https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/business/economy/global-trade-shortages-coronavirus.html
April 10, 2020
WASHINGTON — Factories are idled. Workers are in lockdown. Goods are piling up at some ports, while elsewhere container ships sail empty. Dairy farmers are dumping their milk, while toilet paper aisles at the grocery store have been picked bare.
The spread of the coronavirus has disrupted global supply chains, leading to shortages and price increases that are cascading from factories to ports to retail stores to consumers. While factories in China have been slowly restarting as the country’s epidemic fades, many manufacturers in India, the United States and Europe are powering down, or running at partial capacity.
Since the Covid-19 outbreak I've been highly concerned with the Global Economy and the Supply Chain which could turn out to be a bigger problem than the virus itself.
As both Nations and people begin stock up on items, we are seeing some products are already disrupted and I've already noticed escalating prices at the stores.
While I am not an expert on Supply Chains, I don't think a global economy just starts right back up with out problems.
I don't want to alarm anyone or encourage hoarding, but I'm nervous about the next phase as we try to get things going again.
Things I am doing, buying a bit extra each week. I also ordered a variety of seeds today and am going to start a raised garden.
So far my family has been doing okay, no huge set backs, but even when the virus settles down, I expect it will take some time to settle into a new normal again. We may have to develop new habits or select different or local foods as things get back to normal.
Don't panic, but stay aware.
In good news, I got so lucky with paper towels today, there was 1 pack on the shelves and no one else near it. :) lol 1st world problems.
Take care and stay healthy everyone.
Hey, @whatsup.
The paper product part of this (particularly toilet paper, and to somewhat lesser degrees, kleenex and paper towels) were already not meeting demand before all of this hit, according to someone I know who actually works at a plant here that supplies Costco with toilet paper, among other things.
So, with the added strain, they're way behind, but it's not at a point where they really want to add on a lot more equipment to produce more to try to catch up because at some point, sales of paper products start to drop down to at least normal levels (or worse, since people will be buying week to week rather than trying to pick up extra as they can in order to have money to pay a bill or something else as needful but not have the resources to do it all because they were off work out of work).
There apparently is another grade of paper products producers who sell to hotel chains and the like that haven't seen an uptick—it's been a while since I read about this so I don't know where they're at right now, but with the hotels and such closed down, I can't imagine there's been a high demand there. I understand the grades are little different, so I'm not sure if it behooves them to change whatever it is they need to in order to make money off of supplying stores for residential use, but anyway, at least not without some kind of wartime executive order like Trump is threatening with (or doing) with ventilators and other medical equipment/clothing, etc.
Of course, here in the US, the Federal Government is going to spend its way out of it, which always works so well (that we eventually have to go to war and ramp up production on things we can quickly blow up and then replace).
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
It's not even started yet. Big problems ahead.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I think so too.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
It's hard not to agree with you @oldtimer
challenging times indeed ahead of us
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
there isn't all of a sudden billions of more people in the world creating a new demand that cannot be met, nor have any of those factories and farms producing the goods burned to the ground, it's understandable a rapid uptick in purchases would cause a problem in the supply chain but I suspect it is only a matter of time before they can correct and adjust to the current demand✌️
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I hope you are right! I see it differently all of this time is lost, we didn't stop eating.. it's going to take time to ramp it back up.
Time will tell, and I hope you are right! :)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
already the stock is looking good where i am in several places though still no toilet paper for a month now.. I was lucky to get some stocked when I could, not that I cannot locate it in some smaller stores right now, but my main one is just empty for weeks. The meat was also completely out as well as pasta and most dairy, but that has all gone back to relatively normal levels now, no sign of sanitizer and clorox wipes still 🤔😃 ✌️so i've resorted to making my own for now
give it time.. you will see 🙏
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I hope you are right!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
It's not that simple, my friend. Canadian Bee farmers can't get Queen bees from Hawaii and bee farm workers from Mexico on time. It will impact the industry for years to get to normal. Honey production will suffer and pollination of fruit trees, berries, and canola. Just one example.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
In the globalized world we have relied too much on taking things for granted, driven by a desire to produce always cheaper and pay less for essentials.
I’m not a local protectionist, far from but the solution is to pay more, pay more for local produce. Always was.
The race to the price bottom creates a fake sense of easy, while forcing local producers to adapt to the demand of foreign markets rather than catering to a diverse (complete?) local market first.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Dear @whatsup
I've been also very concern about state of global economy since the day I realized, that this virus won't be contaminated within Wuhan alone.
Challening times ahead of us.
Obviously. Many factories will shut down and go out of business. Many shipping companies will also struggle to survive and some will close down. Custom offices will be overwhelmed with amount of work (especially since boarderd in EU are closed).
Even those businesses which would survive, will have trouble with lack of employees. Old ones will be mostly fired and new ones will have to be trained. That's all very long process.
where are you located? If you're in US then surely you may be affected more than many other countries with supply chain distrubtion. More than EU or other parts of the world.
Yours, piotr
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit