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I think supermarkets hide a bit of a scary thought though. It sends this signal as food always being available, but it sits atop a very tightly "balanced" suppl
by bmitc 2y ago
I think supermarkets hide a bit of a scary thought though. It sends this signal as food always being available, but it sits atop a very tightly "balanced" supply chain that is quite fragile. A few major supply chain disruptions and food scarcity becomes real very fast (a few days at most).
- prawn 2y agoAlso exposed when thinking about hardware stores. If you need to build/repair part of your house and the supply chain for wood or steel is gone, are you going to wait for tall, straight trees to grow? And then if you don't have milling hardware? Know how to create and extrude steel roofing or angle iron or similar?
- bmitc 2y agoYea, our supply chain fragility and dependence really scares me sometimes. I try not to think about it, to be honest.
- LeChuck 2y agoOur supply chain is not fragile at all! It took an enormous, global pandemic to cause a disruption and even then, goods kept flowing. Don't forget, Everyone braced for an economic downturn and all of a sudden demand for transported goods shot up. That's what caused the congestion, hugely growing demand. Containers never stopped moving, demand for transport was simply greater than supply. Prices rose, sure, but that's what's supposed to happen right? After the pandemic was over prices plummeted even faster than they climbed and are now under pre-pandemic levels. Right now containers ships have (largely) stopped transiting the Suez Canal, passing the Horn of Africa instead. Adding weeks to their transit time. This is a mayor disruption and, while freight rates are once again rising, no one notices. Goods keep flowing, stores are stocked. I work in logistics, so I'm somewhat biased, but to me it's amazing how robust supply chains really are