SCRANTON, Pa. — As Jim Cadden walks around the store he and his family have owned for more than 60 years, he sees many more empty shelves than he's used to.
"The top of these are usually filled with White Claw products. As you can see, there's very little and then we started mixing other products in there just to fill up the space," Cadden explained.
With more people opting to buy cases of beer and drink at home rather than a bar demand has skyrocketed at beer distributors nationwide, including at Cadden Brothers Beer Distributor.
Can manufacturers say they're working non-stop to keep up.
Cadden has had to tell some of his long-time customers why there is a lack of supply.
"We tell them our supplier's out of them and we can't get them. With the system here in Pennsylvania, we are only allowed to buy from a very specific buyer for a very specific brand, said Cadden. "If our supplier doesn't have them, we cannot go somewhere else to get them."
Cadden also said he's also having an issue with bottled beer, so he doesn't believe an aluminum can shortage is to blame for the supply issues.
"Typically, these two sections would be High Life 30 packs and High Life bottles. There's no High Life bottles at all," he said. "We have seen a supply issue based on demand, not necessarily an aluminum shortage. We're seeing different products, because of the high demand, they cannot keep up with production."
Whatever the reason, Cadden says he's never seen anything like this before in his career.
"Just another bizarre part of the pandemic," he concluded.