How To Fix The Supply Chain Crisis

[Roobaba]

Tesco chief executive, Sir Dave Lewis is to advise on how to fix the supply chain crisis that has led to petrol and other shortages.

It comes as the Office for National Statistics found one in six UK adults said they had been unable to buy essential foods in the last fortnight.

The recent fuel crisis was caused in part by a shortage of lorry drivers.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58840555

So, here's a question for the AB 'experts' with brains (more than the Ex Tesco boss, assuming big brains exist here) and even those without, even normal size brains - what's the answer to fix the supply chain crisis, what is the solution?

[naomi24]

Thanks mamyalynne but I googled that before asking. I’m still none the wiser.

[davebro]

Roobaba - you tell me ONE thing you think there is a shortage of & I will go out & come back with that item in 20 mins.

[AuntPG]

It was mildly amusing at first, Brexiters La La-ing, fingers in ears ,'there are no shortages'. Now this ignorance and refusal to believe facts its worrying, because there ARE shortages on Supermarket shelves. I've been to three Supermarkets last week and everyone had shortages: Tesco, Sainsbury's & Aldi. Aldi was the better stocked I have to say, but there were still shortages.

These are not important shortages that will cause hunger or distress (unless you can't live without frozen green beans or bisto chicken gravy) but there ARE shortages. Get over it! They have not been caused by one thing, but a perfect storm of Covid, a shortage of pickers/packers and dispatches due to Brexit visa rules, and an ageing UK HGV population that was not addressed when it should have been 5 years ago.
Some things will sort themselves out eventually, and some (visas to allow EU workers back into the UK for example) will be resolved by Boris making a massive U turn in his Exit strategies.

The EU are giggling behind their European flag as the UK squirms and comes begging for their workers back, while other countries who perhaps were flirting with the idea of leaving, are meekly looking at the floor shuffling their feet and wondering if it was such a good idea after all.

[naomi24]

//meekly looking at the floor shuffling their feet//

Oh my! The drama of it all!

[AuntPG]

Is that the best you can do....You forgot to wear your mask when you ventured over to Chatterbank Naomi - you've caught the vacuous bug.

[naomi24]

That’s all such drama warrants.

[vulcan42]

APG, you do tend to write supposition as fact.

[AuntPG]

vulcan, //APG, you do tend to write supposition as fact.//

as most do on AB. Unless one is directly involved in the government of the UK or the EU it's all supposition - oh and a bit of light poetic relief which seems to have gone over some people's heads, no doubt intentionally lol!

[vulcan42]

And as usual, the standard reply ' you don't understand'. :o)

[AuntPG]

Don't think I've ever written that vulcan, for the simple reason I don't care who understands or pretends not to understand. Maybe you are referring to someone else.

[burlyshirley]

I'm not sorry I voted for leave and as I have already stated, I see no shortages in my local supermarkets - if I did, I would say so !

[Jackdaw33]

APG has given the game away. Any shortages, such as they are, are of trivial items that all can do without. When the shelves become bare of bread, milk, meat, fish etc., that will be the time to worry.

[jno]

or loo rolls, Jackdaw?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10077261/One-six-Brits-unable-buy-essential-food-items-shelves-stay-empty.html

Of course, maybe that's what you use the fish for...

[naomi24]

That article speaks for itself. Panic buying.

Actually, I bought twelve loo rolls the other day. They were stacked from floor to ceiling in the supermarket, and I still had a couple at home. I'm ashamed of myself now for 'panic buying'.

[middlemarch]

Just had my Tesco delivery, only one substitution. Last week, Sainsbury's £170 delivery, one substitution, a specialist sourdough loaf was replaced by another. Am I supposed to panic because APG and Gulliver keep moaning about things?

[andres]

[email protected] is spot on. There will be reason to complain when bread, milk and eggs become scarce. However this is not the first time that the UK has been in this position. Look back to the year 2000 when the world wide price of oil shot through the roof. Then there was the fuel tax. Tanker drivers and truckers put blockades up and held the country to ransom. Petrol stations ran out of fuel and some factories had to close temporarily. We had food shortages especially bread, milk and eggs because no petrol meant no transportation. Then we had a Labour Government----Blair and Brown.

[AuntPG]

I am not 'moaning' about food shortages -I was making an observation that despite Supermarket CEO's (amongst others) saying they are experiencing shortages, there are folks blindly ignoring that fact and swearing the contrary. I am seriously wondering if it really is only the NE of the UK with any shortages and all the HGV drivers are turning around at Northampton and going back south.
These shortages are not serious and change from week to week depending on which deliveries come through due to supply issues.
Just because someone gets a full load of shopping delivered does not means some shelves are not empty.