At a recent Costco senior hour visit, we saw actual Clorox brand sanitizers on sale. A six-pack of lemon and fresh scented wipes. We didn’t really need them, but you never know. We might.
Nearing the halfway point into 2021, the shortages of 2020 have already seeped into this year. We’re experiencing new shortages of some items, continued scarcities of others and rising prices.
Blame it on a combination of factors, including the global pandemic, severe winter storms and a recent pipeline hacking cyberattack that caused massive disruptions to U.S. supply chains. I’m talking about such products as cars, lumber, chlorine and ketchup.
Since we’re not planning to buy a car, build a house or clean any pools, my main concern at this moment is lack of ketchup. Yes, ketchup.
No, not the bottled version. There’s plenty of that to go around.
I’m talking about those small individual packages from fast-food places like McDonald’s. Instead of bottles, restaurants are still using the packets when consumers dine in, following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations. A surge in pandemic carryout dining drove massive demand for ketchup.
Thank goodness I didn’t clean out the glove box in Rebecca’s car after we returned from Florida. I’m betting you could find enough ketchup packets in there to feed a family of four. And salt. Because you never know when you’re gonna need extra salt to assist Michigan’s busy road crews.
But don’t look for those tiny ketchup packets in your takeout bag just yet. To keep up, Kraft Heinz, the biggest ketchup producer in the United states, has increased production by 25%. Yet, it’s still unclear when the shortage will end.
It’s all about supply and demand, as Mr. Adam Smith said in 1776. The price of ketchup packets is up 13 percent since January 2020, according to The Wall Street Journal, and increased demand has left restaurant owners and national chains scrambling for supplies.
And then there’s hand sanitizer.
Ironically, after chronic shortages, retailers can’t sell the surplus of hand sanitizer.
That’s right. Those once-priceless bottles of Purell we frantically stocked up on last year are now sitting on pallets in warehouses collecting dust.
Consumers stopped buying them partly because of CDC findings that there was minimal risk of getting the virus by touching surfaces. Sales are down 80% from a year ago, according to NielsenIQ, and prices fell 40% over the same time period.
Apparently, at the height of the pandemic, many stores used other businesses, including distilleries, that switched production to make sanitizers for the first time. They can’t give it away now.
Who knows? Maybe they’ll buy the glut of hand sanitizers and turn it into whiskey. “Bartender, I’ll have a reconstituted lemon-scented Purell, please. Neat.”
For now, I’m holding onto ketchup packets. But I’d be open to trading a few for, say, a roll of two-ply Charmin. Call me. You never know.
