Secrets of shallot

I was recently shopping in a large Tesco (not our little one) and the shopping list I had been given said shallots.

I could not find any near the onions so I asked.

This seemed to trigger a major bout of activity with people coming and going.

Eventually the senior woman on the sales floor came over and apologised, explaining that there is "currently a worldwide shortage of shallots".

There really is no answer to that.