Global Supply Chain Crisis 2021: Megathread - A cozy thread for watching the supply chain fall apart just in time for the holidays

[Hecate]

Semi-related to what you said about Walmart removing aisles, have you (or anyone else reading this) ever noticed the Walmart Cubes?

About half a year ago a local Walmart I went to (I have since moved) randomly removed a huge chunk of aisles in the front-left corner of the store. Roughly 1/3rd of a Gymnasium's worth of space- empty, gone, nothing, just tile floor. That's a lot of space. And then several months later it was replaced with a giant walled-off cube which they lazily put shelves against.
Obviously they'd wanna make a department out of that, right?
Fuck no, it's just A CUBE. There's no doors, inside or outside, just painted walls. No employee halls stretch around back that way, it's just walled off. Did they legitimately seal off that much space in a store for nothing? There's no department there, no windows, again- no entrypoint. Do they go in through the roof? Is that where they keep SCPs? Who knows! But I've been seeing them at other Walmarts in Florida as well.
Genuinely curious about these solely due to the perplexing fact you can't enter the Walmart Cubes. No door outside, no door inside, no employee access. You'd think if they had future department plans for them they'd at least add employee-only doors to bring shit in later, but nope. Nada.

I highly doubt Walmart is just trying to temporarily cover up for empty space due to supply shortages. They couldn't be going that far, right?

that's really fucking weird. do you have any pictures on hand of what it looks like? I would say it might be for security personnel if it had any kind of door. makes me wonder if there's some sort of weird local business tax dependent on total square footage of a building, or some "green" tax that charges you for unused air conditioned space. sounds dumb enough for a politician to think it up. if that area was already going to be empty, is literally inaccessible, and unusable then i can see why that might be the case.
I haven't seen anything like that in my area. closest thing is one of the Lowe's in my area removed 3 entire rows of isles where the light fixtures normally are in the middle of the store and just taped it off. haven't been there in a little under a month though so I'll have to go check to see if it's still barren or if it was filled in with something.

 

[Kosher Dill]

In my area I'm seeing low stock on paper towels (not completely sold out yet) and a complete lack of any orange sports drinks. Other flavors are there, but not orange. Is there just one nationwide supplier of orange flavor nodules?

 

[tehpope]

In my area I'm seeing low stock on paper towels (not completely sold out yet) and a complete lack of any orange sports drinks. Other flavors are there, but not orange. Is there just one nationwide supplier of orange flavor nodules?

Probably just your area. I got orange powerade this last weekend. Not out of stock in my neck of the woods.

 

[contradiction of terns]

Got diagnosed with bronchitis and will start working on the OP again in seriousness tomorrow (hopefully) after the steroids and antibiotics kick in.

News Roundup:

Britbongistan
• BoJo to offer visas to over 10,000 foreign workers
• NHS rations chemotherapy to cancer patients who have the best chance of survival

China
• China expecting energy shortage/crisis (I couldn't get this to archive; Bloomberg hates me).
• China electricity shortage: industrial production grinds to halt and traffic lights fail amid rationing

The USA
• JPMorgan Analyst Says To Resolve Supply Chain Issues, Increase Global Vaccinations (More archival issues)
• CostCo reinstates purchase limits on in-store goods
• Health care rationing leads to Civil Rights lawsuits
• High End drink brands being rationed

Misc.
Not technically related, but sort of?
• ACC finds Google's dominance in Adtech Supply Chain harms businesses and consumers
There's also a global silicone shortage (not to be mistaken for silicon). Silicone with an 'e' is used for medical grade sex toys and breast implants.

Edit: Took out a link about BoJo getting the military to drive because it had already been covered and I was too stoned on Benedryl to notice.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

• High End drink brands being rationed

“The brand shortages have not affected the sales in the state. For example, even though we are out of Bacardi, we still have 21 other rum offerings, including products from local distillers.”

This sounds like this only affects people with shit taste in liquor. Oh noes, you can't buy overpriced, mediocre shit like Bacardi or Jack Daniels (apparently they have a shortage in some places) or whatever.

That is little consolation to companies that have spent huge sums over many years developing brand awareness and loyalty.

Who will save the multibillion dollar international drink companies, oh no! LOL, get fucked.

 

[Lorne Armstrong]

It’s all good, unless they run out of High Life. That’s my cue to riot, and not until then.

Do The Right Thing - Da Mayor Wants Some Miller High Life!!!

Where's the Miller High Life???

youtu.be

 

[Puff]

This sounds like this only affects people with shit taste in liquor. Oh noes, you can't buy overpriced, mediocre shit like Bacardi or Jack Daniels (apparently they have a shortage in some places) or whatever.

Who will save the multibillion dollar international drink companies, oh no! LOL, get fucked.

It's driven by a packaging shortage. Soon enough, the big brands will buy up the remaining/newly produced packaging or just switch to plastic while the little guys run out of back stock of bottles.

 

[Overly Serious]

that's really fucking weird. do you have any pictures on hand of what it looks like? I would say it might be for security personnel if it had any kind of door. makes me wonder if there's some sort of weird local business tax dependent on total square footage of a building, or some "green" tax that charges you for unused air conditioned space. sounds dumb enough for a politician to think it up. if that area was already going to be empty, is literally inaccessible, and unusable then i can see why that might be the case.
I haven't seen anything like that in my area. closest thing is one of the Lowe's in my area removed 3 entire rows of isles where the light fixtures normally are in the middle of the store and just taped it off. haven't been there in a little under a month though so I'll have to go check to see if it's still barren or if it was filled in with something.

90% that's just to reduce the size of the shop for visual appearances. A feeling that the shop is empty is going to create an impression of scarcity. Putting up some cheap partition walls and putting shelves against it offsets that. They can't move the external walls in closer so this has a similar effect.

Do the new walls go to the ceiling or do they just go so high and then stop. Because if they can be surmounted that would be a dandy place to hide out / sleep. You could sit in there with a lounger, some drinks and snacks and a stack of books and chill all day. Come out at night for restocking.

Anyway, my own personal Bongistan annecdote: went into a Tesco's supermarket earlier and all veg and fresh produce was out of stock. Never has been before. And freezer section empty. Might be something specific to that shop but sharing fwiw.

 

[Raze]

that's really fucking weird. do you have any pictures on hand of what it looks like? I would say it might be for security personnel if it had any kind of door. makes me wonder if there's some sort of weird local business tax dependent on total square footage of a building, or some "green" tax that charges you for unused air conditioned space. sounds dumb enough for a politician to think it up. if that area was already going to be empty, is literally inaccessible, and unusable then i can see why that might be the case.
I haven't seen anything like that in my area. closest thing is one of the Lowe's in my area removed 3 entire rows of isles where the light fixtures normally are in the middle of the store and just taped it off. haven't been there in a little under a month though so I'll have to go check to see if it's still barren or if it was filled in with something.

I didn't think to take a picture at the time and I since moved away from that one. But I saw them at a couple other Walmarts, I'll try to take a pic if/when I go to one again. I don't normally shop there though.

90% that's just to reduce the size of the shop for visual appearances. A feeling that the shop is empty is going to create an impression of scarcity. Putting up some cheap partition walls and putting shelves against it offsets that. They can't move the external walls in closer so this has a similar effect.

Do the new walls go to the ceiling or do they just go so high and then stop. Because if they can be surmounted that would be a dandy place to hide out / sleep. You could sit in there with a lounger, some drinks and snacks and a stack of books and chill all day. Come out at night for restocking.

Anyway, my own personal Bongistan annecdote: went into a Tesco's supermarket earlier and all veg and fresh produce was out of stock. Never has been before. And freezer section empty. Might be something specific to that shop but sharing fwiw.

They go all the way up to the ceiling if I recall correctly, just like the exterior walls.

 

[Overly Serious]

I didn't think to take a picture at the time and I since moved away from that one. But I saw them at a couple other Walmarts, I'll try to take a pic if/when I go to one again. I don't normally shop there though.



They go all the way up to the ceiling if I recall correctly, just like the exterior walls.

Conceivably they are charged tax based on usable floor space. That's how it works in the UK, iirc. Quick and easy way of reducing costs if they don't need as much space as the building allows. I'm up for sinister explanations but there are mundanes ones available. If you're going to bother taking a photo, you could also just ask someone who works there.

 

[Wintersun]

Not sure if it counts towards what y'all are talking about, but I work part-time at a decently sized restaurant (in a suburban area where it's half city people going to work and half rednecks) and my boss asked me to go for a liquor run to some shops to get top shelf items, and the stores are basically empty, save for a lot of cheap things nobody really wanted to buy. It's been this way for a few weeks now, to the point where we're starting to 86 a lot of drinks we can serve due to the shortage of liquors available.

 

[Billy Beer]

Anyway, my own personal Bongistan annecdote: went into a Tesco's supermarket earlier and all veg and fresh produce was out of stock. Never has been before. And freezer section empty. Might be something specific to that shop but sharing fwiw.

Tesco near me (a big tesco) is starting to run thin on fruit and veg. Not compeltely running out, but the green baskets are at the bottom layer of produce. Instead of three full baskets and one empty, the shop floor staff are moving products about to make it look like there's most stuff there.

I used to work as a shelf stacker when i was a kid, and facing up (You rotate tins, for example, the labels all face the same way, and brought products from the back of the shelf to the front in a neat line to make it look more presentable and easier for customers to get) was the last thing you did before store close/when you putting fresh stuff out. Very rarely did we face up during the day. every time I've been in to store over the past few weeks, I've staff facing up aisles. Even if there were 10 tins on the shelf, they've brought them to the front to make it look like they have stock.

I've also noticed that the little tickets that say "Out of stock, replacement expected 1st oct 2021", not just say "out of stock". It's the first time i've seen that in the ~2 years i've shopped there. There's always been a replacement date.

 

[Overly Serious]

Tesco near me (a big tesco) is starting to run thin on fruit and veg. Not compeltely running out, but the green baskets are at the bottom layer of produce. Instead of three full baskets and one empty, the shop floor staff are moving products about to make it look like there's most stuff there.

I used to work as a shelf stacker when i was a kid, and facing up (You rotate tins, for example, the labels all face the same way, and brought products from the back of the shelf to the front in a neat line to make it look more presentable and easier for customers to get) was the last thing you did before store close/when you putting fresh stuff out. Very rarely did we face up during the day. every time I've been in to store over the past few weeks, I've staff facing up aisles. Even if there were 10 tins on the shelf, they've brought them to the front to make it look like they have stock.

I've also noticed that the little tickets that say "Out of stock, replacement expected 1st oct 2021", not just say "out of stock". It's the first time i've seen that in the ~2 years i've shopped there. There's always been a replacement date.

One Tesco's is saying "Freezer failure leading to lack of supplies". I honestly don't know if that's true or it's just something they put up to explain lack of stock. Probably getting paranoid.

 

[Billy Beer]

One Tesco's is saying "Freezer failure leading to lack of supplies". I honestly don't know if that's true or it's just something they put up to explain lack of stock. Probably getting paranoid.

It would have to be every freezer failing at once, which would be highly unlikely, unless it's their main freezer 'in the back' and not those on the shop floor, so they can't hold stock.

One to watch either way.

 

[Billy Beer]

Sorry for the double post

Shortage problem: What's the UK running low on and why?

Shortages are one thing we don't seem to be running out of in the UK right now.

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC doing a quick run down of what is in short supply and why. They mainly blame brexit because foreign workers had to go home...absolutely astonishing that the blame can be put on foreign workers not being able to work here anyone, and not on ignoring the British workforce's complaints of shit pay and conditions for the last 20 years.

 

[Art Kassul]

Mid-Atlantic, major metropolitan. Starting in the past 10-14 days, much frustration trying to find NON-diet Snapple. We drink the peach like water and can't find it in any of the places it had been freely available.

I'm referring to the cold-case size only. Not sure if the supermarkets still have stock because I demand cold Snapple.

If COVID can collapse the soft drink market I think we can all agree it was worth it. Sorry for your loss, but think of children!

Fuck no, it's just A CUBE. There's no doors, inside or outside, just painted walls.

That's a horror movie just waiting to happen. Imagine the Cube movies, but at Walmart. "We've got such deals to show you!"

That shit has like 60g of sugar. It's sugar, not HFCS, but when I read the label I almost shat myself. Someone recommended it and I glanced over the ingredients, didn't see anything absolutely haram, and bought it. Only after did I realize it's entirely made of sugar. Poison.

Bodyarmor Lyte is pretty good. Stevia instead of sugar.

In my area I'm seeing low stock on paper towels (not completely sold out yet) and a complete lack of any orange sports drinks. Other flavors are there, but not orange. Is there just one nationwide supplier of orange flavor nodules?

My local stores have a revolving set of items that just stay out of stock for weeks. Lately some of those were Dave's Killer Bread, certain varieties of hot dogs buns (the only ones I like, of course), and Glad trash bags.

High End drink brands being rationed

We thought toilet paper would be the new normal currency, but Gatorade and Pureblood Snapple have pulled ahead.

 

[Catman from cat town]

The liquor shortage in the U.S will be based on how much control the state ABC has or how effective liquor distribution is in the state. Every U.S state has an ABC, however, in states like Virginia or Pennsylvania the only place you can get hard liquor is from a state-run store. Another thing to consider is if the state has a monopoly on their stores or allows counties to instead run ma & pa stores. This matters because the monopoly state-run stores will equally get the products by demand of the area as they enter the state-run warehouse for distribution. In the county run stores, it’s more confusing on which stores get what since it’s dependent many small businesses ordering products from one source.

I believe in states that have liquor sold in grocery stores will be fine on major, high volume products, like Tito’s and Bacardi, since the distribution of liquor is basically streamlined. Their state ABCs are more focused on underage drinking than distribution.

Honestly, look into your state’s ABC and figure out if you can get the state to order Pappy van winkle without entering a lottery to even buy it

 

[Linako 2.0]

Also didn't notice that Gatorade is out of stock in the big bottles until my dad pointed it out. Stock in the smaller bottles is fine.

I have noticed that for the past few months gatorader was always low on stock, I assume because it was summer and because where I buy it is near where delivery workers are it explains it.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

Clicklists at Walmart have been a huge crapshoot over the past year. About half the food gets substituted and a chunk will just not be there. Stopped bothering with anything but what I needed if I do a list for Walmart.

Kroger is still good and doesn't substitute unsweetened cold brew with foul sweetened cold brew. Unfortunately, Walmart is the only game in town for local clicklist shopping.

Ohio is pretty strict on hard hard liquor. Malibu can be bought at any old grocery store. Good luck getting Jim Beam black from a Kroger. I prefer having a neighbor hook me up with stuff they buy out of state, personally. They're my Yellowstone dealer.

 

[DamnWolves!]

They've also suspended yard trash pick up and cut house hold pick ups in half. Fucker is 4 days late this week.

How often is your trash pickup? From context, it sounded like it was twice a week, which is way more than most places. Ours comes every other week; opposite to recycling.

College BTFO


Learn the trades boys, it's where all the shortages are right now.

This. I pretty much joined my trade because I knew it was one of those jobs where i'd never be out of work.

Just so there's some sort of counter-opinion represented here: yeah, white collar jobs are "less stable" than blue collar ones (although in my experience, blue collar jobs are less stable because the people that work them are often also not very stable--even in resi electrical work, the least-rough out of all the trades, people would routinely walk off the job for retarded personal reasons and show up drunk or stoned).

The flip side is that you can also make $350k/yr being a VP who sits on his ass and tells other people what to do over Teams, sitting in his own comfy home office. You get connected with other people in the industry. You take days off when you feel like it. You get everything from housing allowances to car allowances. You won't start there, but if you aren't literally retarded, you should end up somewhere around there by your mid 30s and you won't have destroyed your body doing it.

So yeah, we need the trades to function, but nothing beats the feeling of walking off with half million dollar bonus because the stock market is retarded and you have options with a low strike and an accelerated vesting schedule.

There is nothing wrong with a hard day's work, but believe me when I tell you that there is also nothing noble in working your ass off just to end up middle class. If you can make it in a corporate job, you should--you will eat shit for most of your 20s and survive off fast food, and then you will get your big break and make more money than you know what to do with, so long as you are smart, ambitious and competent.