I can tell you from a supplier POV, there are serious supply chain issues out there right now. Our products are already a month late, and retailers haven't flinched....they are seeing it all over. There are dozens of boats waiting to get into major Chinese ports, and some are simply bypassing the port, leaving stuff behind. Suppliers are begging and borrowing for space, rates have increased by 40%! It's so bad, Home Depot has chartered their own freighter to mitigate risk.
So now we get stateside, and between truck shortages, driver shortages, dock worker shortages, etc... you get extended time from port. We are seeing 21 day transits stretching to 60-70 days, and slipping. I was supposed to be at a plant this past week to watch the initial assembly, but it has slipped to week after next, and it slipped 2 days just this week. We already had to move warehouses to a completely new state because of worker issues. It's crazy.
You are going to see price increases on pretty much everything this fall. What you have seen so far is just the tip. Everything we sell is going up a minimum of $1, with items over $20 going up $5. I have spoken with friends at other companies, and it's happening there, too. Inflation is going to be out of control.
Ironically, though, with so much "free" money out there, demand is still thru the roof. My old company was in building products, and they were up over $100 million on my product line alone! They built a new plant just to keep up. Seeing the same thing at my new place, in a wildly different industry.
Bottom line. Expect empty shelves for a while on some things, and expect higher prices on everything.
