From turkey to toilet paper: what's going to disappear from store shelves in America due to scarcity

Due to the global pandemic and all the problems that accompany it - hurricanes, supply disruptions, etc. — There is a shortage of some goods in the United States. Many manufacturers are warning of shortages of important goods now or in the coming months, reports Reuters.

Photo: Shutterstock

Turkey free thanksgiving

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has guidelines telling Americans how to safely celebrate the holidays, even if they are still about three months away. The pandemic is one reason family gatherings may look different this year, just as they did in 2020. Another major holiday difference this year has to do with Thanksgiving food preparation. The table may be missing the central element - the turkey, reports Eat This Not That.

The most popular turkey size for Thanksgiving celebrations is 6 kg because it feeds about 14 people. Smaller family gatherings last year (when the CDC recommended family gatherings of 10 people or fewer) required smaller turkeys. This, coupled with COVID-19-related plant closures, a tight labor market, rising corn and grain prices, and the fact that farms have not been able to raise the right size turkeys quickly enough, means there is currently a shortage of this product.

"There's a very precise schedule to get a turkey that's 6 pounds or smaller," said Daniel Romanoff, president of meat distributor Nebraskaland. “And the factories could not keep up with this schedule.”

Photo: Shutterstock

Grocery stores now offer half of 6kg turkeys, while some retail outlets, such as Morton Williams in New York, do not have turkeys under 7kg at all.

The issue can be partly resolved by taking large turkeys (about 10 kg) and dividing them into parts. Then customers can simply purchase the amount of turkey meat they need. But this will also mean that there will be more frozen birds on sale than fresh ones. This requires more planning for preparation - defrosting takes about six days, so everything will need to be planned out.

On the subject: Salmonellosis outbreak in 25 states: cause is still being sought

Toilet paper is in short supply again

Costco Wholesale is having trouble fulfilling orders for toilet paper, reports Fox.

The network has already warned customers that they may face delays in receiving their toilet paper orders made online.

“Due to increased volumes, you may see a slight delay in processing this order,” Costco customer service said in an email.

The seller noted that the company is “working to fulfill all orders as quickly as possible,” and that customers will receive an additional tracking information email as soon as the order is shipped.

The warning came after the company resumed its practice of capsizing purchases in some of its stores, as customers are stockpiling some items again, as in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

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In recent weeks, reports from Costco members have surfaced on social media platforms about a shortage of toilet paper and paper towels.

Earlier this month, the largest U.S. maker of toilet paper and paper towels, Procter & Gamble, announced it was forced to increase production to offset increased demand.

Lack of metal, plastic, wood and even bottles

Diamond Brand has just launched a new line of high-end Liminal tents, thick, with ventilation holes and fasteners, demanded by discerning tourists. But for this you need to use a lot of Velcro. And that's a problem because black Velcro comes in different shades, depending on the type of raw plastic used to make it.

“If I take old Velcro and put it on new fabric, the colors won't match,” said Lauren Rush, owner of Diamond Brand.

Before supply chain disruptions and shortages swept the world in the wake of the COVID pandemic, purchasing parts for an assembly line was often as simple as pressing a button and waiting for delivery for days, or at best, weeks.

No longer. Shortages of metal, plastic, wood, and even liquor bottles have become the norm.

As a result, shoppers have to wait for the once abundant goods to arrive, if they can get them at all. Rush has piles of tents that she cannot ship because she cannot find suitable aluminum tubes for their frames, for example, while others do not have the necessary zippers.

Along with the shortage of goods, there is a significant rise in prices, which heightens fears of a wave of persistent inflation.

Tensions are growing among Federal Reserve policymakers over how to assess the long-term impact on prices. Some Fed policymakers are more convinced than others that price pressures will ease once some supply chain disruptions are addressed.

Rush and other local manufacturers recently took part in a large-scale forum with Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin, which focused on the US recovery challenges related to supply chain issues that are not being resolved as quickly as politicians hoped.

Scarcity affects everything from bulldozers to bourbon. Heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N) warned in July that its profits will decline in the current quarter, in part due to higher prices for hard-to-find components. The company said, among other things, that it is looking for ways to obtain supplies from unconventional sources to cope with shortages of plastic resin and semiconductors.

Lawson Whiting, chief executive of spirits maker Brown-Forman Corp (BFb.N), told investors earlier this month that shortages of "key packaging materials, primarily glass," continue to pose challenges for brands such as Jack Daniel's and Woodford.

New challenges continue to emerge, including disruptions to U.S. refineries due to hurricanes that once again threaten the supply of plastics and other basic materials.

Several industries are rushing to build new factories, including semiconductor manufacturers, to meet the growing demand for chips needed for automobiles and electronics. But not all manufacturers are eager to build new factories. For example, the bicycle industry is heavily concentrated in Asia, and manufacturers there fear that the current surge in demand is temporary.

The current problem is compounded by clogged supply lines. With so many manufacturers rushing to deliver at the same time, the containers, ships and trucks needed to transport the goods are often unavailable, and the cost of shipping has skyrocketed even when available. This disrupted some of the mechanisms that usually help control supply and prices.

David Reilly, president of United Solutions, a plastics manufacturer in Leominster, Mass., said soaring polymer prices — he estimates they've risen 100% for some types in the past year — are his biggest challenge.

He usually directed his customers to monitor foreign markets, including China, for cheaper resins.

“But we can’t do that,” he said, “because shipping prices have gone up so much that they’re negating any cost advantage.”

Returning to the tent factory, Rush said that these problems were reduced no more years of work to make her factory more "economical". It is not uncommon for a tent to require 48 separate pieces, she said, and when you cannot expect to receive all of these items, you tend to stock up on what you can, which can be seen in the corners of the factory. Passing through a maze of shelving, she lifts a galvanized steel pipe.

“I received a hundred of these pipes, and that’s fine. “I’ll get through this,” she said. “But I can’t get pipes of other sizes, the supply of which is delayed.”

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