TIME takes a page from Jen Psaki’s playbook

How American shoppers broke the supply chainLINK

— TIME (@TIME) November 9, 2021

As Americans went on a spending spree this year and the ports filled with imports, clogging the supply chain, trucks started dumping shipping containers in Wilmington so they could go back to the ports and pick up more to relieve the backlog. The 40-foot containers, which can weigh four tons, are hulking feet from residents’ kitchen windows and blocking the driveways where their children ride bicycles. They’re piled six or seven high in storage yards where they dwarf small churches and homes.

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America has long been gobbling up more goods from overseas than we send back, but in the past year, spending has gone bonkers. Stuck at home and unable to buy services like haircuts and massages, and unable to travel and eat out as much as they’d like, Americans bought even more stuff, filling their ever-larger houses. The U.S. imported $238 billion worth of goods in September, up 15% from September 2019. Meanwhile, the country exported about $96 billion less than it imported, leading to a record trade deficit, according to the most recent advance estimate released by the Commerce Department. Spending will likely only continue to grow for the rest of the year as shoppers stock up for the holiday season.

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But the supply chain is also broken because of the sheer volume of stuff that Americans are buying, especially online. To keep up with demand for two-day shipping, companies like Amazon and Walmart have built warehouses around the country, and are importing even more containers of goods to fill them. These warehouses are getting a lot more action now that even the most reluctant online shopper was pushed to embrace e-commerce during the pandemic to comply with shelter in place orders.

“Americans have become singularly impatient consumers, unlike their peers in much of the rest of the world,” says Jock O’Connell, international trade advisor at Beacon Economics. “We have much more inventory in this country than we would need if Jeff Bezos hadn’t convinced us we could have our stuff delivered tomorrow.” LINK