Based on today’s outlook, new orders placed now could take up to 4 weeks to ship. However, starting in May please prepare for lead times of up to 12 weeks.<<<
Yes, that is a good indication of the number of people who are ordering.
Walton Feed.com, where I bought much of my food, in the run up to Y2K, was 18 months behind on their big orders.
I noticed after 9-11, they stopped the big sales that they had been having and started advising that they would need a longer time to ship.
For me, when I was ordering and they knew that it was my daily food supply, not storage only, they would have my order to me in a week. [from Idaho to Arizona]
It certainly is a good indicator. I was going to buy a case of canned butter from the Internet Grocer but they are temporarily out of stock.