I can believe much of this, but the “trucker shortage” is hard to rationalize given the huge number of trucks on the road vs cars.
Unless they are transporting nothing but sailboat fuel, I cannot correlate what my eyes are seeing with the claims of trucker shortages.
I will agree something is seriously amiss in the distribution system and maybe my lying eyes are fooling me.
I do know there is a massive backlog of ships off Long Beach Ca waiting to be offloaded. It looks like a NASCAR parking lot for ships.
This is anecdotal, and not groceries, but I’ve been wanting to buy a particular generator for a while and just haven’t gotten around to buying it. I looked at one a little while ago and the price has gone from $800 to $1300 in one year. From my perspective in went up that amount all at once; I never saw the price going up.
I am a large consumer of auto parts
The shortage isn’t just food.
My suppliers are warning me of coming shortages in many common parts.
I think the used parts business is going to boom soon.
A old junk yard owner told me he makes money in any economy. A strong one scrap metal is worth a lot. A weak economy parts sell well.
His advice holds true today. So much so I am waiting on epa tests on an existing yard to make a offer.
I kind of skimmed through the article and never saw a reason given for WHY this is happening. A shortage of truck drivers? Declines in production because of labor shortages or Covid shutdowns? High fuel prices? Something else?
My wife is a veterinarian. Lifesaving drugs are either on bo or have doubled or more in price. Specialty dog foods for older or special needs dogs are on bo or she gets just a few bags to tie her over
Pharmacies seem normal here.
I am convinced this is all a scam by the larger companies. Keep employee numbers down lower than normal, less wages and health care and then double or triple the price = huge profits
One thing I’ve realized in talking to people is that while there are shortages, the chain stores are allocating.
One supermarket in a blue collar/lower income town has lots of empty spaces on shelves. The same store over in the upscale bedroom community lacks nothing.
The guy that runs the company that mows my lawn quit today. He explained that he could not find anyone that wanted a job. He is cutting down his business because no one wants to work.
Reads to me this guy is going to have us economically collapsed come H, or Highwater.
I do believe the Democrats will do their best to achieve the goal of economic collapse with a strong possibility of succeeding.
We need to be rid of the Democrats PERIOD!
Ping
I’m in the process of renovating one of my apartment complexes.
Try fining a good seller toon of blue electrical boxes. Or switches. Or 14/2 wire. Or many plumbing materials.
I go in a couple times a week to see what they have and stock up. There is a shortage of all types of things.
I continue to work one job but left my other job for personal reasons like moving to a new location.
I keep one job which puts me around pharmacists and the vaccine.
They got plenty of Pfizer for you so to speak.
No vaccine mandate yet in my line of work with my employer but if that happens I’m out the door.
I won’t be working.
Not because I’m lazy but because of my convictions about vaccine coercion.
I have no objection to the vaccine but no one should be forced.
I can also manage financially for the moment but again the more the vax is pushed perhaps some will choose not to work out of their convictions like I will.
“many economic optimists assured us that the U.S. economy would be “booming” by this point”
They’re not economic optimists. They’re leftists. They are “optimistic” every time a Democrat gets elected, and doomsayers every time a Republican gets elected, and they are usually wrong on both counts.
I’ve noticed that stocks of goods are erratic.
There are more bare spots on shelves than I’m used to seeing and there appears to be no rhyme or reason to it.
I am in sales for a northeast c-store distributor. Just because you don’t see the concrete reason for the shortages in the article, they do exist. Every week we get a report that is called “covid shortages”. Out of stocks, allocation, transportation issues, labor shortages, raw material shortages. Just some examples. It is going to get worse in the next 6 months. A LOT OF PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO WORK, from taking stuff out of the ground, to harvesting, to transporting, to manufacturing, to again transporting to distrbutors, to warehoue order pickers, to delivering to retail outlets.
I tell people I know, if you have a favorite box of cookies or planning to buy a big screen tv (an example), buy it now ‘cuz it may not be there next week.
The supply of gatorade and other beverages (booze)at the golf course yesterday was limited due to supply chain issues.
I even noticed empty shelves in my local dollar store when I used to have to walk around the shelf stockers all the time. I don't have cats but I feed 3 semi wild cats. Suddenly the food I buy for them is not available. I finally checked at Tractor Supply and had to buy a 20 lb bag.
Thanks for posting this.