The Thanksgiving holiday is just around the corner! With new vaccines and new booster shots, a large number of people are eager to have their family holidays after they were nigh impossible to have last year. However, with the pandemic comes other issues, and this time it affects the physical aspects of the holiday more than the emotional aspect.
There have been supply chain issues throughout a large portion of the pandemic, and it has wreaked havoc on a sizable number of products and everyday objects. It’s increased the prices of things that are generally bought as larger presents, like laptops and desktop computers, as well as increasing the price of gasoline to the point of anxiety (the new cost of filling tanks is atrocious) and has also made several specific foods more difficult to find due to shipment issues.
One of the primary reasons for this issue is the pandemic, but personally, I believe that the pandemic has only served to compound pre-existing issues in a large number of organizations. One of the most severe issues impacting the supply chain currently is a shortage of truckers. Training truckers and adequately certifying them takes a massive amount of effort and, currently, according to Business Insider, the US is dealing with a shortage of roughly 80,000 truckers.
Personally, I think it’s interesting that this is happening and impacting companies and corporations that, for decades, have stated that the trucking industry is going to be the first to automate their employees out of a job. It’s 2021, nearly 2022, and there is currently no hope of automating truckers out of existence, but this conversation that’s been around for decades has made people less than eager to train for a job that everyone states is going to be nonexistent in “just a few years.” It seems almost karmic, in a way, but hopefully, the large sign-on bonuses and high starting salaries will encourage more people to get certified.
However, this will more than certainly affect the current holiday season, Thanksgiving and Black Friday especially.
Food-wise, the number of available turkey products (whole birds as well as partial cuts of meat) are 24% lower in 2021 than the average of the past several years. This means that prices are going to be higher, or you may not be able to find a turkey point-blank, no matter how hard you try, in your local supermarkets.
Perhaps foregoing the whole bird approach to Thanksgiving would make life easier this year. Opting for other meats such as hams and roast chickens as the centerpiece food would most likely reduce the stress of finding a bird when supplies are currently low. Focusing on more elaborate sides and a larger selection of desserts would also be a good choice for this year.
When it comes to Black Friday shopping, I think that people should realistically anticipate a bloodbath this year. On the news and on social media sites, many people are encouraging others to get their holiday shopping done fast, and Black Friday is the exact time when a lot of people are going to be getting it done.
Various chip shortages have resulted in electronic devices facing the brunt of production issues, and a lot of items shipped from Asian countries are facing issues in regards to the actual physical supply chain problem. The main problem involved the shipping barges themselves. It’s so bad that it’s gotten to the point where the Biden administration has allowed ports in southern California to remain open for a full 24-hour workday in order to try to combat the barge pileup. It hasn’t been very effective, and this is why presents shipped from China or other massive exporters are getting held up for a while.
It may be easier to simply have a more relaxed idea of holidays this year, as it looks like the standard Thanksgiving bash is going to be difficult to manage. I know a lot of people are desperate to make this year impressive after the lapse in celebration last holiday season. But to avoid the headaches and unnecessary stress, as well as the large dent in finances that it will cause, I do think that an informal, relaxed celebration would be just what people need this year.