Maybe You Heard That the Supply Chain is Broken

From your favorite peanut butter to no furniture, it’s the supply chain stupid

In 2020, there was a standard reply to my inability to reach a phone customer support person. I would hear at almost every voicemail, “wait times are longer than usual due to Covid-19.” After a while, I felt like I was being played. I understood the reason I couldn’t buy meat was due to factory workers out in large numbers with the virus. But a company wanted me to believe that somehow a virus prevented a remote worker with a phone and computer from giving me information out of their basement? I stopped buying it.

Now people are back to work, at least some of them, but “the supply chain is broken.” Okay. I am sure to get a world economy back and running at pre-pandemic levels is infinitely more complex than turning around the Titanic on a dime. First, it was a shortage of microchips, then engine parts, then furniture. But the list of things in short supply now is curious and at times mind-boggling.

A recent trip to Trader Joe’s revealed they are out of my favorite Valencia peanut butter, pine nuts, and delicata squash. I asked an always friendly employee who shrugged his shoulders and said, “I dunno, maybe it’s the supply chain.”

We ordered a new sofa and recliner chair in June. The estimated arrival was the fall. Now it’s winter. The salesman said the factory where they are made sent all employees home in 2020. I got it. At least there are no microchips in furniture, or we might be looking at 2023.

Our 16-year-old in the wall oven and microwave combination finally broke, and we ordered a new one in June. Arrival was supposed to be July, then August, then October, then November. I eventually canceled the order and went to another retailer, and ordered a different brand. They say this month but aren’t making any promises. At least we have a second gas oven and went to Target and bought a $50 counter-top microwave. Appliances have microchips, and I know the answer. The supply chain is broken.

My wife is looking for a wedding dress. Our daughter is getting married next month, after canceling the event in 2020. Stores are out of dresses in her size. (She’s petite.) They tell her to buy it online. Their inventory is non-existent. I put on a few “pandemic pounds” and therefore had to order a new suit. Four weeks later, it’s still not here. The reason is you know what is ”broken.”. I am hoping it’s not sitting on some tanker in Long Beach harbor.

We are luckier than many. I hear stories about folks having to do laundry at friends, relatives, or a laundromat when their washer and dryer broke. Others had only one stove and are now cooking on an outside grill. These are the consequences of not building enough things in your own country, but there would still be shortages even if we did. The reason is, well, you know, the supply chain is broken. At least we now have toilet paper and paper towels. At least for the moment.

David Mokotoff is a retired MD. Passionate about writing, reading, culture, health, fishing, politics, and food. Get an email whenever I publish by clicking this link. I will never spam you or give out your address.