ATLANTA (CNN) – On your next trip to Costco, don’t be surprised if you can’t find your favorite cheese.
Costco is having trouble storing imported cheeses due to a lack of shipping containers around the world and bottlenecks in key West Coast ports such as Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland and Seattle. The combination has led to delays for suppliers delivering their goods to retailers such as Costco, which receive higher products and costs along the supply chain.
“Freight abroad has continued to be a problem in terms of lack of containers and port delays. This has caused delays in certain categories,” Costco chief financial officer Richard Galanti said in a call to analysts last week. past.
The problem is not limited to cheese, but also to seafood, olive oils, furniture, sporting goods and garden and garden equipment, Galanti said.
He expects “pressure to ease in the coming months, but it will have an impact on everyone.”
Supply chain pressures
Supply chain pressures have been a constant for retailers throughout the pandemic. But a string of chains, including Crocs, Urban Outfitters, Foot Locker and Dollar Tree, have described the lack of containers and remnants in West Coast ports in recent weeks as the latest challenges in securing consumer goods.
“Importing the product from Asia, delivering it through Long Beach and other ports and delivering it to customers is really a challenge right now,” Andrew Rees, CEO of Crocs, said in a Feb. 23 conversation with analysts. “I think that will smooth over time, but it will take a while.”
“We are facing some delays in receiving imported goods due to a shortage of equipment worldwide and problems with port congestion,” Dollar Tree chief financial officer Kevin Wampler said last week.
Anthropologie’s household goods also delayed arrival in the United States due to container shortages in Asia, Francis Conforti, COO Urban Outfitters, said in a call with analysts.
“We are starting to see some very, very slight improvements and we hope that the improvement will continue at a moderate pace.”
Pandemic demand
Demand for food, furniture, appliances and household items has increased in the pandemic, as consumers spend more time at home. He didn’t give up.
US imports by sea rose 20% in January from last year, according to the latest available data from Panjiva, a global trade research firm. According to Panjiva, imports of consumer discretionary goods, such as household appliances, accounted for the largest growth factor.
Higher demand and supply chain disruptions also increase costs: the total cost of shipping to the United States by sea reached $ 6.36 billion in January, compared to $ 2.46 billion a year earlier.
“The supply chain has been maximized,” said Jon Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation, a trade group for the retail industry. Gold said US ports have not been able to cope with the coming volume, due to rising demand, as well as hundreds of workers who have been ill with Covid-19.
“Containers are in port longer than usual,” and “the availability of empty containers has been a challenge, both here and abroad,” he said.
Pressure has led several companies to use air freight to ship goods. Until now, air transport was “always a last resort, because it was eight to ten times more expensive than maritime transport,” he said.
Gold said companies are trying to avoid shifting the higher costs consumers face, but some retailers may be forced to offset the increase by raising shelf prices.
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