ORLANDO, Fla. – The country may be recovering from the economic impacts of the pandemic, but now new issues with backlogs of shipping containers at ports across the country, labor shortages and supply chain problems are causing higher prices.
Families around the nation are having to modify their budgets due to increasing prices on goods ranging from gasoline to groceries to items needed for manufacturing.
“The backlog of goods basically affects the time it takes for consumers to receive products for retailers first to receive products to put on the shelves,” Axel Stock, an associate UCF professor of marketing said.
Stock said prices tend to go up when a product can’t be delivered.
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“In addition to the problem at the ports, there’s also a shortage of supply labor (such as) truck drivers. Even when the ships can unload, it is not guaranteed that... products can immediately be shipped to their destinations,” Stock said.
Stock said one way consumers can prepare for the supply chain issues is to shop early when the products are available. With the holidays around the corner, he said it’s best to start buying items for your holiday dinners and gift shopping now rather than waiting.
However, he cautioned buyers to not panic shop.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, consumer prices are at a 13 year high. A September retail report from the USDA indicated the average price for a gallon of milk is now at $3.68 — that’s about 36 cents more than last year. Gas is up 42 percent; the cost of energy is up 25 percent and at the grocery stores many items are out of stock.
“You’ve seen the images of all the ships docked off the coasts of various cities in the United States where there’s a big logjam, that of course, is impacting what we see in terms of what we see on our store shelves,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said from the Jacksonville Port Authority Monday regarding the backlog issues at ports in several cities of the country.
“We in Florida have the ability to help alleviate these log jams and help to ameliorate the problems with the supply chain and part of it is because we’ve been long committed to reliable, modern, and accessible port facilities,” DeSantis said. “Our seaports are used to operating around the clock, they’re used to moving cargo for American families, farmers, and businesses, and we think that this is a great solution given our capacity for some of the problems you see in other parts of the country.”