As the supply chain issues and shortages of certain goods continue, experts said the biggest impacts will likely soon felt be on the items we use every day, such as hygiene products and toothpaste.
In addition to items like baby formula and feminine products, Terrill Frantz, an associate professor of e-business and cybersecurity for Harrisburg University was recently interviewed by CBS-21 about the shortages.
In the interview, Frantz says the supply chain issues are widespread, impacting numerous industries. However, he said some shortages are more prominent when they are items that are necessities, especially if other products cannot be substituted in their place.
“No one is noticing that potato chips are becoming harder and harder to find perhaps or your tasty cakes supply may not be as robust as it has been in the past,” Frantz said. “We may not notice that as much because we can shift to other snacks quite quickly, so the demand gets spread out on other products.”
Frantz said the root cause for many of the supply chain issues is transportation.
“It’s the transportation problem that we can’t get goods from point A to point B, we don’t have people willing to drive trucks, etc.” he said.
Especially in Central Pennsylvania, where he said most of our goods travel by road and by rail. However, Frantz also said even large ports like New Jersey and New York have fewer ships coming in.
“We can expect further transportation cost pressures — the $171,000 (avg.) per year shipping-container port dock workers continue to refuse to work within a round-the-clock operational regime … and the union contract at the US West Coast shipping ports expires on July 1. More transportation-caused cost pressures will further increase our painful inflation rate for the foreseeable future.”
He said in the interview that it is unclear how long the shortages will last, but said in the meantime, if possible, individuals should reduce consumption of goods when they can, in a sense, to help the market catch up.
Watch the interview here: https://local21news.com/news/local/experts-weigh-in-on-what-supply-chain-shortages-could-be-next
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