WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — Remember when the toilet paper shortage was the biggest of our worries?
Well, now a broken supply chain is causing shoppers to see higher price tags and emptier shelves. And the shortage could be hitting closer to home than you think.
The mom-and-pop shops and small businesses that fill communities across the U.S. are also feeling the squeeze.
According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau's Small Business Pulse Survey, small businesses have seen impacts of the supply chain disruption dating back to this summer.
Of the businesses that participated in the survey, 38.8 percent reported domestic supplier delays. Data also showed a climb in production delays to 12.4 percent from 9.5 percent.
A recent Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Regulations hearing "in the wake of product shortages and shipping delays" also gave an inside look into how small businesses are fairing.
“Another supply chain challenge currently impacting our business is the cost of transportation for goods and supplies. In August 2020, the cost to ship a standard 40-foot shipping container was approximately $4,300,” Minnesota small business owner Christine Lantinen said.
“By August 2021, that figure had exploded to nearly $30,000. Like our shortage of workers, this situation is also unsustainable from a business management standpoint. We need to see action to alleviate the bottlenecks, mostly caused by labor shortages.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 80 percent of businesses saw a disruption in their supply chain, according to a press release from the subcommittee's chairman.
"...The economy continues to face labor market disruptions, production bottlenecks, and shipping and transportation barriers have helped create shortages that can hurt consumers and small businesses," the press release reads.
That's why experts are telling shoppers to get their holiday gifts early this year. The items you need don't just magically appear on the shelves of stores on their own, it takes several different types of businesses working together to get consumers what they need.
"Everything we do, everything we buy, the services we use, there's a supply chain behind all of that. And that's what we're seeing being impacted right now," said Robert Hooker, an Associate Professor of supply chain management at the University of South Florida.
10 Tampa Bay also spoke to Victor Claar, an economist at Florida Gulf Coast University, who says the reason for the shortage is kind of a perfect storm.
"When you think about the supply chain, realize it is just that, a chain. There’s one link, that connects to another link, that connects to another," Claar said. "Now we have multiple issues affecting multiple links in that chain. It drives up costs in one of those links and those costs are passed along where there are higher costs."
CBS News reported it could take until the end of 2022 to get things back to normal.