Supply chain challenges mean rising prices and limited supplies for businesses and consumers
COVID-19 pandemic causes shortages on America’s supply chains
FOX 26 Tom Zizka speaks with experts about the country's product shortages as infection rates for COVID-19 remains high.
HOUSTON - Slow production and high-demand has made pepperoni the latest product 'shortage' being blamed on the COVID-pandemic.
Bloomberg reports the cost of the pizza-topping has doubled in recent months. It's a growing problem for a lot of businesses that are seeing their supplies stretched thin, as consumers may find rising prices or limited selections.
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Exclusive Furniture owner, Sam Zavary, knows the problem all too well as he walks through his Missouri City warehouse. "Usually, these racks are all full," he says, looking at shelves that are noticeably empty in some spots. He just can't get enough product to keep up with demand, and the shipments that arrive are overdue by months. Before the pandemic, furniture that might have been delivered in days or weeks, now takes weeks and months, as COVID concerns have put a global squeeze on the ability to produce goods and services.
Vendors are telling Zavary he needs to place an order now if he wants the product next year. "We need to think as far ahead as next summer, and there's no way," he says, "Nobody has the magic crystal ball to say how much are we going to sell."
The challenge of keeping supply-chains together, is not unique. Auto dealers have had trouble getting new inventory to sell; consumer electronics, built overseas, may not be readily available; bicycles are often rolling-out the door as soon as they're delivered. For many industries, the long and complicated process to make sure supplies are where they're needed has slowed to a crawl. "When you have a shutdown of global trade, as created by the COVID epidemic, those suppliers are not able to produce," says University of Houston Director of Supply Chain & Logistics Technology Margaret Kidd.
Professor Kidd says it won't be a short-lived problem. The shortages and slowdowns, she says, are likely to continue until the virus is under control and no longer disrupting the workforce.