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

[JohnDoe]

After I stockpiled 90 days' worth of cat food. My cat has decided he doesn't like that type of food anymore and wants *different* food.

If the shit hits the fan, I'm thinking of eating the cat.

You'll need the cat to eat rats and other vermin. Typically it's a very bad idea to eat your pets in a SHTF scenario, even pets you think would be useless can turn into big benefits if kept alive and part of your team. There are very few circumstances where the short term benefits outweighs the long, like maybe if you're on a lifeboat or something.

That's their M.O., they build a colossal supply of the targeted goods, dump them out on the international markets and once they have fucked over the target markets they enjoy their new lion's share of the market!

Exactly, it's all part of China's long term economic warfare against the West and the US in particular. Like the trick they pull on an industry wide scale like with steel or shipping containers.

Step 1: The costs of producing Product X in China is artificially reduced by State funding
Step 2: ChiCom Corp floods the market with cheap Product X
Step 3: Industries in Y Country (the US, Australia, whatever) cannot compete with government funded competition
Step 4: After [number] of years those local industries are in dire financial straits
Step 5: Chinese controlled interests or sometimes local capital vultures acquire and dismantle the industry
Step 6: ChiCom Corp raises prices because what are you gonna do now that your local industry has been dismantled?

Now the Chinese state controls the industry for Product X, other nations are reliant on China, and have holes shot have been shot in their economy.

 

[Justa Grata Honoria]

UK

Haven't noticed any shortages in weeks now, apart from the usual stuff that runs out before it can be replenished (Orange juice is the main one, for some reason. I buy 5 cartons at a time now...).

The last item I saw a shortage of was cucumbers, wierdly enough, and Tesco didn't have any in for a week. Outside of that, we're back to business as usual.

How are the prices i read in r/ shortages that lotta things had 20-30 per cent increase in price

 

[Billy Beer]

How are the prices i read in r/ shortages that lotta things had 20-30 per cent increase in price

Yeah the prices have increased across the board. It's a few pence here and there. There isn't anything that I buy that has gone up 20% though, let alone 30%. I'm a thrifty shopper though who buys stuff in bulk when it's on sale. Especially non-perishables like shower gel. If they're 50% off, I'll buy 10-20 in one go.

Edit: Maybe 30% is correct compared to the sizes we had a year ago. Everything is shrinking while getting slightly more expensive. Shower gel used to come in 250ml bottles, now comes in 225ml bottles.

 

[Diana Moon Glampers]

Let's be real, pet food is having a shortage because somewhere some store didn't get a shipment and ten liberals went on Facebook screaming like doomsday preppers, "Get 6 months of pet food in your cupboards immediately, there's a run on it, everyone's running out!"

Someday they're going to find out a lot of these problems were caused by "stockups" from people who were actually being tipped off by people connected to large corporations who needed to make quarterly numbers.

 

[FatalTater]

Let's be real, pet food is having a shortage because somewhere some store didn't get a shipment and ten liberals went on Facebook screaming like doomsday preppers, "Get 6 months of pet food in your cupboards immediately, there's a run on it, everyone's running out!"

Yeah, people read that there's a shortage on pet food then went to the Walmart and saw that they were out of their pet's favorite flavor and panicked, forgetting that the shop runs out of that flavor all the damn time.

IF the farms that raise meat are struggling, it could trickle down to pet food issues, but i would think human-quality cuts of meat would go missing first, since they have to (or are supposed to) be held to higher standards.

 

[Sped Xing]

Yeah, people read that there's a shortage on pet food then went to the Walmart and saw that they were out of their pet's favorite flavor and panicked, forgetting that the shop runs out of that flavor all the damn time.

IF the farms that raise meat are struggling, it could trickle down to pet food issues, but i would think human-quality cuts of meat would go missing first, since they have to (or are supposed to) be held to higher standards.

The "higher standards" to which human food.is (supposed to) be held has mostly to do with packaging and shipping. It's not like half a herd of cattle are only fit for dog consumption, while the other half are for humans.

I've noticed that many people seem to think meat grades reflect their level of wholesomeness. A prime steak is not "cleaner" than a select steak; it has more intramuscular fat deposits.

A spike in concentrate feed prices, which would make the finishing at feedlots more expensive, would make prime and choice beef harder to come by and pricier, but it won't make the beef unfit for human consumption. A drought makes hay and concentrates more expensive, as well as making the stocking rates for cow-calf and stocker steer operations less dense, which means less beef at a higher cost to produce.

TLDR Pet food will disappear before human food.
EDIT: Or more appropriately, beef will disappear from ingredients for dog food before you won't be able to get beef in the grocery store. People will mostly be willing to feed fido fingernails-n-sawdust before they're going to give up their burgers.

 

[In Memoriam]

No plastic forks or spoons in my local grocery store for weeks. No plastic wrap, either. Household cleaners hit or miss. Sharply reduced amount of choices on the store shelf across the board here in the extreme southern US. I’ve literally never seen it like this before in my lifetime - Let’s Go Brandon!

Never underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up, indeed. We are nowhere near Soviet levels and I can get everything I need, but the previous ridiculous excess for excess’ sake seems to be slowing down. I don’t hate it from that perspective, but I miss the God Emperor daily.

 

[contradiction of terns]

you need to have the basics first, down to knots and other stuff if you never were a boy scout. stuff about micro farming (which also works if you just want to grow your own spices etc.). knowledge how to store and conserve all that stuff.

depending how deep you want to go into it books about survival and combat. when SHTF all those stored goods don't mean much if someone can just show up and take it.

This was one of my suggestions. It includes how to tie basic knots, skin a rabbit, milk a goat, grow a garden, build and use a loom, build a mortarless cabin, and how to harness power from a windmill. It's not quite Boyscouting basic, but it's pretty basic. I do recommend having other books on gardening because it doesn't spend as much time on that as I'd personally like.

Also, rabbits are great pets if you want a pet you can eat. They taste kinda like chicken. I don't raise them anymore because they're too high maintenance compared to poultry, but for someone who doesn't have other stuff going on they could be a good choice.

Lastly, everyone should have a gun or two which they promptly lose in their local lake like I did.

Edit: I forgot to add this thing I found that is fascinating and relevant. American supply chains face a dire threat from China's water shortages

 

[Male Idiot]

No plastic forks or spoons in my local grocery store for weeks. No plastic wrap, either. Household cleaners hit or miss. Sharply reduced amount of choices on the store shelf across the board here in the extreme southern US. I’ve literally never seen it like this before in my lifetime - Let’s Go Brandon!

Never underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up, indeed. We are nowhere near Soviet levels and I can get everything I need, but the previous ridiculous excess for excess’ sake seems to be slowing down. I don’t hate it from that perspective, but I miss the God Emperor daily.

I wish we didn't poz and follow eu to ban those.

I stacked up on them.
Parents who are greener than me wanted some, I told them politely that they liked the environment, I did not, so it would be immoral for them not to use shitty paper ones.

When I'll be old I'll show the youngsters plastic, which will be like a lost STC of a super useful material, ao they can see how low environmentalists made Mankind fall.

 

[JustSomeDong]

Tinfoil is 10 fuckin bucks a roll.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

depending how deep you want to go into it books about survival and combat. when SHTF all those stored goods don't mean much if someone can just show up and take it.

Combat doesn't matter TOO much since odds are if you ever need to resort to combat, you'll either be with a group (like a neighborhood watch/your family/your "tribe") or you'll be fucking dead since the other guy will be with a group (like a warlord band) and solo people/a single family doesn't survive the apocalypse very well without allies. That said, it's obviously worth learning since if it's 1-2 dudes trying to take your shit it's good to know how to ventilate them in the most efficient way possible.

You'll need the cat to eat rats and other vermin. Typically it's a very bad idea to eat your pets in a SHTF scenario, even pets you think would be useless can turn into big benefits if kept alive and part of your team. There are very few circumstances where the short term benefits outweighs the long, like maybe if you're on a lifeboat or something.

Cats are kind of a luxury pet. Yes, they feed themselves (even if they'll beg you to feed them), but unless you're hoarding a lot of food, working a farm, or disgusted by rats you need them gone (like if you run a business that needs some standard of sanitation), they're kind of useless. They ate them in the US during WWII because of supply issues, although that was rare compared to the rest of the world in that era.

I'd say cats are best for morale since they're very cute and nice animals. Unless your cat is fat as fuck, their meat is too lean to be useful, just look up "rabbit starvation". Like rabbit meat, cat meat is high in protein and low in fat, and if you eat too much of it, you starve since your body burns too much calories and fat. A fuckton of people died this way throughout history and this is why you can read about random explorers noticing how Native Americans would obsess over eating bison fetuses (because that was fattier) or chug half-rancid fish oil with every meal (because that's fatty and fish is lean).

 

[Sped Xing]

Snakes are better than cats for rodent control.

You can definitely replace a dumb boring lawn with a source of yummy fresh veggies without becoming El Capitán Autismo. However, anyone trying to turn their quarter acre lawn into a self-sufficient farm is going to learn very quickly that economies of scale are crucial in agriculture.

Better to focus on one or two products which you can trade, rather than try for "five acres and freedom" right off the bat. Some people make nanofarms work for them, but that doesn't mean it's practical, let alone simple.

Tinfoil is 10 fuckin bucks a roll.

That hits this forum where it hurts.

 

[JohnDoe]

Snakes are better than cats for rodent control.

Not in cold weather.

 

[Sped Xing]

Not in cold weather.

Move to Florida.

 

[888Flux]

The average normalfag cannot even comprehend the insanity of the sprawling logistical chains that are required to maintain a functioning economy. There are billions of moving pieces and if one breaks down the whole system begins to fall apart. What we are seeing now is just the beginning. There is only a small margin to correct these problems until they start cascading into each other and in turn resulting in further deterioration. When you rely on overseas slave labor and cargo ships transporting goods thousands of miles before they reach their destination you think you would want an extra layer of security in redundancy but because of the absolute pursuit of achieving profit at any means this was completely overlooked. Almost every hard good in America is manufactured overseas or relies on parts made overseas. Combine this with Just-in-Time logistics and you have only a matter of time before things begin to fail.

 

[contradiction of terns]

• Farmers brace for supply shortages in 2022

• This Chemical Is in Short Supply, and the Whole World Feels It (About the urea shortage)

I am starting to wonder how badly and how far this is going to snowball.

 

[Kramer on the phone]

Tinfoil is 10 fuckin bucks a roll.

thats why i switched to aluminium foil

 

[CarlosDanger]

My local CVS has a sign on the door that due to staffing shortages, prescriptions could take 6-7 days to be filled.

 

[Black Light Red Panic]

Guys the global economy just crashed into my backyard what the f***

 

[Simple Moving Average]

• Farmers brace for supply shortages in 2022

• This Chemical Is in Short Supply, and the Whole World Feels It (About the urea shortage)

I am starting to wonder how badly and how far this is going to snowball.