Theworst yearon record, 2016, has left everybody a good-bye gift: acanned-whipped-cream shortage, cruelly timed to the holiday season. Basically, the nation has been blindly burning through its reserves thanks to a little-known nitrous-oxide shortage, the ChicagoTribunereports. Nitrous is used to aerosolize the contents in spray cans, and afreak deadly explosionat a Florida plant earlier this year has sent everyone into a lurch. The situation is alreadylooking grimat grocery stores. Meanwhile, the Coffee Bean is apparently completely out, and ConAgra has hadto “stop all production”of Reddi-Wip in North America until it can locate more supplies.
Even a rep for Reddi-Wip, whichsells halfthe country’s supplies, warns theTribunethat while many grocery stores still have the product on shelves right now, the situation will deteriorate quickly: “It’s in stores now, but we’re encouraging people to buy it early. There will be a shortage if people buy at the typical levels during the holidays.”
