Computers. Cars. The cereal you eat every morning for breakfast. All things that you have watched slowly disappear off the shelves, as you have simultaneously noticed the prices of everything else skyrocket. With a service like Amazon Prime, society has become accustomed to low prices with a guaranteed next day delivery date and an extended wait seems to have sent the United States into a frenzy. Junior Maddie Canfield has noticed that her, “…prime order has sometimes been taking double the time to get to [her] house than normal.”

The issues began with the pandemic, when the largest global manufacturers were hit hard with the spread of Covid-19. Countries like China, Germany, Vietnam, and countless others were forced to shut factories and cut production because of sick workers or lockdown restrictions. Due to this, shipping companies then cut their schedules, expecting a drop in the transportation of goods globally. If consumerism rates had stayed stable, this dip in production would not have been an issue, but purchasing spiked during the pandemic with families trying to keep themselves entertained at home. Junior Milan Bever relates to this consumerism craze as she, “…bought a bunch of new baking supplies. [She] also went to buy new weights and other exercise equipment, but [she] didn’t end up buying them because they were so much more expensive than before.”

Although factories increased production in response to the increase in demand, the product then proceeded to sit in factories due to the clogged transportation system. With cuts being made to shipping schedules and limited access to shipping containers, the amount of available goods decreased worldwide. The end to this shortage is unknown, but for all the Sea King students wondering where their Shein order is, it might just be stuck in a shipping container locked outside the harbor.