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Empty supermarket shelves in Washington DC - in many parts of the USA there is currently a shortage of numerous groceries, the shops are not getting enough goods delivered.
»I wanted to buy bananas, but there are only four or five bananas. There hasn't been a salad for two weeks."
'There's no meat, no toilet paper. It's crazy. It's unbelievable. You know, you walk in and then I shop for me and my daughter, you know, because she went to Safeway in Maryland - nothing. Nothing. So I'm here and I'm taking what I can get, but it's just amazing."
»I usually come after work, sometimes later in the evening. Now I usually have to come in the middle of the day if I'm going to find anything at all."
There are many reasons for this - and they add up: The demand for food is increasing because many people are already stocking up for the winter storms that are expected soon.
In addition, there is not only a shortage of truck drivers in the country to transport the goods, but also of supermarket employees, as many people no longer want to work in a market where the risk of infection is higher during the pandemic.
Of 120,000 vacancies, only 1,500 were filled in December, and many companies are only using half of their former employees.
Added to this is the current omicron wave:
Katie Denis, National Trade Association CBA
“What we're dealing with right now is that the supply chain was already at breaking point and the omicron ripple was really devastating to the workforce. We don't have a food shortage. But we have a shortage of manpower. And we will struggle with that until Omicron is behind us.”
15 percent of all groceries are already sold out again and again, according to the national trade association, the situation will probably not ease in the next few weeks.
