Are you serious? I'd like to know what percentage of the world's cargo ships those few boats would be.

Also, here in Michigan, everything is normal at the super-markets. In fact, Meijer's has recently done an absolutely amazing re-modeling job in the Ann Arbor (Jackson Road) store. It's by far my favorite super-market, for both it's size and selection of goods.

havent really noticed it so much in the food or retail side of things, but being a plumbing contractor, dont think that you will even get a 3/4 black iron union within 3 business days. my god any kind of metal parts and plumbing fixtures are all on 3 to 5 week orders. here is a funny story did a underground gas job, which i only needed 3 sticks of piping, it took me to go to over 13 plumbing supply houses to get the very last chunck of machine coated 3/4 inch black iron pipe. what is funnier they werent plan on reordering it.
btw idaho here!

Yes! i thought i was the only one seeing this, walmart harissteter . i new this was comming but to see it start happening is crazy so that means the worst is almost here

I didn't make the mental connection to transportation before, but since it was brought up...

I still maintain contact with my truckin' buddies even though I don't drive a truck at present. Here's what they are telling me:

• Trucking companies are cutting back on their fleets. There are now hundreds, maybe thousands of new trucks without drivers and no plan to put drivers in them. They just sit in the terminals waiting.
  
  
• Driver incentives are being cut back. Vacations at Celadon were recently cut in half, several companies have asked drivers to take rate cuts, and several companies are no longer allowing home time while in the truck (drivers have to use personal vehicles to move from the terminal to their home).
  
  
• Fuel is being tightened up on. In addition to making drivers pay for their home time commute, most companies now have anti-idling incentives (although there is still a lack of APUs on the trucks ), use computerized routing, and use computerized fuel stop planning. I doubt the latter two actually save any fuel, but they apparently make the companies feel like they're saving something...
  
  
• This is apparently to offset low amounts of freight. There is still freight, but a lot of companies are hurting because the freight is sporadic at best. Of course, this is hurting the drivers as well. I am hearing of teams that make less miles per week than I used to make solo.
  
  
• In order to keep even the sporadic freight, many companies are now taking cuts in their rates as well, another reason why driver pay and benefits have gone down.
  
  
• Everyone is cutting their driving force back. There are still decent driving jobs if you have a clean DAC, if you have a perfect MVR, and if you have a great reference from previous employers. Anything else and you need to find a temporary career until this blows up... er, I mean over...

It appears that the shortages may be happening all over and just not yet becoming noticeable in some areas yet.

Oh, and for the poster who mentioned WalMart aisles being larger, I have noticed that here as well. The floor displays are occasional instead of being a regular feature as well.

TheRedneck

We have no shortages on anything here in the sunny south east.

We also have a growing season 11 months out of the year. We could probably grow something in January but who wants to garden all 12 months of the year.

And Florida grows some fine beef. We have chicken farms, pig farms, and nut and fruit growers within a 200 mile limit of my home. And the fresh rivers and Atlantic ocean are good suppliers of seafood.

If you have one arm, one leg and one eye and are able to get around on a crutch there should be no reason to starve here in God's country.

There is also an abundance of distilleries around these parts and a the homemade stuff is everywhere.

Now who won the civil war? I say this because the Yanks keep coming south and buying our trinkets and keep us well supplied with cash to purchase anything available.

Yes, even our brothers and sisters from Canada are frequent visitors here.

I believe the south will be the last to have problems with having empty shelves.

Y'all come on down there's plenty of room and help wanted signs on store windows.

Originally posted by ualredyknow
Yes! i thought i was the only one seeing this, walmart harissteter . i new this was comming but to see it start happening is crazy so that means the worst is almost here

I suspect the "remodels" at Wal Mart are more about the problems in shipping overseas (i.e. from China) and less about credit, which I'm sure is not a problem Wal Mart has.

There are a few ATS threads about the shipping crisis.

Well, if your loving government cared, they would recommend people to grow their own food...

But no. You all have to work to pay for gas so you can go to work again, so you can buy overpriced food you could be growing yourself... Wonderful!

[edit on 4-10-2009 by Time=Now]

I can't imagine Walmart would have trouble with their line of credit. Most likely the ship from China is late.

Empty shelves are a classic sign of economic decay: Weimar-Era germany, Post-WWII Austria, Argentina...not to mention more dire straits, like Zimbabwe.

The Soviets used to wait in line two hours to buy whatever the grocer had that particular day. Sometimes it was salted ham, sometimes canned tuna, sometimes just good ole' fashioned bread and salt. Soumetimes you never knew what dinner was going to be till you got to the head of the line. And while you were waiting in line, you could always read the Pravda...what passed for the Mainstream Media back in the USSR. "Good news, comerades! Bauxite production at the People's Smelting Factory #267 is up 599%! Prosperity keeps climbing!"

Starting to sound a little uncomfortably close to the direction we're headed, isn't it? We ain't there yet, but give us 3-5 years and it might sound even more familiar.

Originally posted by amatrine
Anyone else seeing this?

The last two months the stores here have been going from bad to worse.


Now I wanted to buy a comforter for my bed. Wallmart had a total of 6 bed spreads in the entire store, shelves empty. I asked, and they said there would not be another restock for a month! So I goto kmart, same thing, empty shelves. I finally found one at Frys home store.

My my how you are suffering you poor old American Thang!! My God, your Country per head of population, has been consuming more resources than any other Nation on Earth. 25 obscene per cent to be exact. Try living in Ethiopia or Bangladesh and see how its like to survive. They have nothing.

Originally posted by stevegmu
I can't imagine Walmart would have trouble with their line of credit. Most likely the ship from China is late.

What people are missing here is that Walmart doesn't manufacture all of what it sells, does it?

Even if it has a "Walmart" label on it, it's likely manufactured by a small company and then packaged for Walmart.

It's all very good saying Walmart are not having financial problems themselves, but what about the smaller companies they buy in from? They are having financial problems.

The Ma & Pa stores going under in large numbers are the same sorts of companies supplying the big chains. They can't secure the money and credit to buy materials for manufacture, and they are having to cut back on production.

Walmart makes orders in bulk based on expected sales, so they may even be deliberately cutting back on specific items based on a previous forecast that they won't sell many in a struggling economy.

Then you have the shipping and haulage companies cutting back too, or simply going out of business.
This affects everyone from manufacturing companies to the bulk buyers like Walmart.

Walmart will have stock in some regions, probably in locations where their stores are larger and sales higher in the past. But there will be an availability problem on a lot of goods simply because of all the factors that caused businesses to cut back or go out of business a couple of months ago.

If anyone can find data on when small business closures were at a peak, you'll see a pattern. If in July/August there was a peak of businesses in manufacture going under, supplies of their items will be missing from the shelves of the larger retail chains who buy from them a couple of months later, unless they found another supplier.

Produce growers will face similar problems but their time scale is different so that would be seen more immediately.

It's really just common sense. If the smaller businesses are struggling to make ends meet and going under in record numbers, the people who buy from them will face a shortage. Walmart is nothing more than a middle man, buying in bulk from them at low prices and selling on to you.