If you’re a Guers Iced Tea drinker, especially from the paper cartons, you may have noticed a shortage of them at your favorite stores.
We started noticing this shortage recently at GIANT at Cressona Mall. At first, we figured we were shopping at the wrong time and people were scooping up the store’s supply before then.
Then, we noticed it at other stores. The supply at Weis Markets was gutted recently. (see photo above)
Crisis mode was activated when a popular convenience store notified us that what was left of the Guers cartons they had was it for the foreseeable future.
When we saw the following scene at Walmart, where there’s always an abundance of iced tea cartons, albeit sticky ones, we weren’t sure if the future was right for us. Could we exist in a world with only plastic iced tea cartons?
The issue? Apparently, there’s been a persistent shortage of the cardboard used to make not only Guers cartons but cardboard drinking cartons across the country.
Guers cartons are manufactured by a company known as Pactiv Evergreen, which touts itself as the leading manufacturer of such products in North America.
This shortage in the supply chain even prompted the US Dept. of Agriculture to issue special guidance for schools who were facing a milk carton shortage.
Pottsville Area School District Superintendent Dr. Sarah Yoder tells The Canary that Guers informed the school that there were no issues with milk carton shortages here.
We called Guers Dairy Friday morning to find out when, if ever, this madness would end.
A spokesperson for the Tumbling Run business said what we needed to hear. The shortage is over. There was a shortage for about 2 weeks but it’s over now.
We’ve sheathed our pitchforks and extinguished our torches. New deliveries of drinks should include cartons as the dairy just received a shipment of them.