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Whether it was for a last-minute snack or a much-needed prescription, there's a good chance you've been to a Walgreens store baru-baru ini. The drug store chain feels omnipresent for a reason:About 78 percent of us live within five miles of one of the company's nearly 9,000 U.S. locations. But whether you're a frequent Walgreens shopper or you just stop in every now and then, you'll want to be aware of a new policy change that could affect your next shopping trip. Read on to find out what Walgreens will no longer let you do, effective immediately.

TERKAIT:Walgreens Shoppers Are Outraged About This Major Change to Stores.

If you're looking to stock up on baby formula, you'll have to find it somewhere other than Walgreens. The drug store chain has started limiting how much of this product shoppers can buy at its stores pada satu waktu,USA hari ini reported on April 9. Walgreens is now only allowing customers to buy three infant and toddler formula products per each transaction "to help improve inventory," the company said.

"Due to increased demand and various supplier issues, infant and toddler formulas are seeing constraint across the country," Walgreens said in a statement to the newspaper.

Walgreens' purchase limit has come at a time in which baby formula is experiencing a significant shortage. Datasembly, a research firm based in Virginia, recently analyzed supplies at more than 11,000 stores in the U.S. and found that around 30 percent of popular baby formula brands may be sold out at retailers melintasi negara. And despite shortages in general becoming more commonplace since the onset of the pandemic, Datasembly CEOBen Reich diberi tahuUSA hari ini that this outage level is higher than for other products.

"Inflation, supply chain shortages, and product recalls have brought an unprecedented amount of volatility to the category, and we expect to continue to see baby formula as one of the most affected categories in the market," Reich explained.

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Baby formula has been experiencing a shortage for some time now, but it's ramped up recently. According to Datasembly, 2 to 8 percent of baby formula products were out of stock over the first seven months of 2021, per CBS News. That number rose to 11 percent in Nov. 2021 before sharply rising to 29 percent for the week of March 13.

"We've been tracking it over time and it's going up dramatically. We see this category is being affected by economic conditions more dramatically than others," Reich told CBS.

A large factor in this increase was a major recall earlier this year from Abbott Nutrition, which produces several popular brands of baby formula. On Feb. 17, the company announced that it had issued a voluntary recall for certain batches of Similac, Alimentum, and EleCare formulas that were manufactured at one of its plant in Sturgis, Michigan. The recall was brought on by investigations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) over consumer complaints and at least four reports of infant illnesses linked to products from this facility.

Walgreens isn't the only retailer having issues with baby formula inventory. "We've noticed it being difficult to find maybe a couple months ago—two, three months ago—and then just recently we can't find it. We've tried all the local Targets. We checked Costco, Costco online, Walgreens, Long's. Can't find it anywhere," San Francisco resident Irene Anhoeck told CBS News earlier this year.

There have not yet been any reports about other retailers imposing a purchase limit on baby formula, but some have spoken out about the shortage. "Product supply challenges are currently impacting most of the retail industry," CVS Health said in a statement to USA hari ini. "We're continuing to work with our national brand baby formula vendors to address this issue and we regret any inconvenience that our customers may be experiencing."

During an April 8 Instagram Live discussion, Brian Dittmeier, the senior director of public policy for the National Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Association, said that baby formula manufacturers "are tuned into "Masalah ini, menambahkan bahwa organisasi berada di bawah" pemahaman bahwa di seluruh papan, orang-orang meningkatkan produksi. "

"Sekarang, ini tidak seperti membalik saklar," kata Dittmeier. "Kami mungkin akan terus melihat kekurangan dalam beberapa minggu ke depan. Tapi harapan kami adalah ketika landai produksi, nanti musim semi ini harus lebih mudah bagi keluarga di seluruh negeri."

TERKAIT: Publix tidak akan lagi membiarkan pembeli melakukan ini, mulai 1 Juni .