How time flies...Here it is the last day of September.
Completed the weekly curbside grocery thing, which begins on Wednesday with Walmart and concludes on Thursday with Kroger. There are certain things that are only from one or the other. Then there are the things that maybe Walmart doesn't currently have and Kroger does.
The pantries are full and it is down to replacement items and the perishables. I suspect I am not the only hoarder of pantry items, as they seem to be more difficult to order. Is it due to hoarding or due to supply chain issues.
Everything is blamed on supply chain issues and we are told to buy normally, as there are plenty of supplies. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of something, then the news of that shortage, then hoarding that exacerbates the shortage and then the politicos telling us to buy normally.
I seem to recall that scenario playing out in the U.K. recently and currently on going. People were buying petrol (gas, gasoline) normally and forecourts (gas stations) started running out of petrol.
The forecourts running out due to lack of lorry (truck) drivers splashed across the news groups and predictably... the surge was on. Naturally the politicos admonished everyone for hoarding petrol, while simultaneously acknowledging the shortage of lorry drivers, while advising people to purchase normally. Normally is what caused some of those forecourts to run out of petrol in the first place... exposing a system problem.
Naturally the Petrol lorry driver shortage morphed into acknowledgement of an overall lorry driver shortage across damn near everything. Ooops... that item out of stock and awaiting the next lorry delivery became something more worrying. No surprise really.
It has become almost normal for nothing to happen until a crisis occurs. When that crisis is resolved everyone seems to pat themselves on the back and then sit idly by until the next crisis. I understand the political gain from managing a crisis vs preventing a crisis.
No one notices the crisis prevention activity or the individuals involved in preventing a crisis. Generally, they are disregarded. Oh but those people that get involved in resolving a crisis are to be revered. Never are they punished for their role in allowing the crisis to arise.
In any such case, we currently have a supply chain crisis in the U.S. It is actually multiple crises over a great swath of transportation systems. All of which are quite willing to deflect blame to others as to how the crisis began. Thus, at some point in the future, all will be resolved and people will claim their labor produced this magnificent resolution.
Of course any reflection will be smoothed over and any attempt to determine the cause while it is still on going will be deflected with... "now is not the time to place blame, that can come later".
Has anyone ever lived long enough to see that "later"? Later is always at some point in time, when those crisis management types have moved on, etc. Which is too late.
So kudos to those that prevent crises and manage to keep my hoarding pantry full. To all those that are working diligently, behind to scenes to keep things going.
