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Possibilities: - Cover for raising prices - Cover for unpopular people practices they may (or will) be implementing that will leak and trying to get in front

Possibilities: - Cover for raising prices - Cover for unpopular people practices they may (or will) be implementing that will leak and trying to get in front of the bad press - PR support for the GOP push to get people back to work - Cover for outbreaks or contamination that may hit the press

throwaway894345 7y ago
Is it possible that supply chains are really under stress? I would love for an expert to weigh in if only to put my fears to rest, but it seems likely to me that supply chains can't just pivot from routing goods to loads of nonessential businesses to retail. I don't imagine supply chains are designed for such anomalous times. For example, think about the food that was previously routed to restaurants, but now must be routed and sold to grocers. If the supply chain can't pivot quickly, that food goes to waste and whoever invested in that food is out a lot of money--probably a ruinous amount. If those businesses have to fold, that sucks for them, but how many of those businesses can fold before it becomes a major problem--buyers can't get the goods they need to sell and sellers can't get their goods to buyers. That seems like it could be a compounding problem with major impact?
- nickff 7y ago
  Supply chains are in real trouble, especially in the medium-term. Inventories higher up the chain are in trouble, with production of critical supplies coming to a stop due to lack of demand by manufacturers who are either facing lack of production capacity or demand. Capital equipment purchases and upgrades seem to have stopped; this is not sustainable, and will lead to problems. I am not talking about groceries here; huge numbers of industries are intertwined. plastics, electronics, transportation, steel manufacturing, etc.
  - throwaway894345 7y ago
    Yeah, sorry, groceries were meant as an example. I tried to make that more explicit in my comment.
    - nickff 7y ago
      I didn't mean that as a criticism; I just don't know much about groceries. Grocery stores and their suppliers will definitely be affected by many other industries though.
- milesvp 7y ago
  Not an expert, but you can see issues with a single supply chain by looking at some commodity prices. Pork belly futures are way up, while the prices for whole pigs is tanking. This is due to meat packing plants closing. It’s an elbow to elbow type work due to expensive refrigerated work areas, and people are getting sick. I’m seeing similar issues with electronics manufacturing chains from doing hardware design. It’s getting harder and harder to source parts, and you can see inventories dropping in real time as people buy out parts they need to keep running. I’ve heard rumors of factories at 10% capacity, and other rumors of half the factories they work with completely offline. Then there’s shipping. Much of the low cost of air shipping was due to cargo space in passenger flight. With so little passenger flights, shipping is expensive. This is likely further causing supply chain headaches for a lot of manufacturing for anyone relying on cheap overnight parts to avoid disruption.
nostromo 7y ago
- It's true. I'm not sure 100% cynicism is warranted in all circumstances. Occam's razor: Tyson's business is at risk of serious losses because of supply chain disruptions. To try and get ahead of the problem, they put their message out to the public, including lawmakers, who may otherwise be unaware.

throwaway894345 7y ago

Is it possible that supply chains are really under stress? I would love for an expert to weigh in if only to put my fears to rest, but it seems likely to me that supply chains can't just pivot from routing goods to loads of nonessential businesses to retail. I don't imagine supply chains are designed for such anomalous times. For example, think about the food that was previously routed to restaurants, but now must be routed and sold to grocers. If the supply chain can't pivot quickly, that food goes to waste and whoever invested in that food is out a lot of money--probably a ruinous amount. If those businesses have to fold, that sucks for them, but how many of those businesses can fold before it becomes a major problem--buyers can't get the goods they need to sell and sellers can't get their goods to buyers. That seems like it could be a compounding problem with major impact?

nickff 7y ago
Supply chains are in real trouble, especially in the medium-term. Inventories higher up the chain are in trouble, with production of critical supplies coming to a stop due to lack of demand by manufacturers who are either facing lack of production capacity or demand. Capital equipment purchases and upgrades seem to have stopped; this is not sustainable, and will lead to problems. I am not talking about groceries here; huge numbers of industries are intertwined. plastics, electronics, transportation, steel manufacturing, etc.
- throwaway894345 7y ago
  Yeah, sorry, groceries were meant as an example. I tried to make that more explicit in my comment.
  - nickff 7y ago
    I didn't mean that as a criticism; I just don't know much about groceries. Grocery stores and their suppliers will definitely be affected by many other industries though.
milesvp 7y ago
Not an expert, but you can see issues with a single supply chain by looking at some commodity prices. Pork belly futures are way up, while the prices for whole pigs is tanking. This is due to meat packing plants closing. It’s an elbow to elbow type work due to expensive refrigerated work areas, and people are getting sick. I’m seeing similar issues with electronics manufacturing chains from doing hardware design. It’s getting harder and harder to source parts, and you can see inventories dropping in real time as people buy out parts they need to keep running. I’ve heard rumors of factories at 10% capacity, and other rumors of half the factories they work with completely offline. Then there’s shipping. Much of the low cost of air shipping was due to cargo space in passenger flight. With so little passenger flights, shipping is expensive. This is likely further causing supply chain headaches for a lot of manufacturing for anyone relying on cheap overnight parts to avoid disruption.

nostromo 7y ago

- It's true. I'm not sure 100% cynicism is warranted in all circumstances. Occam's razor: Tyson's business is at risk of serious losses because of supply chain disruptions. To try and get ahead of the problem, they put their message out to the public, including lawmakers, who may otherwise be unaware.