Can't find what you want in the grocery store? Here's why

[IronLionZion]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/01/business/food-supply-chains-coronavirus/index.html

London (CNN Business)The coronavirus pandemic has delivered a shock to tens of millions of people in rich countries around the world: Suddenly, they can't buy the food they want, when they want.

Food supply chains in developed economies are showing increased signs of strain as nationwide lockdowns designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus heap pressure on systems that had very little slack to begin with. The result is empty store shelves, and panicked buyers.

The transportation links that move food around the globe are being tested in unprecedented ways. Shipowners are struggling to change crews and move goods between ports. Airlines have grounded thousands of planes, slashing air freight capacity.
Travel restrictions also are clogging up road networks and making it difficult for farm workers to get where they are needed. And at the end of food supply chains, supermarkets that have come to rely on just-in-time deliveries have been upset by huge demand and panic buying.

Global stocks of staple commodities such as wheat, corn and rice are at healthy levels, said Maximo Torero Cullen, chief economist at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. But logistics bottlenecks need to be identified and resolved quickly to ensure goods can get to where they are needed, and protectionist policies avoided, he added.

This article addresses major disruptions to global supply chains from shipping, air cargo, labor, no slack from just in time delivery, and some protectionist policies.

Things get really frustrating when you find out about incidents like Mike Pence asking a country to send us PPE and they respond that they just received a shipment of PPE from us. Or when Dumbass accuses hospitals of hoarding and he won't give ventilators to states "because they don't need that many". For critical health care products, Navy is flying in cargo every day.

[gibraltar72]

1. Just in time has always been a huge potential clusterfuck. It totally depends on nothing going wrong

anywhere in the chain. Certainly showing its weaknesses now.

[2naSalit]

2. +1

I never thought it was a good strategy either.

[Lindsay]

3. But it's profitable,

and that's the only thing that matters to the people in charge.

[2naSalit]

5. Most certainly is. ...nt

[Hortensis]

10. It's made possible by technology, brings down prices,

and allows reallocation of resources to other needs.

Governments at all levels do just in time in various ways, understanding that deferring maintenance on backup generators to fund the next school year may backfire badly someday, but if people WILL refuse to keep anti-government/anti-tax Republicans out of power how else do they meet current crying needs?

It's not ONLY about evil profits.

As for sustainability, you bet it's a huge national and household security problem. That's why EVERYONE who ever gave 5 minutes' thought to it, but including virtually every government in the entire nation, recommended we keep a supply of essentials, how many weeks and months to cover depending on things like whether those in each office thought coaxing people to lay in juust two week's of supplies would have a bigger result than recommending two months, or telling the truth that six months should be planned for.

[IronLionZion]

4. It would only work on fresh produce and other perishable things

but for many nonperishables, it's time to build up inventory in warehouses.

I hope this pandemic is a once in a lifetime event, but not so sure. It's definitely exposing a lot of major problems in systems and processes everywhere.

[Codeine]

13. My company relies heavily on JIT warehousing

and it blew up big time. We had the warehousing capacity and transportation capability to deliver bottled water in vast quantity, but ran out of stock in the first week of the crisis. Getting our import water from France is nigh-impossible with shipping slowdowns and our domestic water suppliers can’t get bottles fast enough.

Clusterfuck indeed.

And as soon as we ramp up capacity and load our warehouse with 80 bazillion pallets of water the demand will evaporate and it’ll sit gathering dust for a year.

[procon]

6. While that is partially true, there are thousands of

greedy profiteers that have cleaned out every grocery store and even Amazon. So what are they doing with all that stuff?

I have been trying to by yeast and bread flour for bread making. Normally these items aren't in high demand and prior to the corona virus, the shelves were always stocked. Now there's just nothing to be bought in any retail store or online. Isn't that odd?

Whilst googling for bread yeast recently, a link popped up on eBay and out of curiosity I looked. OMG there are dozens of pages listing sellers who have yeast for sale... at a pirates price. The common 3 packet strip of yeast usually sells for around $1 and makes 3 loaves of bread. Sellers on eBay were starting at $9 for the same 3 packets and went up from there.

It's the same with every staple I checked, the profiteers on eBay are taking advantage of food shortages to gouge buyers.

[IronLionZion]

7. Report price gouging

If it's on Ebay, report it to Ebay. Same with Amazon and other online retailers.

If it's in a local store, report to your state attorney general. Even red states have cracked down on price gouging during this emergency.

[uponit7771]

8. K&R, buddy of mine is having harder time getting trucking in the north west than the supplies

[IronLionZion]

9. Getting truckers?

A small shop owner here told me he was having a hard time getting deliveries because he believes the big players are bidding up the prices.

[uponit7771]

11. They prolly are, truckers are a premium now ... its also a social distance job.

[IronLionZion]

12. Disinfectants and cleaning products should be back in stock this week or next

same with paper products.

However, hand sanitizer is prioritized for essential worker use so it may be a long time before that comes back. Use soap.

I've seen farms advertise online selling pre-packed boxes of local produce available for pickup. No other customers would touch the produce. Spring Valley does that here in the DC area.

[ProfessorGAC]

14. If We Could Just Find IPA!

A bottle of that in an empty Windex sprayer, and a bottle of hand cream. Hand sanitizer then is merely a convenience, but not a need.
I've been to 2 factories that make hand sanitizer.
Slick, efficient operations run per cGMP rules. But, they weren't designed to manufacture at a rate required to get an extra 10s of millions onto the market.
That differs from my view on sanitizing wipes. I've been to those factories too. They are big enough & fast enough to have refilled the supply chain by now, particularly with stores limiting purchase volumes per customer. I'm concerned they're avoiding paying OT or line change training and aren't cranking out 24/7.
I worked in a facility that makes the active ingredient.
40kg per day. 40 million grams! There 0.32 grams on a sanitizing wipe. That 125 million a day possible or 1.56 million packages of wipes per day. That's PER SITE! They're made by at least 10 production sites

In 21 days, the shelves should be restocked. Where the heck are they?

[IronLionZion]

15. Not sure IPA would help

Grain alcohol might be a better choice for the higher alcohol content.

I'm hoping sanitizing wipes and clorox-type wipes are back soon. I have some Method brand wipes in the meantime. I'm hoping the surfactants destroy coronavirus the same way soap does because it's not marketed as disinfectant.

[ProfessorGAC]

16. 70% IPA Is The Microbiolgist's Go To

I've been involved in sanitization procedure changes because the biodegradable products obviously are microbe food.
All the procedures involved using 70% IPA because it's 99% kill in 5 seconds. The procedures call for doing keeping surface saturated for 15 to 30.
After that treatment, the only time we had growth on fortified agar was due to sampling error.
IPA is sold at both 99% & 70% in drug stores. Not now, of course. Ethanol is only available in 95% (Everclear) or perhaps 151 rum. Any other liquor is 50% or lower.
It's not that simple to find high % denatured ethanol, and if you buy high proof liquor, you pay the liquor tax. Way more expensive.
The commercial brands of hand sanitizers do you use ethanol, but they can but SDA40B in tank truck loads. At that volume, it's only a bit more, and it's not poisonous, even with the denaturing agents in 40B. They have clear liability concerns & they don't want to have to put poison warnings on the bottle. Horrible marketing for a personal care product.
Challenge testing show both alcohols to be equally efficacious on microbes.
There's a technical reason why 70% (of either alcohol) is better than than higher. If you're interested, PM me.

[IronLionZion]

17. LOL! I thought you meant India Pale Ale

Got it, you meant the drugstore rubbing alcohol. That's good to know because I have some at home that I use to clean rust and soap scum off antique metal things.

[ProfessorGAC]

18. LOL!

Now I get your low concentration thing!!!!
Yeah, 4.5% ethanol probably not useful. I only drink ultra low alcohol beer anyway, so that kind of IPA isn't anything I'd buy.
Sorry, IPA is chemist speak for IsoPropyl Alcohol.

[ProfessorGAC]

19. One More Note

If you want to remove rust VERY effectively, get some Barkeeper's Friend.
It contains oxalic acid. Oxalic acid forms iron compounds that are highly water soluble.
You can buy 99+% oxalic, but there are some health hazards associated with the pure form.
In BKF, it's only a couple % so it's safer by a lot.
Cheaper, too. And it works great!

[IronLionZion]

20. Oh yeah, BKF is powerful stuff

I use that when nothing else works because it's pretty harsh on delicate things. It's great for stainless steel cookware.