Here’s why grocery stores struggle to fill their empty shelves

News Times Link: Grocery shelves across the United States are swept and empty as stores struggle to quickly replenish essentials like milk, bread, meat, canned soup and cleaning supplies. In the past few days, disgruntled shoppers have expressed their dissatisfaction by tweeting pictures of empty shelves at Trader Joe’s, Giant Foods and Publix stores on social media.
After two years of grappling with pandemic and supply chain problems, the grocery store is still not getting the breakthrough it had hoped for. Rather, they now face many other setbacks.
As the highly contagious mutant COVID-19 virus continues to infect workers, it is creating manpower shortages for critical functions such as transportation and logistics, which in turn are affecting food delivery and restocking of store shelves across the country.
Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran admitted in a company call with analysts on Tuesday that the product was in short supply .A continuing shortage of truck drivers continues to slow supply chains and reduce the ability of grocery stores to replenish shelves quickly.
At Trader Joe’s stores over the weekend, shoppers saw messages posted on empty shelves accusing the weather emergency of delays in delivery.
Much of the Midwest and Northeast has recently been struggling with harsh weather and dangerous travel conditions. Not only do people stockpile large quantities of food, Lempert said, but this high demand combined with transportation problems makes it difficult to transport goods in bad weather, resulting in a greater shortage.

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