From CNN today:
As the highly contagious variant of the Covid-19 virus continues to sicken workers, it's creating staffing shortages for critical functions like transportation and logistics, which in turn are affecting delivery of products and restocking of store shelves across the country.
Albertsons' CEO Vivek Sankaran acknowledged that products are in tight supply during the company's earnings call with analysts Tuesday.
"I think as a business, we've all learned to manage it. We've all learned to make sure that the stores are still very presentable, give the consumers as much choice as we can get," Sankaran said during the call.
Even so, he added, Omicron has put "a bit of a dent" on efforts to improve supply chain gaps. "We would expect more supply challenges over the next four to six weeks," Sankaran said.
“While there is plenty of food in the supply chain, we anticipate consumers will continue to experience sporadic disruptions in certain product categories as we have seen over the past year and half due to the continued supply and labor challenges," said Greg Ferrara, the group's president and CEO.
In fact, labor shortages continue to pressure all areas of the
food industry, said Phil Lempert, an industry analyst and editor of SuperMarketGuru.com.
"From farms to food makers to grocery stores, it's across the board," said Lempert. "During the pandemic, these operations have had to implement social distancing protocols and they're not really built for that and it has impacted production."
