Third Hand Story & Wondering if it is True

[Jim Koepke]

There are a lot of different tales going around about supply lines and part shortages causing havoc in retail markets of late.

Today while putting a down payment on a piece of equipment someone told me about a dealer who had a trade show coming up and three containers full of his inventory was stuck in a transfer yard.

Without the inventory the trade show would have been a bust for him. The details from this point were a bit sketchy but a payment of $6,000 to a certain labor boss got his shipment to him quickly.

Does this sound like something someone is making up or are their now people taking advantage of the American market just because they can?

My wife and I have been interested in purchasing a new stove but the inventory doesn't quite meet our needs or desires.

We went through a big hassle recently when our freezer went on the fritz and were lucky to find a used model.

Are we in a situation that will eventually unravel or are we being taken for a ride by a few who want some extra income?

jtk

[Jim Becker]

Yes, it sounds like something being made up.

[Brian Elfert]

A number of companies have reported that once a container finally gets unloaded off a ship on the west coast that it can take upwards of two weeks to actually get a truck to haul the container out of the port. There is a huge shortage of trucks with drivers.

I could imagine it would cost a great deal to get containers expedited out of a port if it can even be done. The TV shows about ports show the containers stacked in huge stacks waiting to get put on a truck. If your containers were on the bottom of a stack it would be a big deal to move other containers to expedite your container.

[Rod Sheridan]

Sounds like a story to me.

There’s a global shortage of shipping containers and extremely high shipping volumes now….Rod

[Erik Loza]

Call me the outlier but I "could" believe it. I know that we have several containers basically sitting in the queue at one of the US ports and there simply isn't enough labor to get the huge backlog processed. I agree that the story sounds made-up but also, desperate times breed corrupt solutions.

Erik

[Todd Trebuna]

We had an economy locked down for over a year and I think it likely that opportunist will take advantage of gaps and capitalize where they can, wherever they have control and however they can leverage. I heard that they have already determined that 400 billion (with a B) dollars of stimulus aid is unaccounted for and is probably in the hands of foreign actors and not in the hands of intended recipients. I can easily believe it, actually. My cynicism comes from a 30 year LE career, but I don’t think it’s completely unwarranted.

[Bill Dufour]

Reminds me of the 1970's in California. Any time a government worker did something wrong they said "prop 13". A handy excuse for your screwups.
I missed a deadline, shipment is late, out of stock, higher prices, late to work, traffic jam, bridge collapse, vote did not go your way, home team lost etc.. Blame covid.
Bill D

[Jim Koepke]

We had an economy locked down for over a year and I think it likely that opportunist will take advantage of gaps and capitalize where they can, wherever they have control and however they can leverage. I heard that they have already determined that 400 billion (with a B) dollars of stimulus aid is unaccounted for and is probably in the hands of foreign actors and not in the hands of intended recipients. I can easily believe it, actually. My cynicism comes from a 30 year LE career, but I don’t think it’s completely unwarranted.

Todd, there are all kinds of stories spreading but no one seems to be able to pin down a source.

One story making the rounds is that George Soros started a conspiracy to get certain people to not wear masks or get vaccinated with the intent of making a select group more likely to become ill and reduce their numbers.

Some crazy stories even make it to what many would consider reliable sources. The really reliable sources will apologize and retract their errors.

jtk

[Doug Garson]

We had an economy locked down for over a year and I think it likely that opportunist will take advantage of gaps and capitalize where they can, wherever they have control and however they can leverage. I heard that they have already determined that 400 billion (with a B) dollars of stimulus aid is unaccounted for and is probably in the hands of foreign actors and not in the hands of intended recipients. I can easily believe it, actually. My cynicism comes from a 30 year LE career, but I don’t think it’s completely unwarranted.
Mind quoted your source for the 400 billion in stimulus aid unaccounted for? If true ok but if not, t's statements like that that help spread conspiracy theories. I think we can all agree, the last thing the US needs is more conspiracy theories.

[Ronald Blue]

Having some insight into the shipping mess I will offer what little I know to be facts. Everyone knows there is a huge backlog of container ships waiting to be offloaded. No secret there. They do have to be trucked but the vast majority make a short trip (maybe 25 miles) to a rail yard to be loaded on trains. This primarily Long Beach (Los Angeles). I'm uncertain on the other major ports. Container volume is at record levels and a number of steps have occurred to try to deal with this. Low priority shipments being diverted or parked even to allow the high priority shipments to stay on time. The issue on the other end of the rail supply chain is a shortage of truck drivers to move the containers to their final destination. There is also a shortage of chassis to haul them on. This is partly because once the business whatever it might be isn't unloading them in a timely manner. This amplifies the issue because 1, the container isn't being returned to get sent back for another load and 2, of course the chassis isn't available to haul another container to the end destination. So it's easy to see how this snow balls into a the mess we currently have.

[Stephen Rosenthal]

I’m with Todd. A $6,000 bribe to a labor/union boss? 100% believable. Google San Francisco Public Works bribery scandal. There is a long list of such occurrences throughout time. I believe the term psychologists use to describe this condition is human nature.