Supply Chain Crisis Reaches New Landmark, THESE Items are Looking Slim for the Holidays

crisis

The supply chain crisis has reached critical proportions and if you’re expecting a cheerful holiday you better stock up on the spirits now. That bottle of Champaign for your New Year’s toast had better be in the cellar before the fragile chain snaps completely.

Impending alcohol crisis

Ever since we were subjected to the Asian Andromeda Strain, Americans have learned to do without a lot of things. Shortages from toilet paper to microchips are making life a challenge but we seem to muddle through. Until now.

“Bottles of everything from champagne to whiskey to tequila are flying off the shelves.” It’s soon to be a crisis because new ones aren’t coming in for a landing.

Jake Duke, regional manager for Texas family liquor chain Spec’s relates that when he arrived at the shop on Friday, October 22, “there were 50 people waiting in line, just to see what we had coming in.”

Every bottle was “gone by the end of the day.” The crisis is spreading relentlessly.

According to experts, you can blame Pete Buttigieg for the crisis. There “are several factors contributing to the alcohol shortage, including transportation.”

David Ozgo, chief economist with the Distilled Spirits Council notes the “distilled spirits industry is just like everyone else in America. We’re facing the same challenges with regard to being able to import products.”

A shortage of containers

They can still brew the stuff up by the barrel but getting raw materials and bottles to put it in is the real crisis.

A shortage of glass bottles is only part of the container problem. The containers that matter are the ones backed up at sea waiting to unload. “Clearly, right now there’s a shortage of containers. Space on container ships is very, very short.”

Not only are the items in the containers stuck offshore, the containers themselves are tied up. Nothing can be moved around until there are shipping boxes to put the goods in.

We can’t get the containers until they’re unloaded and thanks to the Imperial Minister of Transportation who just got back from Paternity leave it’s a huge crisis for the booze business. As a whole, the industry “imports 40% of its products.”

What about the good ole American bootleggers and moonshiners? “Even the smaller, local distilleries that are otherwise relatively immune to the shortage are facing some challenges.” For instance, Ale Ochoa with TX Whiskey isn’t in a crisis yet but they’re not able to get “steel for our barrel barn that we need to age all of our barrels in.”

Glass “is hard to get, and in turn, if we do everything in plastic, we have to order that out. There’s also a shortage of the aluminum needed to make the caps, and the glue to affix the labels.” They limit purchases to “one bottle per customer.”