The Best Piece I've Read Yet on the Shipping Crisis

From a trucker with some insight on the multi-faceted problems.

It's complicated, and has many parts, but here's the bottom line:

The Likelihood of Anyone Getting Large Items, Anytime Soon, is Pretty Much Nil

Now, that means:

• Large equipment for business - nope
• Large appliances - nope
• Heavy items, that would be very expensive to ship in by airline - nope
• Any bulk item, that is container shipped - nope

Those items that are small enough to be shipped - in relatively small quantities - by air, MAYBE.

So, what this means is: if the item is not already in an American/Canadian/Mexican store or warehouse, it ain't gonna arrive in the near future.

I bought a snowblower this week - cordless type, a Ryobi. It was one of the smaller models (if I have to lift it at some point, it has to be light). It cost $419 + battery and charger. A good price.

And, in the store I was buying from - Home Depot - it was a floor model. The number available was limited. The higher-priced models are there, but the cheaper ones are in limited quantities, and will be going fast.

If you live in an area hard hit by snow most years, I beg you - buy NOW. They will probably NOT be available in a few weeks, at most.

How do I know this?

I tried to buy the same model at Lowe's the day before - there were none in stock - anywhere - and they didn't expect more in the near future.

The same is true for a lot of stuff, particularly those things that are seasonal. Which means, Christmas is gonna be, for most people, the real wake-up call. They will head to the stores, expecting to be able to find what has been advertised, and it will not be there.

Yeah.

It's gonna be like that. Only for more than a single toy. A hell of a lot of those things that you normally buy for Christmas will NOT be there.