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There Is a Tennis Ball Shortage Too Now
- swiley 5y agoThere's a word for an everything shortage: "inflation."
- blacktriangle 5y agoI suspect it's more like two words: JIT Manufacturing
- notRobot 5y agoJust from HN I've learned that so far this year we've had a: Pasta shortage: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25566652 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25566652 Shipping container shortage: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26574077 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26574077 Chip shortage: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27095558 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27095558 And now a tennis ball shortage...
- cableshaft 5y agoThere's a lot more than that going on right now. A whole subreddit dedicated to it[1]. [1]: https://old.reddit.com/r/Shortages/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Shortages/
- knownjorbist 5y agoDoom & gloom is a borderline fetish. Look closer and for most things the shortage is an inconvenience at most.
- tmh88j 5y agoHmm, could have potential but it needs some better moderation. It seems to consist mostly of knee-jerk reactions to local stores selling out of a very specific random product and calling it a shortage, or vague statements without any useful details. "HEB is out of Valentina hot sauce" and "Walmart has limits on basic food".
- megablast 5y agoLooks just like a preppers sub.
- snug 5y agoThere were also boba shortages earlier this year
- CarVac 5y agoA few years ago at family meals, for grace I started thanking the industrial supply complex for bringing us all the wonderful food. I was being more prescient than I could have imagined.
- Kluny 5y agoAlso bike parts, raw textiles, and tofu! For the tennis ball problem, I invite everyone to visit my balcony, where my upstairs neighbour's dog leaves all his balls.
- Finnucane 5y agoThere’s a tofu factory in my neighborhood, so no shortage here.
- curmudgeon22 5y agofor maybe ~6 weeks, i noticed dramatically reduced tofu supply in stores near me (Vancouver BC), including from local brands. There was usually something... the soft/dessert tofu being most common. Seems to be back to normal the last couple weeks.
- jbay808 5y agoWasn't there also a sofa shortage, caused in part by a foam shortage? https://slate.com/business/2021/07/furniture-shortage-couch-sofa-table-delay-explained.html https://slate.com/business/2021/07/furniture-shortage-couch-...
- auxym 5y agoI had to wait 2 months to order a Fluke DMM at work. Also bikes and all sorts of bike parts and accessories.
- fy20 5y agoI went into Decathlon yesterday, and only two bikes were out of stock. Compare to this time last year when there were only two in stock...
- spamizbad 5y agoLucky. I went to take delivery of a new bike at a local bike shop last month and it was completely picked over. They had a few models left but easily 80% of their stock was gone. They also had 2 bike mechanics working in a crowded workspace diligently fixing what looked like a sizable backlog of bikes in need of repairs and upgrades. I asked one of the guys working there about the shortage and he also mentioned it’s related to holdup in overseas shipping.
- mc32 5y agoYeah I heard the same. Because of very low inventory and multi month delivery times, folks are opting to get their old bikes fixed and causing a backlog in the repair shop.
- smichel17 5y agoPeople's experience will vary eidely because the problem is in the supply chains, not production. In most cases, there exists plenty of X, it's getting it from Y to Z that's the problem.
- shusaku 5y agoSomewhere, an economist is regretting creating an inflation measure based on a shipping container of pasta, chips, and tennis balls.
- londons_explore 5y agoShortages wouldn't be so severe if market prices could reward those who had done work to mitigate the shortage. For example, when cups are in short supply, the person who sells their reserve stock for a healthy profit. Unfortunately anti-price-gouging laws are being enforced more strictly, which means those who can alleviate a shortage are usually not rewarded. End result is people no longer go to great lengths to come up with ways to alleviate shortages, and the shortages end up worse.
- Yoric 5y agoI suspect that gouging-without-countermeasures causes much more damage than anti-gouging, though.
- inglor_cz 5y agoSpecifically in case of tennis balls, I would argue that having them expensive is still better than not having them at all - tennis players need to practise.
- Const-me 5y agoHow long do they last? Can we possibly change these arbitrary sport regulations making the balls last 100x as much?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- gregoriol 5y agoTennis balls are not vital equipment, they are just for fun, so it's not a big deal. Some other shortages are more worrying as they affect more important situations like food supply, work tools, ...
- kibbleznbits 5y agoMy dog disagrees.
- smegger001 5y agoyour dog can continue using his old tennis ball over and over again though.
- gwright 5y agoI don't think modern economies and supply chains work that way. It isn't like the tennis ball supply chain is an independent entity from everything else. It is all connected in somewhat intricate and non-obvious ways. It isn't particularly surprising to me that we are seeing all sorts of side-effects of the unpresidented shutdown of vast parts of our economy as a response to COVID.
- toiletaccount 5y agoI'll jump onto the dog pile and add air filters for your vehicle. Dealerships are buying them up like toilet paper so you have to call around and ask them very nicely if they'd mind shipping it to you. And during fire season too.
- s0rce 5y agoI just picked up mine from Amazon. Random cheap brands but everything was in stock. Rock Auto seemed to have stock as well. Maybe I got lucky.
- toiletaccount 5y agoi had trouble with the engine air filter specifically. might have been a make/model specific thing, but i found one of the last ones in my state according to the dealers inventory system.
- SV_BubbleTime 5y agoContainers are real. We used to pay $3000 per container. We are now paying $11,000 per, and can’t get enough of them.
- underseacables 5y agoThis is serious. Think of the dogs!
- fsagx 5y agoMy dog has been stockpiling for years. She's not worried. I'm more concerned what the old folks will put on the feet of their walkers.
- valleyjo 5y agoSavage lol
- underseacables 5y agoSame. We have a strategic supply basket full of tennis balls for our three mouth breathers.
- nemo44x 5y agoMy dog won’t play with used balls. They have to be new or he’s not interested. We keep a bag of “used” balls and drop them off at the dog park after awhile and they seem to get used. God this dog is spoiled.
- mrfusion 5y agoIf this is real give pickleball a shot. It’s surprisingly fun and you can start having competitive games right away. A lot carries over from tennis too so you’d have a good head start.
- jhbadger 5y agoAlthough I'd imagine pickleballs are also made in Asia and thus subject to similar shipping issues, but maybe they last longer than tennis balls so you need fewer of them?
- JeffL 5y agoThe "good" Pickleballs, Franklin and Dura, seem to last a few to several days before cracking or warping while the "bad" ones that nobody wants to use because they are softer seem to last forever. It's a bit better than tennis where people want a new can every time they play. No shortage in Pickleballs that I've seen so far.
- syedkarim 5y agoI'm a former recreational tennis player and I previously thought that pickleball was lame. Now I only play pickleball (mostly singles) and sold off my tennis racquets. After two years of playing, I still can't figure out why 4.0-level pickleball is way more fun than 4.0-level tennis. If you play singles pickleball and live in the northwest Chicago suburbs, hit me up!
- mrfusion 5y agoAwesome. Hit me up if you’re in Florida!
- yuy910616 5y agoI will die on this hill but I'm never trying pickleball. Silly reason - tennis looks cool, look at Roger. Pickle ball looks...less cool
- 5y ago
- throwaway59553 5y agoIt sure was a good idea to allow every factory to move to East Asia.
- monkeybutton 5y agoWe should've invested in a strategic tennis ball reserve at the bare minimum.
- parineum 5y agoI am pretty shocked that this hasn't been more of a narrative since the PPE shortages of COVID. I guess it's expected that the people who have been pushing the free trade globalization angle wouldn't want to turn and admit that strategy has a significant downside that's been ignored. Not to say that it doesn't have upside.
- leppr 5y agoThe upside is shifting resources to focus on industries with less competition like software and semiconductors. No country can sustain the current quality of life of their citizens without imports.
- wizzwizz4 5y agoOur planet as a whole does, so this doesn't seem to be a universal truth.
- SubiculumCode 5y agoThis. I make the same argument when the question is in regards to whether a large national economy can do well in a silo. It seems to me that the U.S. is large enough to provide all types of resources, were they developed.
- vajrabum 5y agoAnd combining that with the JIT, minimize inventory thing makes it just that much more fun doesn't it.
- barbarbar 5y agoJust use old balls. They may not have much hair and be a little slow but it is the same for both players. In fact a bit more entertaining than 250km/h first serve (that nobody can see) and better for the environment.
- nwellinghoff 5y agolol. No.
- osrec 5y agoI don't know why you're being down voted. The OPs suggestion is so silly, primarily because they don't understand that even balls from the same pack deflate at different rates. You end up with a bunch of tennis balls that all behave very differently, and you can't really have a good game. A better suggestion would be to take unpressurized tennis balls...
- barbarbar 5y agoHave played - though mostly from baseline and mostly on clay court and hate new balls. So I do understand.
- jffry 5y agoThe post you are replying to got downvoted because "lol. No" is not a constructive response to a well-meaning suggestion. From the Hacker News guidelines [1], "In Comments" section: Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something. Likewise, re: your comment, some other guidelines also apply: Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community. A kinder way to say what you said would be to remove this part entirely: "The OPs suggestion is so silly, primarily because they don't understand that...". You're phrasing it in a way that suggests that OP has been exposed to your knowledge already and simply came to the wrong conclusion, instead of assuming that perhaps OP simply doesn't have a lot of experience playing tennis with balls in different condition. An example for you to try instead would be something like: "Many players prefer not to use old balls because each one behaves differently and makes the game less fun. Even balls from the same pack deflate at different rates" etc etc [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- monstrado 5y agoNot sure about the large stores, but i've had luck getting my balls at the local mom and pop tennis supply stores.
- dcolkitt 5y agoFor those who are more domain knowledgeable in the logistics space, when can we expect these sporadic shortages to end? I know that there's a supply chain whipsaw effect. Where a disruption in one component leads to a delayed downstream distortion somewhere else. But at what point can we expect these ghosts lurking in the system to finally work themselves out.
- AlecSchueler 5y agoWhat caused the initial issue, the Suez fiasco?
- Kluny 5y agoWell no, covid. It's still fallout from that. Factories in the cheap-labour countries like Taiwan closed down due to covid, and oftentimes management made conservative bets about how long covid would continue, so they didn't ramp up production or efficiency (or couldn't).
- icegreentea2 5y agoThe pandemic in general? Trans-pacific shipping got completely blown up (on both ends) multiple times since Feb/March 2019. Already while COVID was largely confined to China, supply problems were beginning to emerge, starting with China factories shutting down and internal networks (trucking) being disrupted by the pandemic and lockdowns. Everything just compounded from there. I remember reading daily posts on a supply chain subreddit talking about shipping indexes dropping daily in March. Like honestly, it's pretty amazing that shortages aren't worse. Perhaps a testament to how much of our trade is in non-critical goods.
- DavidPeiffer 5y agoI'm an industrial engineer, more manufacturing focused than specifically logistics. From what I've seen and heard from talking with other IE's at other companies, we're probably looking at a couple years before things are "normal" again, and they'll continue to be a mess in a way that's transparent to the consumer longer than that. As long as there are areas of the world with significant trade that are being hit hard by COVID there will be disruptions. In the last few weeks, Southeast Asia has had reduced port capacity due to a COVID surge. Heck, even in US production it's tough to get production and warehouse employees right now! Weird times for sure, even if you're paying a strong wage. If you're curious about general global shipping, in 2017 Flexport put out a great podcast about cargo ships. I really wish they would do an additional podcast about the current happenings, though their blog posts are quite interesting. https://www.flexport.com/blog/alexis-madrigal-containers-podcast/ https://www.flexport.com/blog/alexis-madrigal-containers-pod... Odd Lots (a Bloomberg podcast) also had a great interview from earlier this month. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-02/gene-seroka-on-the-logistical-logjam-at-the-port-of-la https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-02/gene-sero...
- nostromo 5y agoNext time you’re about to complain about farm subsidies, take a moment to appreciate that the US makes more food than it needs and we don’t depend on imports from China to put food on the table.
- convolvatron 5y agothat might be true independent of farm subsidies. we don't really know. it is pretty clear that there are government programs being used to buy votes. which is a pretty stupid way to spend public money.
- unanswered 5y agoAs opposed to all of those dollars flowing into extremely republican-leaning cities... Oh wait.
- convolvatron 5y agoi was very careful to phrase that in a way that was neurtral to which party was paying off whom its a terrible waste either way
- namdnay 5y agoI always though cities were net contributors to taxation/redistribution?
- adventured 5y agoYou mean before we count their high environmental cost? Cities are higher net tax contributors due to population density. If we're going to fairly consider the equation, we have to include their high emissions over the decades and the price of that. Fossil fuel based electricity & heat production is by far the worst offender, 1/3 of all emissions. To say nothing of the food requirements of cities (agriculture alone being ~11% of emissions), which are potent emissions contributors. As such, should cities be made to pay for the vast destruction they've caused over time? Across a century, US cities were heavily utilizing cheap coal power to sustain their elevated population density. They took a very low cost, low penalty ride on helping to destroy the planet. Global climate change didn't happen in a day. There's a fair question of distribution of cost, reparations for the fossil fuel consumption & use of cities in the form of a tax to cover their century of past sins. A person might retort: yes, but, cities are more efficient than rural arrangements pound for pound. The issue is total emissions output, in the discussion of total cost (net tax +/- contribution equation), which is what the threat is with climate change. Low population rural areas can't destroy the planet with their resource demands, only large populations can do that. Then a person might retort: but what else were all of those people in cities going to do? Not exist at all? Starve? Go without electricity? I'd suggest environmental reparations via taxation for the net damage the cities did cause (if we're looking at fairly balancing the net tax contribution equation, that is; if their inflated tax net gets counted courtesy of elevated population density, then we must also consider their environmental cost).
- eddanger 5y agoI have purchased maybe one or two packs in my lifetime but somehow I have half the worlds supply of tennis balls in my back yard.
- nitwit005 5y agoI routinely pick up tennis balls next to the court near me and throw them into the dog park. Now I know I could have made tens of dollars if I'd just hoarded them.
- creaghpatr 5y agoIf you're using them to actually play tennis, they don't work nearly as well after a couple uses.
- actually_a_dog 5y agoThey're not even great for dogs: https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/health/are-tennis-balls-safe-for-dogs/ https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/health/are-tennis-balls-sa...
- nemo44x 5y agoWe use balls that are made for togs and wound t be suitable for a game of tennis. However, after 1 use he isn’t interested in the ball anymore and insists on a new ball next time.
- unanswered 5y agoNever forget that this was done to us intentionally. The virus was unexpected; but the reaction was deliberate.
- charles_f 5y agoBased on what source are you saying that exactly? Those shortages have been explained for a while by a combination of overlean JIT manufacturing(1) and supply chain issues. (1) https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/lean-supply-chain-jit-inventory-covid-19/574693/ https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/lean-supply-chain-jit-i...
- amelius 5y agoDoes this also hold for padel (not paddle) balls? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padel_(sport) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padel_(sport)
- cableshaft 5y agoHere's another one I just spotted: a dog shortage[1]. Good thing I guess, since we don't have the tennis balls to give them. [1]: https://www.axios.com/the-great-american-dog-shortage-63218738-4472-47be-9428-76b1d9299a77.html https://www.axios.com/the-great-american-dog-shortage-632187...
- h2odragon 5y agoPeople are going nuts about "yoga goats" too; bucklings this year have better prospects than ever before.
- joezydeco 5y agoMy son was waiting on a new racket from Head this spring and was told that they lost a number of shipping containers in a storm off the coast of Hawaii. https://www.wired.com/story/where-shoes-ordered-check-ocean-floor/ https://www.wired.com/story/where-shoes-ordered-check-ocean-...
- jeffbee 5y agoApparently, because this clown ordered 24 cans for himself. What the hell, man?
- h2odragon 5y agoThe black market opportunities are obvious, no? The man with the hookup gets the riches. "Hey buddy, you lookin' for some bounce?"
- rvnx 5y agoVice should better check their articles. I typed tennis balls on US websites, same day delivery available... Even for the same website as they said, there is stock in large quantities: https://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Wilson_US_Open_XD_Tennis_Ball_3-Ball_24_Can_Case_/descpageWILSON-USOC.html https://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Wilson_US_Open_XD_Tennis_Ba... This is 72-balls, way enough to play.
- nradov 5y agoThere was a hot tub (spa) shortage in 2020. No one could go on vacation so people spent their money on home hot tubs instead. First world problems.
- SubiculumCode 5y agoSame thing with swimming pools.
- nobodyandproud 5y agoI know someone very closely and heavily involved with international logistics. One of the major problems are the East Coast ports in the United States. They’re relatively small and cannot handle some of the cargo ships that are used today. Then other is the lack of labor, because docks are union jobs; the kind that pass on from generation to generation because of how good the work is.
- greedo 5y agoAre the unions restricting new memberships? If there's a surplus of unfulfilled jobs, the unions can just get new members during the peak times, and then when demand drops, they can give priority to senior members.
- nobodyandproud 5y agoI want to be very clear that I’m a supporter of unions, but there are consequences when unchecked and I think they’re hurting themselves in the long run. To answer your question: I don’t know for sure, because every union is different. It looks like the east coast is represented by https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Longshoremen%27s_Association https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Longshoremen%2... which suffered from organized crime in the past and the west is https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Longshore_and_Warehouse_Union https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Longshore_and_... Which is more like what I described: The West Coast union apparently has tens of thousands of applicants for a single job, so clearly there is great demand to get in. It may be that I mixed the two: East coast cannot handle the ships, even if it could go through the canal. West coast, which can handle said cargo ships, has a strong union that is keeping the headcount artificially low.
- charles_f 5y ago> if tennis balls are hard to find in stores now, I will buy a case of 24 cans online Standard panick reaction that's exacerbating the problem. People are piling up on all sorts of stuff right now. I needed new tyres for my mountain bike, largely impossible to find a few months ago. A neighbour told me "oh that's fine I can resell you a pair, I bought 6 a few weeks ago just in case" . Pair up tight supply chain and people virtually increasing the demand to stock up in case the offer runs dry, and you obtain magic.
- invalidOrTaken 5y ago> exacerbating the problem Problem for whom?
- booleanbetrayal 5y agoWe are obsessed with manufacturing supply chain bullwhips. Bracing for impact again. re: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/massive-china-port-shutdown-raises-210441619.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/massive-china-port-shutdown-r...
- charles_f 5y agoOh wow, you made my day so much worse with just one link!
- kirubakaran 5y agoYour day was already as bad as it was going to be. You just didn't know about it ;)
- lexapro 5y agoWell, that's exactly what happened with the toilet paper, too. A few people bought more in fear of some worst-case scenario - and then everyone else noticed the supply dwindling and did the same to avoid not being able to buy any when their own, normal stock runs out.
- admn2 5y ago
- xyzelement 5y agoI grew up in the USSR in the 80s, so my view of what a shortage actually feels like are quite different. Since the pandemic, there are 3 shortages that were in the news that were relevant to my family: toilet paper, chips/automotive, and ammunition (my father in law and I got into target shooting during the pandemic) I would say the max impact of all these things was: you had to work a LITTLE harder, pay a LITTLE more, and wait a LITTLE longer to get what you wanted. For example, in USSR I remember wiping my ass with cut-up newspaper for months at a time. That's what a TP shortage / deficit is. Over the last year, the max I had to deal with was going to a second store and not being able to buy lots and lots at once. We ended up having to buy a car this summer. Shortage manifested in two ways - some trims/models were not available. IE - you could still get a car at any point, just may not be the exact one you want. We ended up ordering one because we cared about something specific and despite warning, we picked it up in a few weeks. In contrast, my dad had to wait something like 10 years to get his Lada Niva. What this means to me is our supply chains are INCREDIBLY resilient. The fact that these things basically translated into mild inconveniences is quite impressive.
- raspasov 5y agoMy experience exactly. Growing up in the 90s in Bulgaria, my parents had to line up for hours or half a day to fill up gas in the car. This went on for weeks/months. If I complain that people are complaining too much in the modern world, I would be complaining as well. So I won't, otherwise it will be an infinite loop.
- raspasov 5y agohttps://www.amazon.com/Penn-Tennis-Balls-Case-Extra/dp/B001C139JU/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=tennis+balls&qid=1628956708&sr=8-4 https://www.amazon.com/Penn-Tennis-Balls-Case-Extra/dp/B001C... It's Saturday morning. I can get 45 balls delivered Monday. Click-bait shortage-mongering?
- booleandilemma 5y agoShortage of something? Let me try to do without. No wait, let me try to order 24 (24 for goodness sake) tennis balls online!
- doopy1 5y agoThere's also an increasing shortage of rational thought.
- redisman 5y agoMore seriously there seems to be many parts shortages. I have a big crack in my windshield but there are no replacements available until some unknown date
- racl101 5y agoA lot of dogs will be sad.
- notadev 5y ago“Naturally, as an experienced investigative reporter, my next move was the highly advanced research technique of Googling "Tennis Ball Shortage?" There were enough hits on Reddit and tennis forums to confirm there are, at least in some parts of the country, indeed tennis ball shortages.” I feel like this fairly accurately sums up modern journalism.
- adventured 5y ago$200,000 degree from Northwestern. Learned to Google.
- _s 5y agoMy partner is a journalist in a specific niche (science). Unfortunately - folks have shown time and time again they will not pay content when an alternative is available for free. Most, if not all journalists, would prefer to be do doing investigative work over a few weeks and months - highlighting what is in the publics interests. Publishers on the other hand, with the sales / advertising / marketing requirements & constraints, would much prefer they crunch out 10x stories a day that can drive traffic (ergo revenue). What you are left with are tight deadlines, incredibly poor pay, and most of the experienced folks who actually care about what articles are written under their name just hanging up their pens and taking up cushy gigs in comms / marketing. Journalism still exists, but has been dying steadily - nearly all folks in positions of wealth and power would prefer it didn't exist, and for the folks that should be reading what they write - they won't pay for it, and won't trust it.
- sgregnt 5y agoThere seems to be more demand for podcasts or video blogs, maybe your partner can think of starting a podcasts?
- comicjk 5y agoI think investigative journalism nonprofits like ProPublica are the best point of leverage for this problem. Big newspapers like the Washington Post & NY Times do good investigative work too, but pair it with lots of duplicate stories.
- FriedPickles 5y agoTennis balls always felt like a planned obsolescence item to me. Are we really unable to make balls that don't lose their bounce after a few matches? Or a tennis ball that can be reinflated? I'm sure longevity will always be traded for weight and bounciness at the extremes, but for general play it's time for a reusable tennis ball.
- opinion-is-bad 5y agoIt’s more than just the air that gets lost from a ball, the felt is delicate and even small changes in distribution affect the spin. The stresses in tennis are intense, with 100 mph common for even pretty low level amateur serves. Most players keep used balls after a match for practice hitting too, and they stay usable for months. My aunt has been playing competition tennis for about 50 years now, and she jokes that even with all the inflation on other stuff, a can of balls cost $3 in 1970 just like it does now, so they have definitely been making some pretty big efficiency gains in the manufacturing.
- latchkey 5y agoOr they just pay the workers less. (before you apply that comment to just tennis balls, think bigger picture)
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- dmje 5y agoI'm sure it'll bounce back
- BurningFrog 5y agoThis is pretty weird if you know some economics. On a free market, there are only very temporary shortages or surpluses. Those conditions morph quickly into equilibrium with raised or lower prices. The spring 2020 TP shortage illustrates this. Because if the pandemic, there were "profiteering" laws in effect that made price hikes illegal, so we got empty shelves instead. Pretty sure there are no such laws for tennis balls now. So what's going on? My best guess is that retailers don't want to take the PR hit of raising prices for something that should be resolved quickly enough?
- Jeff_Brown 5y agoHere here. When the pandemic started i prepared for food shortages. As it turns out it's been psychologically bad but physically nothing like the disaster it could have been.
- atlgator 5y agoSo there's a dog shortage and a tennis ball shortage? This can't be coincidence. https://www.axios.com/the-great-american-dog-shortage-63218738-4472-47be-9428-76b1d9299a77.html https://www.axios.com/the-great-american-dog-shortage-632187...
- Too 5y agoAre there really only 2 tennis ball factories in the whole world? I can appreciate making a high-end ball at scale is a rather precise and niche process with limited market and little room for innovation. Is cheap logistics making it completely impossible for smaller and less premium factories to be competetive elsewhere? Does this also mean any ball you buy, whether budget or premium, is the same, produced in either of these places?