If you’ve been to a store recently, you might have noticed the phenomenon known as “empty shelf syndrome”. That’s where one section is completely bare, and not necessarily because the missing items are popular. The supply chain issues we know about due to numerous reasons is just one more vestige of the coronavirus era, which ain’t over yet.
Shipping, trucking, production, personnel, and microchip issues continue to wreak havoc with local middlemen and retailers. A produce-supplying friend of mine said he normally gets kiwi fruit (the gold ones are great, have more folate, vitamin C… and sugar) shipped from New Zealand to Honolulu in two weeks, and plans accordingly. But during this shipping/supply crisis, the fruit takes six weeks to get here. Good luck timing ripeness, delivery, and stocking issues.
With fewer cars than ever on most showroom floors, I queried a local senior automotive executive about when local car dealers would start planning/selling 2023 models, since the 2022s might not be en route here until this summer, right about when the new 2023s will start being promoted. Not a lot of historical precedent for some of these lingering problems.
With our isolation, these situations become even more difficult, exacerbated by the fact that so many retailers are having trouble finding employees at their locations. Again, there are many reasons for this, but the bottom line is, well… their bottom line, and it’s tough to make ends meet if there’s no one working the register, cooking the food, or answering the phone.
So while we all look forward to a return to retail normalcy, the human element and product scarcity issues remain a bona fide concern. When you notice your favorite products missing from store shelves, the next time when you do see ‘em, should you hoard, just to be safe? I mean, there are things that make each of our worlds go ‘round… besides toilet paper.
Last summer, food website Grocery Dive provided info from research proclaiming that 46% of consumers “…have built a stockpile of supplies” as the delta variant took control. But even today, stores can’t afford to over-purchase items and then get stuck, especially with food items with expiration dates.
So we start to open up, thankfully, as the new normal surely presents additional unique realities and post-pandemic ripples that will remind us what we’ve just gone through even as we seek to forget.
Think about it…