[Yorker_in_AR]

Originally Posted by TRex2

Personally, I think that is wishful thinking, but I will admit, even with my network, I don't have a full view of the transportation industry, so I don't know. I tend to err on the side of panning for sustained disruptions.

The latest info I have is almost a month old, but it didn't show much promise of getting better. That said, I saw somewhere that Feb is, traditionally, the pacific ports' slowest month, so they may clear some of the backlog then.

Trucking and container shortages still dog us, but I can't get a clear fix on how bad the problem is.



Port operations - ships:
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/ne...ic-traffic-jam
Trucking:
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/ca...ng-power-index
Railcar (numbers show there is a minor shortage of rail cars)):
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/no...proving-market
Political problems in container shipping:
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/us...its-not-enough

Hopefully more than wishful thinking but you may be right, good info and links.

[latunafish]

I get daily reports of most food costs (increases only)and availability. I haven’t seen much improvement. However, we did have a corporate person from one of our national franchises here a few days ago and he was cautiously optimistic. I have noticed that our deliveries have improved. ( they went from “you could set your watch by when the different trucks would back up to our dock” to “is my truck coming this week?” We had several national suppliers miss their deliveries by over a week. That is disastrous in the perishable food side of the business )

[Regajohn]

Price is definitely up in Little Rock as are more bare shelves. Meat is 50% to near double, a good steak at fresh market that was $12 or $13 per lb about is now $17-$19 a pound. My typical grocery bill used to be $30-$70 per visit ... now it is $70-$130 and I’m buying pretty much the same stuff.

Shelves have bare spots and it’s hard finding certain items.

[Hollynla]

Originally Posted by Regajohn

Price is definitely up in Little Rock as are more bare shelves. Meat is 50% to near double, a good steak at fresh market that was $12 or $13 per lb about is now $17-$19 a pound. My typical grocery bill used to be $30-$70 per visit ... now it is $70-$130 and I’m buying pretty much the same stuff.

Shelves have bare spots and it’s hard finding certain items.

I've heard that about meat prices in some areas. That's probably what I've paid most attention to, and the prices have not increased at all on the meats I buy normally like ground beef, beef chuck roasts, ribeye, chicken thighs, etc. I'm not sure why the differences in some areas. My husband said when he was working in south Louisiana in the fall, meat was high there. I did notice the usual price of steak increase for a few weeks in the fall but now it's back to where it's always been.

[TRex2]

Originally Posted by Hollynla

I've heard that about meat prices in some areas. That's probably what I've paid most attention to, and the prices have not increased at all on the meats I buy normally like ground beef, beef chuck roasts, ribeye, chicken thighs, etc. I'm not sure why the differences in some areas. My husband said when he was working in south Louisiana in the fall, meat was high there. I did notice the usual price of steak increase for a few weeks in the fall but now it's back to where it's always been.

A lot of the variation depends on who had a contract with who, and when they signed it.

The pandemic created havoc in the processing plants, with workers being spaced out and many of them on quarantine, or actually sick. A lot of that hasn't really straightened itself out. Transportation is a mess, so unless your store contracted before the pandemic, and has their own transportation system (like Walmart does) your store will face some daunting challenges.

We get our chicken, pork, fish, and some beef, locally, from local butchers and local ranches, so we haven't been impacted nearly as much as most, but there are some refrigerant shortages coming up, and I don't know how much that will impact our locals.

[latunafish]

You are right about transportation being a mess, one of the distribution centers we receive a weekly delivery from was 21 drivers short last fall. ( this was in Little Rock). That is 21 trucks sitting idle.

One food plant in New Orleans, was so thin on workers, they would run production in the am and move to loading trucks in the pm, this was a few months ago also.

Orders are seldom correct anymore either, due to new or overtaxed workers in distribution.

It is the new normal to receive 60- 80% of whatever you order, but never 100%.