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IronLionZion

IronLionZion's Journal
IronLionZion's Journal
April 6, 2020

Zoom Surprise: Some Good News with John Krasinski Ep. 2



The news show dedicated entirely to good news. Hosted by John Krasinski.

New Videos every Sunday night while we are all self isolating at home to stop COVID-19.


Don't underestimate the importance of seeking out good news to balance out COVID and tigers. It can help with anxiety.
April 3, 2020

What Everyone's Getting Wrong About the Toilet Paper Shortage

https://marker.medium.com/what-everyones-getting-wrong-about-the-toilet-paper-shortage-c812e1358fe0

There’s another, entirely logical explanation for why stores have run out of toilet paper — one that has gone oddly overlooked in the vast majority of media coverage. It has nothing to do with psychology and everything to do with supply chains. It helps to explain why stores are still having trouble keeping it in stock, weeks after they started limiting how many a customer could purchase.

In short, the toilet paper industry is split into two, largely separate markets: commercial and consumer. The pandemic has shifted the lion’s share of demand to the latter. People actually do need to buy significantly more toilet paper during the pandemic — not because they’re making more trips to the bathroom, but because they’re making more of them at home. With some 75% of the U.S. population under stay-at-home orders, Americans are no longer using the restrooms at their workplace, in schools, at restaurants, at hotels, or in airports.

Georgia-Pacific, a leading toilet paper manufacturer based in Atlanta, estimates that the average household will use 40% more toilet paper than usual if all of its members are staying home around the clock. That’s a huge leap in demand for a product whose supply chain is predicated on the assumption that demand is essentially constant. It’s one that won’t fully subside even when people stop hoarding or panic-buying.

If you’re looking for where all the toilet paper went, forget about people’s attics or hall closets. Think instead of all the toilet paper that normally goes to the commercial market — those office buildings, college campuses, Starbucks, and airports that are now either mostly empty or closed. That’s the toilet paper that’s suddenly going unused.


I enjoy reading up on supply chains, economic principles, and how to get stuff where it needs to go. The commercial paper argument definitely makes sense and I'm sure more than a few folks have tried to steal from offices before they disabled badge access for mandatory remote work. There is a ton of hand sanitizer in offices too, for the record. They are the type that goes in the automatic machines that dispense them as well as the giant pumps.

More than a few local restaurants are selling TP and groceries along with takeout. And at least one local nonprofit actually gives out TP in exchange for donations.

I respect that hand sanitizer is being reserved for hospitals and government agencies and anything that makes it to stores is used by the store's employees.
April 1, 2020

Can't find what you want in the grocery store? Here's why

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/01/business/food-supply-chains-coronavirus/index.html

London (CNN Business)The coronavirus pandemic has delivered a shock to tens of millions of people in rich countries around the world: Suddenly, they can't buy the food they want, when they want.

Food supply chains in developed economies are showing increased signs of strain as nationwide lockdowns designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus heap pressure on systems that had very little slack to begin with. The result is empty store shelves, and panicked buyers.

The transportation links that move food around the globe are being tested in unprecedented ways. Shipowners are struggling to change crews and move goods between ports. Airlines have grounded thousands of planes, slashing air freight capacity.
Travel restrictions also are clogging up road networks and making it difficult for farm workers to get where they are needed. And at the end of food supply chains, supermarkets that have come to rely on just-in-time deliveries have been upset by huge demand and panic buying.

Global stocks of staple commodities such as wheat, corn and rice are at healthy levels, said Maximo Torero Cullen, chief economist at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. But logistics bottlenecks need to be identified and resolved quickly to ensure goods can get to where they are needed, and protectionist policies avoided, he added.


This article addresses major disruptions to global supply chains from shipping, air cargo, labor, no slack from just in time delivery, and some protectionist policies.

Things get really frustrating when you find out about incidents like Mike Pence asking a country to send us PPE and they respond that they just received a shipment of PPE from us. Or when Dumbass accuses hospitals of hoarding and he won't give ventilators to states "because they don't need that many". For critical health care products, Navy is flying in cargo every day.

Profile Information

Gender: Male
Hometown: Southwestern PA
Home country: USA
Current location: Washington, DC
Member since: Mon Nov 10, 2003, 07:36 PM
Number of posts: 45,435

About IronLionZion

If an H-1b has an American accent, they are probably not an H-1b. It's race, not citizenship. Americans are more diverse than you think. Millions of US citizens don't look the way you might expect. This fact is very important and will help us win elections.
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