[Roman_War_Criminal]

Watch the naysayers coming here and demand that these are ‘lies’.

Grocers cannot keep a lot of merchandise in stock for long.

[laplata]

“Grocers cannot keep a lot of merchandise in stock for long”.

3-4 days from what I’ve read.

[caww]

There’s plenty of food....distributing it to those who aren’t working or have to stay shut in without transportation is the issue.

[canuck_conservative]

3-4 days from what I’ve read

OK, calm down, this is more Big Media fearmongering.

That stat is because groceries are set up as a "just-in-time" delivery system, i.e., as soon as trailers arrive at the warehouse/distribution center, the products are shipped out to the local retail stores - so the total time from field or factory to retail store is about 3-4 days.

It's a continuous, non-stop system. Food doesn't just disappear, so IF the supplies ever stop, you'll hear about it long before the shortage shows up in the store, because it WILL be big news.

Right now, things are still going somewhat normally (I work at a Walmart warehouse, we're getting tons of the Kellogg's products from the summer harvest)

[AlaskaErik]

Grocers cannot keep a lot of merchandise in stock for long.

I was at the commissary the other day and there were empty shelves over the entire store. If everything was consolidated, there would be at least both sides of one aisle that would be completely empty and it would extend into a second aisle.

[oldvirginian]

“Grocers cannot keep a lot of merchandise in stock for long.”

Chain stores receive multiple deliveries daily from their warehouses. Let one day go by without the scheduled deliveries and there is a major problem. Two days and the shelves are practically empty.

BUT...the big bottleneck is the warehouses. Each day the regional warehouse receive deliveries from across the country to keep your local store in operation.
If deliveries to the warehouses drop by 1/2 for two days MAJOR PROBLEMS.

VERY SIMPLE DESCRIPTION OF JITS
JITS, Just In Time Supply, is the culprit. JITS is based on the assumption of uninterrupted deliveries of product at the warehouses that is shipped out within 24 hours when the next delivery arrives for uninterrupted delivery to the stores.

The goal is for the warehouses to ship out their last boxes of product as the truck with the new stock is bumping the dock to unload.
Accordingly, your local store is putting it’s last case of milk in the display case when the truck arrives with the new stock.
Even the “local” chains and co-op warehouses operate on JITS.
The days of the store having a three day supply on hand are long gone.