Product shortage or manipulation

originally posted by: burdman30ott6

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
That's obviously a huge shift from where the country was 2 decades ago... you could buy dirt cheap dairy products in dairy country, cheap produce in farmland areas, cheap lobster in New England, and cheap salmon in Alaska... the ability to swiftly and cheaply (largely thanks to tax payer subsidies) ship these products to markets that will pay more has skyjacked the prices in the production areas.

Good point. Here in BC, we grew up eating salmon as a staple and I hated the stuff, dreaded seeing my dad walk in the door with yet another fish. What was a small fish back then is now a prize winner. Now I like it and can rarely afford it. Even cans of sockeye were going for 9$ in the corner grocery store though that is on the high side but it's probably driven up by the fact that other countries will pay that, so we have to as well.

There are many sellers on the internet that do not tell you that their products are in China when they are based in the US

I just bought a couple items and the company is in the US but when i tracked shipping i found this.

"Deliveries from China may be delayed. Estimated delivery: Fri, Jun 4, 2021 - Tue, Jun 22, 2021"
i other words the seller is selling products he does not have and when you buy from him, he then orders the item from China and has it shipped to you.
He does everything setting in front of his computer and never has to receive or ship a product.

I've worked in manufacturing for 25 years and I've never seen the demand we have right now. It started in spring last year, which at the time made sense since we were all stocking up on things. Without giving out too much information, most things in the grocery store is derived from the product we make. But it didn't stop after last spring, it increased.

It doesn't help that we can't find anyone to work. I'm in Wisconsin and we are paying 25$ an hour right off the street. No applicants are even applying. The temp agencies have nobody to offer. 25$ an hour might not sound like a lot to many of you but here that's a livable wage. I mean buy a house, car and take a yearly vacation wage in Wisconsin.

Something seems really off with all of this. Where is all this demand coming from? It's making me think the people in the know are stocking up but doing it in a way that isn't noticable on the store shelves.

And someone mentioned ammo. I'm not into guns but it's hard to not notice the ammo shelves completely empty week after week. I normally don't pay attention but it's hard to ignore completely bare aisles where the ammo use to be.

Try to list y'alls States, being in TX, I'm rarely experiencing any kind of shortfalls.

I'm still gassing up and working no different then when Trump was elected, barring Covid Pandemic shutdowns.

I spend alot of money, both online and at retailer.

Gas prices did go up, was at 2.74, now at 2.86 😑

Otherwise, perhaps I think this is regional, not saying we'll be effected at some point, just that SA, TX is pretty manageable.

a reply to: JAGStorm

It probably has something to do with the Global shipping container shortage caused by COVID and increased Global demand.

The global shortage of shipping containers, primarily caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, has led to drastic inflation in shipping and container prices and increased delay times for companies. We ask why shipping is facing this container shortage and investigate the global impact.

Maersk, the largest container shipping line and vessel operator in the world, has been significantly affected by the container shortage but believes that the current situation will soon improve.

Lars Mikael Jensen, head of network and market east-west at Maersk, says: “It is expected that the situation will improve, bottlenecks are expected to be relieved, buying patterns likely to normalise, as well as additional vessels and containers entering the market in 2021, means that the current vessel and container shortage is temporary in nature.

“Moving forward, transparency in rule-making globally is key for all market players to support global trade.”

The global shortage and impacts of Covid-19 have left the industry in uncertain waters. However, container availability is gradually increasing while congestion is reducing in certain bottlenecks. As the year progresses, the industry hopes to see improvement on the horizon.
www.ship-technology.com...

a reply to: JAGStorm
I was also reading an article yesterday about a trucker shortage and seen on the news about resin/chemical shortage. Now we have this pipeline shutdown, it could get nuts.

No lumber shortage local privately owned place has all the lumber you need at a high price and they are selling fast. Now at work plastic and resin are hit and miss. lots of changing suppliers lots of poor quality from suppliers. We even have brass parts breaking down in water???

a reply to: gortex
Shipping container shortage? What a stupid and inane answer. Before and during the virus thing there were enough containers to deliver goods on time. NOW, containers don't just rot away, yes they lose some in accidents, but not that many. More like they are manipulating the placements of cargos so there would be a shortage in certain areas.
It reminds me of the UK oil crisis, I think in the 1970s, there wasn't any shortage except at the refinery and that was because a large number of oil tankers were cruising round in circles in the Atlantic to manufacture a shortage and drive the price up.

a reply to: crayzeed

Shipping container shortage? What a stupid and inane answer.

Not nearly as stupid and inane as your reply.

The global transportation system is currently experiencing a unique and unexpected crisis. The extraordinary cascade of events caused by the pandemic has led to a severe container shortage crisis. This situation can be classified as a global one, as the lack of containers has a cascading effect along all supply chains,

The crisis has arisen for four main reasons. Firstly, due to a decrease in the number of available containers, secondly, since most of the ports were congested as they suffered from a reduction in labor, thirdly, due to a drop in the number of ships operating, and, fourthly, since significant changes in consumer buying sentiment.
www.hellenicshippingnews.com...

But I'm sure you know better.

originally posted by: mikell
No lumber shortage local privately owned place has all the lumber you need at a high price and they are selling fast. Now at work plastic and resin are hit and miss. lots of changing suppliers lots of poor quality from suppliers. We even have brass parts breaking down in water???

As long as the trump trade embargo stays in effect, expect even more shortages and higher prices.

Even with a multitude of disruptive factors, there are still opportunities. With a labor shortage, there are more choices available, more openings, less competition, possibly a faster promotion schedule, etc.

'litterbaux' mentioned 25 per hour off the street in Wisconsin. That's a very decent wage to start in Wisconsin.

Folks are going to have to make some choices here pretty soon or we're going to have some major chaotic situations develop rather rapidly.

It's definitely NOT all doom and gloom.

originally posted by: crayzeed

Shipping container shortage? What a stupid and inane answer. Before and during the virus thing there were enough containers to deliver goods on time. NOW, containers don't just rot away, yes they lose some in accidents, but not that many. More like they are manipulating the placements of cargos so there would be a shortage in certain areas......

The fact that the containers exist does not necessarily mean that they are all being used in the most efficient manner.

...in 2020, 668,086 empty containers were shipped to foreign ports around the world, 12 times more than in 2019...

The wasteful practice is tied to online shopping habits that have popped up due to the pandemic. If you’ve found yourself doing way more online shopping this past year, you’re not alone. E-commerce grew an estimated 16.5% in 2020, churning out $3.9 trillion in sales globally. This has been great for Asian markets, especially China because people living in the U.S. are buying far more imported products than normal.

U.S. ports, however, haven’t been able to keep up with all those imports, especially because they are experiencing labor shortages due to covid-19 and state-mandated restrictions on gathering. With fewer workers around to unload and unpack all this cargo, a backlog of containers has been piling up.

That backlog is also creating a delay in how quickly foreign markets are receiving these containers to fill back up. Usually, domestic shippers would wait to send the giant boxes across the ocean until they were loaded up with U.S. goods to be sent overseas. But since that’s taking much longer these days and shippers abroad are desperate for containers to refill with the goods Americans are buying and are willing to pay a premium for them, it’s more lucrative now for the shipping companies to simply send empty containers overseas. Increasingly, carriers are emptying ships at ports in Long Beach and Los Angeles, then immediately putting the unloaded, empty containers back onto the vessels to go back to Asia.

earther.gizmodo.com...

a reply to: JAGStorm

There is no conspiracy, A) everybody is ordering online these days and B) The need to isolate if you've been near somebody with Covid can knock out an entire shift at a distribution center in short order.

This isn't helped by the fact that the last mile part of logistics is notorious for long hours and poor money. It's entirely possible not to make a living wage despite pulling a double shift if traffic is bad and you can't make your quota.

a reply to: litterbaux

You don't happen to work at a place that grinds farm animals up do ya? If so hey there old coworker.

originally posted by: olaru12

originally posted by: mikell
No lumber shortage local privately owned place has all the lumber you need at a high price and they are selling fast. Now at work plastic and resin are hit and miss. lots of changing suppliers lots of poor quality from suppliers. We even have brass parts breaking down in water???

As long as the trump trade embargo stays in effect, expect even more shortages and higher prices.

...which is also a problem. Don't blame Trump, Biden has kepted those in effect, why? Because it WORKS, lmfao.

Biden hates Trump so much that he kepted Trumps signature move against the CCP.

I've been seeing more product from Vietnam.

originally posted by: Arnie123
Try to list y'alls States, being in TX, I'm rarely experiencing any kind of shortfalls.

I'm still gassing up and working no different then when Trump was elected, barring Covid Pandemic shutdowns.

I spend alot of money, both online and at retailer.

Gas prices did go up, was at 2.74, now at 2.86 😑

Otherwise, perhaps I think this is regional, not saying we'll be effected at some point, just that SA, TX is pretty manageable.

Agree 100% with this. The only shortage I've seen is on some pickled okra that my daughter loves. Our store of choice can't get it simply because Kroger, being the largest grocer in the area, gets first dibs on supply

a reply to: BrokenCircles
Also in answer to gortex:- as I said, there is no shortage, it's just bad logistics OR planned bad logistics. On line shopping??? On line shopping, that in itself is no need for the furore that's being made. Reason, virtually all on line shopping is for non essential or luxury goods and therefore not the emergency that's portrayed.
Only odd luxury food items are shipped by container.
But the answers still the same, there is NO shortage of containers.

a reply to: TXRabbit

Okay, so gas is @3.07 now, ugh.