Photos: E. Hermel
The Price We All Pay by Kristen May staff writer
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Supply chain shortages have impacted everyone in Traverse City, whether it be consumers, employees, or business owners.
icture yourself walking into Costco on a Sunday. You’re looking for paper towels, but when you round the corner the shelves are empty. Supply chain shortages have spiraled out of control since the pandemic began. Products of a wide variety have become unavailable to consumers, ranging from meat to hand sanitizer to toilet paper and beyond. Too many items have been cleared off the shelves and aren’t being restocked immediately. The supply chain issues impacting Traverse City are making products inaccessible, which in turn affects businesses that depend on them. Consumers rely upon these businesses to have products that they need, and when they don’t, people are more likely to change the places they shop in order to collect items that were once widely available. The root of the problems in Traverse City extends all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. For months, shipping ports have been cluttered by freighters lined up for miles waiting for a chance to unload. The ports are too backed up to accommodate all of the supply surges, leaving the containers with nowhere to go. The shortages are hitting hard nationwide, but Traverse City is having issues locally. Consumers have had to adjust their day to day lives in order to accommodate 12 // BGQ // January 2022
the shortages. Items have become limited, forcing people to purchase less. “Meijer has limits on almost everything on their shelves. It was either limit two or limit four,” local realtor Nan Ray states. Limiting the amount of products that a customer can buy is making it difficult for consumers to obtain exactly what they need. Large families especially struggle with the limits on products because the items that they can obtain aren’t enough to feed everyone. It doesn’t help that consumers are increasing their demand. Customers are wanting to stock up on certain items in case the pandemic takes a turn for the worse or the shortages get bad. Try to remember the first time you heard or read about the toilet paper shortages. Did you panic? Did you try to get your hands on as many rolls of toilet paper that you could? If so, you contributed to the shortages and now we’re all having to pay the price. In an interview with Insider Magazine, Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain policy at the National Retail Federation, remarks that “demand grew so rapidly in the past two years that it’s equivalent to about 50 million new Americans joining the economy.” Small businesses in Traverse City have had to adapt, due to the obstacles the shortages have
