Posted on 05/01/2020 5:40:13 AM PDT by blam
Just days after the CEO of Tyson Foods warned that the “food supply chain is breaking”, the disruptions due to the coronavirus are starting to surface not only in households and grocery stores, but also across corporate America, and even McDonald’s has now said it is changing how it is doling out beef and pork to its restaurants as a result.
The company has placed items like burgers, bacon and sausage on “controlled allocation,” according to Business Insider. Additionally, the company’s distribution centers have been placed on “managed supply”.
This means that the company is now going to be rationing meat supplies based on demand, instead of just ordering what the company thought was necessary. And while it doesn’t yet mean the company is facing shortages, it does suggest that even the largest US fast food restaurant believes further scrutiny of its inventory is warranted as the next may very well be shortages.
Two key McDonald’s suppliers are Smithfield and Tyson – names we have covered extensively (here and here) over the last month as they grapple with the coronavirus causing significant production bottlenecks. More than 5,000 factory workers have contracted the coronavirus, with at least 20 of those dying.
McDonald’s executives said mid-week that major production reductions were expected through “at least” the first half of May. McDonald’s CEO said on Thursday that the company, so far, had not had a supply chain break.
He also admitted, however, the state of the meat industry was “concerning” and that the company was “monitoring it, literally, hour by hour.”
Tyson chairman John Tyson said last weekend: “As pork, beef and chicken plants are being forced to close, even for short periods of time, millions of pounds of meat will disappear from the supply chain. As a result, there will be limited supply of our products available in grocery stores until we are able to reopen our facilities that are currently closed.”
(snip)
Sorry but I have to call bovine excrement on the whole “rising infection rate in Germany” thing. The R values are estimates, not actual data. The actual data shows a different picture. Before the easing of restrictions on April 13 there were 130,072 cases in Germany. Three days prior there were 122,171 cases. If you calculate the ratio of those numbers then take the cube root of that ratio you get an average daily growth rate for that three day period of 2.11%. On Apr 30 there were 163,009 cases; on Apr 27 there were 158,758. This yields an average daily growth rate of 0.88%, lower than prior to the easing of restrictions.
Seriously, I thought that plant based cardboard burger was all the rage?
I still can’t buy toilet paper where I live. According to friends, if you time it right you can get your hands on some but every time I go all paper products are completely wiped out.
“ This means that the company is now going to be rationing meat supplies based on demand, instead of just ordering what the company thought was necessary. ”
That’s one way to look at it but here is another: “At the same time our sales are slowing, some of our managers started building our inventory of meat. Therefore we will but meat based on how much we are selling and not based on our blown sales forecast and our managers worry beads.”
This common sense approach has been twisted to induce panic.
I suspect for the same reason we still have toilet paper and cleaning supply shortages. Different supply lines for restaurant and service industries vs. consumer.
I've read stories about dairy farmers in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania dumping milk because there's no room in the supply line for it. Same for meat and other products.
I've also seen one or two news reports about farmers in the south plowing over fields with crops in them for the same reason.
None of it makes sense to me that this is happening while shortages are being experienced.
McDonald’s should stop doing business with Smithfield until it ceases being owned by China.
My first thought as well. Could practically hear her cackle.
I just had one of my faves at MCD yesterday. Triple cheeseburger w/out onions. Tossed to top half of the bun.
I've got a dozen or more that show up outside my home office window every afternoon and evening.
I'd offer you some, but they're busy starting families this time of year and it seems cruel to break that all up!
It's a plot by Trump to starve/kill Black people.
Yep...that’ll be our lying media’s next line, for sure.
I swear the quarter pounder I had a few days ago had filler in it. It melted in my mouth with no chewing required where as a real hamburger you bite into.
Are they making their hamburgers out of a lab and hopefully not one in China?
“I was reading an article that stated the US has vast quantities of meat in cold storage and there is no impending shortage. But the drumbeat of stories about an upcoming shortage continue. Which is it? Shortage or no?”
Who do you trust? Can you trust the media? Can you trust the government?
Buried down the bottom of the article was
“It is not a broken system by any means,” said senior analyst with Agribusiness Intelligence in Memphis, Adam Speck.
“It is a black swan event. There are hogs available. We are full to the brim. But when we are down about 23% in hog harvesting capacity and we can’t process at normal rates, then the only option is to depopulate.”
“Chickens have a super-short life. I understand they started euthanising them about the second week of April and the cull must be in the millions now. We might be down about 10% of current chicken availability now.”
“It’s going to be painful for the next few weeks until about mid-May when hopefully processing plants start to come back online.”
On the other hand, if you respect the power of the resilient family behind the idea of world government you might want to consider what they have to say.
The impacts of the COVID crisis will likely require a rebuilding of economies across the world. This is both a challenge and an opportunity to rebuild something that serves people better, and will require both vision and commitment at local, regional and global levels. Some key and actionable steps include...
The warm and fuzzy globalist COVID plan can be read at https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/covid-19-response/
The beef and potatoes come from Idaho. Not to worry.
For some, McDonalds is a go-to staple of their regular diet.
I would only eat at McDonalds if I was starving and had no alternative.
The whole point was to cut excess inventory(money)sitting in stores and streamline the process to insure the freshest product. I would imagine that after a quarter century that got the system down pretty good. So I really don't see anything different being done with the current shortage potential. MickeyD's has probably long ago set up contracts to keep supplied with foreign beef if domestic sources can't provide for their needs. This won't be the first time they have had to source product from non traditional suppliers.
Yeah, Omaha Steaks have an ad blitz going on here in the NY metro.
The local butcher here was fully stocked with everything here this morning.
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