US supermarket shelves are literally half empty and Omicron isn’t the only culprit

When UK shoppers started posting pictures of supermarket shelves filled with photos of absent products Last fall, maybe you, the consumer in the land of rich supermarket choices, smirk a little. Well, now barren shelves – if not fake photos – have arrived in US grocery stores.

“Some of the culprits behind this shortage are the same as they were in the early days of the pandemic, and some could be due to new problems co-occurring with old problems.” Articles washington report. Correspondent Laura Reiley has broken down the culprits into four main groups: The rise in Omicrons, winter weather, supply chain instability, and an increase in the number of people eating at home. But really, all of those reasons are linked, and most of them are tied to the troubling new variant of COVID-19.

For example, people may eat more at home because of concerns about getting sick at restaurants, inflationary austerity related to supply chain problems, and children staying home from school due to infection. COVID-19 or Omicron-related staff shortages at the school. And Omicron has caused its own supply-chain meltdown, eliminating workers at every step from factories producing critical ingredients through the shipping sector to grocery stores.

Geoff Freeman, CEO of trade group Consumer Brands Association, told food industry executives during a call Monday. “That’s remarkable,” he said. “Besides that there’s a reduction of 80,000 truckers nationwide and another 10% of workers absent from food production facilities, and you’re putting a lot of pressure on the system at the same time.”

“There’s a lot of food in the supply chain,” said Jim Dudlicek, communications director for the National Grocery Store Association, but many grocers are operating with less than half the workforce. often, making shelf stocking and meal prep difficult. Read more about why some of your favorite items may not be available at the moment Articles washington.