Prior to the pandemic, very few of us have ever thought about the supply chain. There was always plenty of products to buy and plenty of people to serve us. Well! that’s over. As an average consumer I noticed several items that I never thought of before as an item
hard to get.
A couple of weeks ago I went to a restaurant with my cousin, and he ordered a Cocoa Cola. They didn’t have any, so my cousin assumed that they would then have Pepsi. Surprisingly, they did not have Pepsi either. After some research I found that there is an aluminum and
plastic shortage. This is not the only problem the beverage companies are having, they also have issues getting their supply transported. The aluminum shortage also affects canned goods. People naturally stocked up on canned goods during the pandemic, plus
the transport problem and labor shortages, this may stay the norm for a while. Add to this problem, climate change problems, where whole crops were either burnt out from lack of water or flooded because of too much water.
I was recognizing that there were several items that were unavailable. I like cooking turkey breast. Apparently, there is a turkey shortage, which could bring on buyer hysteria if not corrected by Thanksgiving. There are also chicken shortages due to a bird disease, factory worker shortages and again transport. During the pandemic, truckers lost jobs because some items were not in as much use, so many truckers left these jobs. It will take a while to build up a trucking force large enough to transport all our goods. As a result, according to basic economic theory, small supply, large demand, prices go up, thusly causing awful inflation. Needless, to say the gas shortage adds to the trucking problem and tacks on extra cost to most products.
Other grocery items that have become MIA are wheat, sugar, pet food, paper goods, babyformula, avocados. We all heard about wheat shortages due to the war in Ukraine. Lots of wheat is grown both in the Ukraine and Russia, between the war and transport issues this is
a very serious problem, affecting many poor countries causing extreme famine. Sugar which is in many products has shortage issues due to Brazil diverting their sugarcane crop to use to make ethanol. The ethanol is used in place of gas, so Brazil is using more sugar to help their citizens with the high prices at the pump. This undoubtably causes increase in prices and shortages in supply.
Avocados are in short supply due to the US government suspending imports from Mexico. This was done because an inspector had been threatened. Although, the imports have resumed, the prices have risen substantially, and some stores can’t carry the fruit because their
clientele cannot afford the higher prices.
One day my daughter texted me, to say that there was a tampon shortage. This nudged me to investigate the goings on at paper companies. The shortage of paper supplies has its unique issues. The paper shortage not only was caused by the pandemic alone, but also from paper mills adapting to our online ordering. They changed making printing paper to line board for packaging. In addition, paper mills that weren’t profitable were closed. Just like many other industries, paper mills are also facing employee shortages.
At the beginning of the pandemic, when there was no vaccine, the public was quite aware that medical facilities were having shortages of PPE, N95 masks, and gloves. Two years later there are many medical supplies in short supply. The list of medical supplies is long: latex and vinyl gloves, surgical gowns, lab reagents, collection testing supplies, syringes and dialysis related products and catheters.
Many pharmaceutical products have key ingredients that come from Asia. These items include anesthesia medications, antibiotics, pain medications, nutrition, and electrolyte products and chemotherapy agents all in short supply. Including defibrillators and imaging machines also vulnerable as many consumers electronic devices.
n a publication from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine looked at these supply problems and called on the FDA to establish a public database to track medical supplies. It asked for penalties to be placed upon contractors that fail to supply the products. It also stated that the federal government should stockpile medical supplies to be prepared for future shortages.
Unfortunately, the last category with supply chain issues I sadly want to tell my readers about is liquor. No longer just a dalliance but a necessity to cope with the anxiety ridden world. Champagne that is associated with happy celebrations, wasn’t really a priority in 2020. Due to less demand during 2020, the champagne industry cut production for the 2021 year. Then there is a glass shortage, which affects other wine shortages and high pricing. Craft beer involves ingredients that are in short supply and is affected by the aluminum shortage issues too.
What is not in short supply is aggravation, inflated prices, and disappointment. Predictions by different industry forecasters don’t see the end of the supply chain issues. until sometime in 2023. My advice be flexible, patient and understanding because there is little as individuals, we can do. If you’re reading this, then you made it through the pandemic and there should be no shortage of gratitude about that.
2 thoughts on “Supply Chain”
Agree with everything said. As a word of advice, my wife ordered dog food through an Amazon third party, at an exorbitant price, and when she told me after the fact, I found the same item way cheaper by calling our local Petsmart, I had her call Amazon and complain. Amazon cancelled the order she placed, sent us a free smaller bag of that dog food, and said they’d go after that third party for price gouging. Kudos to Amazon.
My wife ordered dog food through an Amazon third party at an exorbitant price and when I found out, I called the local Petsmart and found the food at a reasonable price. My wife called Amazon and complained about the price gouging. Amazon cancelled the order, sent us a free bag of dog food, and said they’d go after that third party seller for the price gouging. Kudos to Amazon.