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Comment by johnnyApplePRNG | Hacker News Reader

Yea this article is trash. I can find canned sardines anywhere in Canada here right now. They're in stock on Amazon.ca for goodness sake.

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TFA explains why sardines sourced from around USA, Spain, Portugal, and Morocco are harder to come by.

Where are your sardines be sourced?

Looking in my cupboard right now:

Goya: Spain

Bela: Portugal

Crown Prince: Morocco

Bar Harbor: Latvia

Brunswick: Latvia

King Oscar: Norway

This is bizarre to me. Do you always shop this way? Personally I find a favourite brand and stick with it. There isn't a single product I can think of where I'll buy the same thing from multiple brands.

> "Personally I find a favourite brand and stick with it."

Two responses:

1) And by what process exactly do you find a favorite? Clairvoyance?

2) If you can have a favorite, then the different brands must have different qualities. And if different brands have different qualities, then they will be differently good for different uses.

> "There isn't a single product I can think of where I'll buy the same thing from multiple brands."

They aren't the same thing. They're differently-prepared multi-ingredient products. They're often not even the same species of fish, because "sardine" is a general category not a species.

> There isn't a single product I can think of where I'll buy the same thing from multiple brands.

Weird, I'm the complete opposite. There's no product I can think of where I didn't buy different brands, if anything just to compare.

So once you've decided on a particular brand and variety of chips you only ever buy that single brand and variety of chips, never branching out to try different things? Never get an urge for wavy chips instead of traditional, or maybe tortilla chips the next time, maybe even every now and then cheese curls?

I don't even like Sardines but I definitely understand there's a ton of variety in flavors and packing styles and even the species of fish can be a little different.

Some people would happily eat the same thing for breakfast, dinner, and supper every single day for the rest of their lives. I don't necessarily understand it, but I've met plenty of people like that.

This is a cool reply. Are you a sardine fanatic? Do you many different brands for the different flavours?

I enjoy them and see that they come in many variations. I'm not sure whether that makes me a fanatic or just discerning.

Intrigued, I checked my cupboard for the brands we have:

* Alva (from Sainsburys) - 75p - Sardina pilchardus - Packed in Morocco, caught in Eastern Atlantic Ocean

* 'The Fishmonger' (from Lidl) - 59p - Sardina pilchardus - Packed in Morocco, caught in Eastern Central Atlantic

* Kingfisher (from Lidl) - 49p - Sardina pilchardus - Packed in Morocco, caught in Central Eastern Atlantic

Where are you? I am in BC and can’t find them in grocery stores

You don't have Amazon in BC?

No, there aren't any Amazon grocery stores in BC.

Shelf-stable foodstuffs like canned sardines can be ordered for delivery from the regular Amazon, the same side of their site you might order a book or a laptop from, outside of their newer grocery retail channels.

I went to my local grocery store (small West Texas town)last week and bought the last 6 remaining cans. I've never once seen the sardine shelf empty until last week.

Yeah exactly. I've loaded up from tj's on sardines for many years and they were always fully stocked, until this year.

I'm in Nova Scotia, and tinned fish is still absolutely everywhere, and still dirt cheap.

Exactly. I literally bought some yesterday in the USA. I can go buy some right now in 10 minutes.

I just wish I had a way to block all these bullshit news stories from ever crossing my eyes.

Socializing has become people telling each other bullshit news stories that have almost nothing to do with reality.

> They're in stock on Amazon.ca for goodness sake.

I'd expect extremely high prices buying them this way.

Here in the US, on the regular retail side of Amazon, I see a twelve pack of 3.75oz canned sardines in water, Beach Cliff brand, for $18.96, or $0.42/oz. I don't buy sardines but this seems not terribly out of line with prices I see at Walmart and Target, maybe a 20-25% premium. A local fancy grocery store has sardines in water from Chicken of the Sea at $0.58/oz.

I didn't know that Amazon.ca was a supermarket with shelves. TIL.

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