Walmart Is Still Struggling to Stock Patti LaBelle's Sweet Potato Pie

The Patti LaBelle sweet potato pie shortage continues one week after James Wright uploaded up the now infamous Facebook video promoting the dessert. Walmart really was not—and still isn’t—prepared for the tornado of sweet enthusiasts.

In an email to Jezebel, a publicist for Walmart says the store sold one pie per second last weekend for 72 hours straight. The Patti pie page became the most visited on their website, as well as the most searched food item after turkey. Even Walmart’s senior buyer of cakes and pies (what a great job…) Kinna Thomas released a video message admitting that Walmart clearly didn’t know what they were getting into with Patti’s pie but they’re trying to get people more pies as soon as possible.

Kinna’s really sorry, guys.

This Patti pie craze reminded one Walmart spokesperson named John Forrest Ales of a Christmas toy craze awhile back when parents were tearing their hair out trying to find a stuffed character from Sesame Street. From Business Insider:

“It’s like the Cabbage Patch Doll and Tickle Me Elmo of food,” Ales said, referring to some of the most popular holiday toys of all time. “It’s just amazing to see.”

Thus far, Walmart’s gotten 2 million extra pounds of sweet potatoes and their employees are “working as fast and feverishly as possible” to crank out more of Patti’s pie. Thanksgiving is next week, but the earliest the store will be fully restocked is December. Boo hiss.

If your nearby Walmart doesn’t have Patti’s pie, her old sweet potato pie recipe is in her cookbook Patti LaBelle’s Lite Cuisine. Feel free to just add real butter and such to your heart’s delight. Desperate times call for desperate home-made measures.