The Mysterious Missing Beans

 

Lent is almost over.  I've got a lot of chocolate hidden away, ready to make an appearance on Sunday.  (And you can bet that I will be cramming plenty of it into my mouth at the first opportunity.)  However there is one thing that will be missing this year from my Easter basket:  jellybeans.  I'm not just talking about any jellybean; though most are pretty good.  (Unless you are talking about black jellybeans, which I believe should be banished from not just the planet, but from the universe.)  I enjoy Jolly Rancher or Starburst brands.  Jelly Belly are overrated in my opinion.  But the BEST jellybeans in my book are Russell Stover brand.  

Yes, they make chocolate and that too is completely awesome.  However, there are other chocolates that I know (too well) and love.  It's their jellybeans that made their mark on me and EVERY year I make sure to buy a bag or two when I go to the grocery or pharmacy.  

As a matter of fact, I had a hidden a bag from last year away and discovered it earlier this year.  This was back in February, before Lent began.  I tore into that bag and savored every last one.  There is not a bad color (I am hesitant to say flavor) in the mix, although I a partial to purple and pink.  

When I finished them all (I confess I didn't share), I made a mental note to buy some more as soon as possible.  But I couldn't find them.  Not in the grocery stores, not in the pharmacies.  They were nowhere to be found.  

Weeks passed and Easter crept closer, still I could find no Russell Stover jellybeans.  In desperation, I turned to the internet.  They were out of stock at Amazon, at Walmart, even on their own site!  There was no explanation, they were just missing.

I kept looking.  It APPEARED that a grocery store not too far from me had them, but when I dug deeper into the grocery's website, they were not listed.  This happened several times.  What was going on?

Had they been discontinued?  (Oh my God, I couldn't handle that.)  There had been a recall of their sugar free peanut butter cups, but no mention of the beloved pectin goodness.

I read that there was a shortage overall of jellybeans this year.  (Supposedly due to a shortage of starch?) I didn't see that.  I saw plenty of other brands in during my weekly visits to ShopRite.  (Although there may have been less variety?  I'm no 100% certain because I wasn't focused on that...I was focused on "MY" jellybeans.)  I did notice yesterday (Maundy Thursday) when I went for my weekly trek, that there weren't many bags of jellybeans left.  But then again, there wasn't much in the way of Easter candy at all; it seems as if Easter is already over and the "seasonal" aisle is now all items.  However, visiting both my local Walgreens and CVS there were still plenty of Easter treats, including jellybeans so...

In despair, I signed up on the Russell Stover website to be notified when the jellybeans were in stock.  Not once, not twice, but THREE times, I got a notification that they were available.  But every time I went to the site to purchase, the page said OUT OF STOCK.

So there are to be no RussellStover jellybeans for me this Easter.

HOWEVER, this afternoon, after attending a Good Friday service (and scouring the shelves of my local CVS one more time), I went to the Russell Stover website again.  I had received no notification of availability, but...

It was a Good Friday miracle.  There they were!  At a cost nearly double of what I had paid previously.  (Back when they could be found in stores.)  I quickly put THREE in my cart and checked out.  My only option for shipment was FedEx, so I went for the "cheapest" option:  Ground.  When all was said and done (and supposedly I got a 10% first time "discount"), the cost of three bags of these jellybeans, well...let's just say that they had better be as good as I remember.  (Or better.)  And while I won't have them this Sunday, maybe I'll have RussellStover jellybeans to celebrate Orthodox Easter.  

(Now can someone tell me why I can't find any daffodils?  The stores are flush with lilies and tulips, but no daffodils?  I guess that's a mystery for another day.)