Have you noticed random items suddenly out of stock at stores in your area?
Your favorite shampoo, or those cookies you like?
Well, the reason behind that, could be half a world away.
“It’s like one thing happens, and then you’re getting all these bottlenecks behind it,” said Angie Payne, President and CEO of A American Container.
Payne has been in the shipping container industry for more than two decades.
She tells us that between electrical brownouts in China, surging prices for containers, and issues with staffing to unload them in the U.S., buyers are going to start feeling it at the store if they haven’t already.
“I believe the average is 3 to 5 days to unload a container ship, depending on the size,” Payne said. “Now it’s taking anywhere between 5 to 10 days to unload.”
The shortage of truck drivers doesn’t help with distribution issues when those containers finally are unloaded.
When it comes to surging prices for shipping these large containers - if big companies have to pay an extra cost that means you do too.
“It used to cost about $5,000 to ship something from China to the United States,” Payne said. “Today, it’s costing around $20,000.”
Those high prices trickle right on down to you.
This means you might need to make that holiday shopping list earlier than normal.
“If you see something that you like, now’s the time. Don’t wait until it goes on sale,” Payne said. “There’s not going to be that great sale at the end of the year, because there’s not going to be product.”
As you open up your wallet, you may wonder how long experts think it will take for the container shipping prices to stop increasing….
“We’re looking at next year this time,” Payne said.
She says a good way to avoid paying those higher prices, is to buy your products locally and from companies that manufacture in the U.S.