferation of the big box and hardware stores. Arms makers are owned by some “Sport Group”. and if you look closely enough a lot of very large corporations are owned by a “Parent” organization. Same as with Ball and Kerr and practically every thing else you can think of.It is done this way on purpose, eliminate the mom & pop store and the culture they promote and you limit the individual ability to go, buy, talk, interact, with whatever and whoever they chose. Eliminate this and you gain control of the populace. Hence the elimination and closing of small business durning the last few years but notice that all the mega big box stores cll kept their doors open. This was all planned. And so will be my reaction. Discourage the advance toward a digital currency with every breath. It will be the downfall of any form of individual rights, which is where this is all leading to.

  4. Try an Amish bulk food store if you have them in your area. They sell them by the gross. And you can get the hard to find gallon and half gallon jars there. Plus a really nice ” double” capacity water bath canned. It’s square. Uses two burners but takes up to 12 jars. 5 more then my old water bath canner.

  5. I have seen Ball and Kere jars in other stores recently.
    What I haven’t seen is lids on their own; I’ve seen lids and rings, or jars with lids and rings but no lids in over 2 years.
    I wonder if they have decided to make more money by selling them with jars most of the time, turning a $2 dollar sale into a $10+ sale?

    • Jonathan, enter via etsy, there’s a shop in Florida, run by vets that sells boxes of the lids, pints quarts, wide and regular mouth.

  6. There are jars, lids, and rings on the shelf at our “small” HEB grocery store in Houston. A couple of boxes of each. I didn’t buy them because I have more than I need presently, but I could go get them and see how long it takes to restock…

    They are not really showing up in the estate sales and online ‘returns’ auctions either. A year ago they were selling for $1/jar in the secondary market. I don’t know if the sense of urgency has passed, or if supply caught up with demand, or if no one is letting go of anything at any price…

    At least they have restocked all the seed displays in the home stores. I was very concerned that that wouldn’t happen.
    n

  10. I’ve seen large numbers of both brands of jars, lids, and rings here in Colorado. Perhaps it’s a regional thing?

  11. Food is one of the primary weapons of control, if you are not able to store food you are at the mercy of whoever does. Bill Gates is now the largest owner of farmland in US-I don’t believe in coincidences. CZ maybe your future piece of nowhere should have some tillable space.

  12. We just bought 500 each of wide and standard lids at a local Amish bulk foods store here in the Buckeye hill country . Around 12 cents each too . I checked out Wally 1st and they were close to a quarter each.

  13. So, Newell is a spin off of Ball from back in ’93, it was originally Alltrista and then Jarden before now being Newell. They bought Kerr in ’96. So technically that article is correct but the situation has been the same for over 25 years.

  14. Shelves at Farm & Fleet are full of lids, etc. in Madison, WI. The helpful clerk said there was a shortage last year due to a big surge in demand “for some reason” but there are plenty now.

  15. Our local Ace Hardware now has lids, but they’re ugly expensive ($5.99/dozen) and only wide mouth. They also have cases of jars with rings/lids and some boxes of lids/rings in both wide and standard size, and it’s all expensive. I’m buying what I can every time I’m in there, but not clearing the shelf as I’d like to.
    As always, I’m in the Oregon Outback, and other than a single grocery store and Ace Hardware, all of our other big box shopping is 90 miles away, and those trips are becoming tightly rationed with lists when we do go.

  16. I can still buy ’em at my local hardware stores along with spare lids and bands, also a number of outlets for the sealing lids alone. We are at $14.99 a case for pints and $21.99 for quarts. I’m in Hawaii

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