NEW: Liquor makers can't find enough glass, incomplete toy sets sit in factories, wheelchair makers are waiting months for tires, and chicken tenders have never been more expensive. How a supply chain crisis is affecting industries across America:
Nearly two years into the Covid pandemic, the virus that has infected millions and killed hundreds of thousands of Americans continues to disrupt the powerful supply chain that moves goods from factories to U.S. homes. Liquor producers can’t get enough glass to make bottles in their signature shapes.
NBC News looked at seven items affected by backlogs or rising prices, and spoke to industry leaders and experts about the supply chain problems that have caused the items to become more expensive or hard to find. The alcohol selection at holiday parties might look different this year, as beer, wine and liquor producers warn that they are having a tough time maintaining consistent production and distribution to customers.
.The most consistent obstacle for many beer, wine and liquor makers, however, is obtaining glass bottles — especially if their bottles are special shapes. Even though domestic glass manufacturing is at full speed, said Scott DeFife, the president of the Glass Packaging Institute, the country imports 20 percent to 30 percent of its glass from overseas.
For Roman Roth, the winemaker at Wölffer Estate Vineyard on Long Island, New York, the colorful labels, bottles and packaging are all part of the brand identity his customers have come to love, but it’s really difficult to obtain all the necessary glass, particularly as his brand has an opportunity to expand in the wine market.
Hattie B’s Hot Chicken, a popular chicken restaurant chain in Nashville, Tennessee, said the price for all parts of the chicken skyrocketed during the pandemic. The biggest pain for the chain, however, is its bestseller — the chicken tender. King said Tyson, one of the largest chicken producers in the world, has raised wages and is piloting new child care and medical facilities for its workers. It also aims to automate less attractive and more dangerous jobs that it has struggled to find employees for and then retrain some workers to oversee the process.
In the past she would get a wheelchair in just a few days, but now the wait is about eight weeks. It’s the same with crutches: She recently got an order she’d placed more than six weeks before. Producers say the problems are multifaceted. Although most of these types of supplies are produced domestically, a few individual component parts come from Asia and are stuck at the ports, causing massive backlogs. Some also face labor shortages at their production facilities in the U.S.
On a recent earnings call, Hasbro said it already expected to suffer a $100 million loss this holiday season because supply chain backups are making it difficult to fill orders. Even domestically produced toys are held up. Foreman’s company also produces Lincoln Logs and K’Nex. The logs are made in the U.S. but he said partly assembled toy sets are sitting in factories because he can’t get the plastic doors for the Lincoln Log sets, which are made in China, and because two chemicals needed to produce K’Nex are in high demand with limited production capabilities right now.
The surge in demand, accompanied by a holiday boom, has many companies struggling to keep up. The biggest challenge is a shortage of microchips and semiconductors. “Sony isn’t airlifting PlayStations — they’re just not doing it,” Pachter said. “They’re just like, ‘screw it.’ Their attitude is if you don’t buy a PlayStation 5 this Christmas, you’ll buy one next Christmas. They’re just extending the cycle another year. Microsoft’s thinking the same.”
Similarly, Valve, a popular video game company that produced such games as Half-Life and Counter Strike, announced this month that it was delaying the release of Steam Deck, its much-anticipated handheld gaming computer, until next year.For many people, the transition to work from home began with swapping office attire for sweatpants and other stretchy, soft clothing.
Major production plants were shuttered for weeks because of Covid outbreaks in the region over the summer, and factories have struggled to bring back workers. That made meeting the huge spike in demand much harder for companies, but it also came as shipping costs — as well as cotton and fabric prices — are at all-time highs.
Major companies, from Lululemon to Gap and Nike, have increasingly depended on air freight to get them through the holiday season,. Some have also begun moving their production facilities closer to the U.S. in hopes of shrinking the supply chain. The average price in the U.S. rose to $3.40 a gallon early this month, according to AAA. That’s the highest price in years, and it comes after the oil market bottomed out at the height of the pandemic last year.
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