By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, a former securities attorney and derivatives trader.She is currently writing a book about textile artisans.

As the Omicron wave continued, mainstream media reports of empty supermarket shelves increased this week.

Since the lockdown began in March 2000, American shoppers have faced sporadic shortages of fresh food, toilet paper and cleaning supplies.

Fox compares the current state of the game to the state of the game once prevalent in the Soviet Union Shoppers ‘shocked’ by thinning grocery supplies: ‘It’s just empty shelves’:

Empty shelves and reduced supplies of groceries and medicines are reminiscent of Washington, D.C. in March 2020, shoppers told Fox News Digital.

“It’s like a Soviet store in 1981. It’s horrible,” said one man.

“Honestly, it looks like March 2020 when everyone was stocking up and the shelves were empty,” another man, Dominic, told Fox News Digital.

This is of course an exaggeration, because those who have ever visited the Soviet Union—as I did in December 1983—know.

In Brooklyn, I haven’t seen any shortages myself, even though I haven’t been to any supermarkets recently. Instead, I rely on local supermarket deliveries, Lincoln Market, I recently ordered on a Tuesday. My order included plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables and some dairy.Just before Christmas, I my butcher , some of which are still stored in my freezer, and some from Murray cheese.

I occasionally cross the road for a good specialty food store. It’s also available for delivery, but I usually order online and pick up the meal myself, with N95 parcels. I couldn’t resist their cookies: big, but not too big and not too sweet. Several restaurants also offer reasonably priced takeaway when I’m very busy or unusually lazy or just looking for a change.

I try to eat local food and during the mild months most of our fruit and veggies come through New York City Green Market System. I also shop at the nearby greengrocers, which offer better options than supermarkets at a lower price. However, hoping to avoid exposure to the virus and some (minor) health issues, I had to rely on grocery delivery.

I’m lucky I didn’t witness the widely reported supermarket shortage. CNN reported Here’s why grocery stores are struggling to stock empty shelves.Omicron is the immediate cause of these shortages, not only because of its cost to grocery store employees, but also because of its associated impact on shipping and other food logistics. According to CNN:

As a highly contagious variant of the Covid-19 virus continues to sicken workers, it is causing shortages in key functions such as transportation and logistics, which in turn affects product deliveries and restocking store shelves across the country.

Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran acknowledged on an earnings call with analysts on Tuesday that product supply was tight.

“I think as a business, we’ve all learned to manage it. We’ve all learned to make sure the stores are still very nice and give consumers as much choice as possible,” Sankaran said on the conference call.

Even so, he added, Omicron has “weakened” in its efforts to address gaps in its supply chain. “We expect more supply challenges over the next four to six weeks,” Sankaran said. [Jerri-Lynn here: my emphasis.]

The supermarket labor problem predates the rise of Omicron and isn’t likely to ease up anytime soon. Go to CNN:

Grocery stores have a lower-than-normal workforce, with many of its members making up less than 50 percent of the normal workforce, according to the National Grocery Association.

“While there is a significant amount of food in the supply chain, we expect consumers to continue to experience sporadic disruptions in certain product categories due to continued supply and labor challenges, as we have seen over the past year and a half,” said Group President and CEO.

In fact, labor shortages continue to weigh on all regions food industry, said Phil Lempert, industry analyst and editor of SuperMarketGuru.com.

“From farm to food manufacturer to grocery store, it’s all-encompassing,” Lempert said. “These operations had to implement social distancing protocols during the pandemic, and they weren’t really built for that, and it affected production.”

As the pandemic continues, many food industry workers choose not to return their low-paying jobs. [Jerri-Lynn here: my emphasis.]

So no one should expect the supermarket industry’s labor woes to improve anytime soon – especially when the seemingly obvious solution – tiger wages – doesn’t appear to be on the horizon.

In addition to labor issues, transportation difficulties have also affected the food supply (some of which are also at the root of labor issues). According to CNN:

One Continued shortage of truck drivers Continue to slow supply chains and grocery stores’ ability to quickly replenish shelves.

“The trucking industry has an aging workforce and a shortage,” Lempert said. “It’s really been an issue over the past few years.

Congestion at the country’s ports continues to hit record levels compared to widespread domestic shipping problems. “The two challenges together create shortages,” he said.

Weather is also an issue, including seasonal and long-term trends caused by climate change. Go to CNN:

Much of the Midwest and Northeast has been grappling with bad weather and hazardous commuting conditions. Not only are people stocking up on more groceries, but this high demand level combined with transportation challenges makes it more difficult to transport goods in inclement weather, leading to more shortages, Lempert said.

Not to mention climate change, an ongoing serious and long-term threat to food supplies. “Fires and drought are destroying crops such as wheat, corn and soybeans in the United States and coffee crops in Brazil,” he said. “We can’t ignore it.”

CNN recognizes that the pandemic has changed individual eating habits, with more and more people avoiding restaurants in favor of food preparation and dining at home. The extent to which this trend will continue depends on how quickly and to what extent the outbreak is contained. According to CNN:

Amid the pandemic that’s causing a crunch in grocery supplies, more and more of us are cooking and eating at home, Lempert said.

“We don’t want to eat the same things all the time and try to change home cooking. When we do, we’re buying more groceries,” he said.Shortages have also forced people to buy food more and more expensive Enter 2022.

Grocery stores, of course, know the shelves are empty and they’re trying to ease panic buying, but that’s only making it worse, Lempert said.

One strategy: Fan-out products. They do this by launching limited varieties and limited quantities of each product to prevent hoarding and extend supplies between deliveries.
“Before the pandemic, you might have seen five different varieties of milk and 10 cases deep in the front row. Now it’s going to be five rows wide and maybe two rows deep,” Rempert said.

In this post, I rely on summarizing the details of CNNs. However, I can easily rely on different sources for similar facts. Across the country, the major media outlets are covering more or less the same thing: Fox (above); Bloomberg: Can’t find pasta or cat food?Empty store shelves are here to stay; USA TODAY: Grocery shelves remain empty amid supply chain disruptions, Omron and winter storms; or ABC News: Here’s why grocery stores are struggling to stock empty shelves.

Reader: What are you looking at? Are food supply problems getting better or worse?

What is to be done?

My takeaway? Just as I have no clear path to ending this pandemic, food security concerns will remain for the foreseeable future. This means that I stock our pantry with non-perishables and buy fresh when available. I will continue to make too many mistakes, not too little food, and when I miscalculate, I freeze or save the excess.

Today, New York City saw some of the coldest temperatures of the year: -2 C (29F). This afternoon, I thought I’d bake some cookies. Maybe something simple – peanut butter maybe? – and some homemade fig Newtons, my husband’s favorite. Coffee and freshly baked cookies can be distracting.