10 Shortages That Are Getting Worse

FinancialSurvivalNetwork ^ | 10/13/21 | Kerry Lutz

[Roman_War_Criminal]

The global supply chain is in complete tatters. Tens of thousands of items and services are in short supply or can’t be found at all. This is leading to higher prices, a/k/a cost-push inflation, and a general decrease in the purchasing power of all fiat currencies, be it the US Dollar, the Japanese Yen or the Euro.

The choice of items to include here could fill volumes. We picked things that often appear very obscure, such as ketchup or pallets and yet are staples of modern life.

Pallets Wooden shipping pallets are required to transport almost anything imaginable including: paper goods, food items, auto parts, diapers, etc. Until now, they’ve always been plentiful and taken for granted. During the past year, pallet prices have more than doubled, going from less than $7 to over $15 now. According to Bloomberg, pallets are now a hot commodity, which has led to hoarding and even theft. While lumber prices have recently decreased, pallet prices have kept going up and continue to do so, while supplies will remain extremely tight for the foreseeable future.

[NautiNurse]

11. Cat Food.

Our veterinarian has had supply shortages for multiple prescription meds and foods for more than six months. Both cats and dogs.

[TalBlack]

I’ve been writing here of the unavailability of the template material used by the monument industry to inscribe granite. 3M was saying April till they could make more. Well 3M thru in the towel this past week. They are dropping that manufacturing line completely including the glue that goes with it. Think about the consideration that would go into such a decision as well as the implications for other changes going forward. 3M was a major player in this industry.They must be thinking hard about what they will manufacture and how they will source raw material.

[Steve_Seattle]

About three months ago, they started re-roofing a community center near me. They got the bottom layer done - tarpaper, or whatever it is, and then stopped. (This was still dry, summer weather.) After a few weeks of inaction, as autumn rains approached, they covered the whole thing with plastic sheets, as it remains to this day. I’m concluding they are unable to get the shingles needed to finish the job.

[Steve_Seattle]

17. The plastic bottles for single-serving V8 and tomato juice. My store still has the big bottles of those products, so I assume it’s not the juice but the small bottles that’s in short supply.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

There is not one product in your Supermarket, other than locally-produced meat & Bakery, that is not shipped on a pallet. You

[HartleyMBaldwin]

My wife and I dismantle old pallets and build tables and such from the boards. We know at least one place that still puts their pallets out back with a Free sign, and most of those pallets and crates are in pretty good condition.

[Old Yeller]

agree....our two spoiled rotten felines only eat Fancy Feast....getting harder and harder to find their varieties on our local grocers’ shelves...stores’ staffs say they are getting hard to get....

They'll soon become YOUR fancy feast.

[Ellendra]

There are tons of tomatoes at farmer markets. A person could make their own ketchup.

I had to start doing that anyway. Darned food allergies.

There's a ton of recipes online, but the basics are tomato paste (or powder), vinegar, salt, sugar, and spices. It's basically pickled tomato concentrate.

[griffin]

extinct

[nicollo]

I see pallet arbitrage.

It's already happening. I had to buy pallets for an export container my wife put together for a charity project. It's been a while since I shipped anything, but back in the day, you just got pallets, put stuff on 'em and shipped it off. These days they have to be heat treated -- $68/ ea from Uline.

So I called around. Nobody with any inventory could guarantee they'd be heat treated, so I was told to call a pallet broker. No kidding -- a "pallet broker." That's a new one for me.... the dude was hustling pallets by the truckload, min. several hundred. I needed 21.

I ended up buying $26/ea plastic pallets from Uline. They were crap but worked. (If that company is public, buy the stock...)

[Thank You Rush]

And it’s a staple of modern life?? Gives a new definition to the word “staple”....

[Oatka]

In times like these we need a steady hand at the tiller.

From the 1970s:
"The Ship of State is awash in a sea of fiat currency and the Fed is using the rudder as a paddle."

[nomorelurker]

Just amazing pallets are simple things just need a few modern tools and you are efficient. How does this get complicated?

[piasa]

Plenty of pallets available for free around here, but shampoo is scarce. Oddly, conditioner is not.

[Verginius Rufus]

Quality wet cat food is now hard to get.

I'm glad I don't own any wet cats.

Or any cats, for that matter.

[piasa]

Or they no longer have the labor. Roofers are in short supply. It is hard hot work when you can get paid better driving for Uber or Doordash or any one of many delivery options.

[madison10]

Add to the list: Large plastic storage tubs are either unavailable or very expensive.

[sauropod]

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[NetAddicted]

Read later.

[FamiliarFace]

My husband works with supply chain logistics, and he told me that his warehouses are having trouble getting wood pallets. They are having to look at plastic ones, which have been too high on cost in the past, but now, the edge may swing in that direction so that they have what they need to get their jobs done.