Opus 2022-174: JIT

Supermarkets are finding that it no longer works to keep no inventory on hand.  What is that called?  Just in Time delivery (JIT).  The supply chain had become so efficient that stores did not need to keep warehouses full of merchandise that would eventually sell.  All they had to do was put in their order for the next day and it would arrive before the shoppers.  That is not working anymore, thus we have shortages.  

Consumers are also going to need to stop living that way.  You need to have enough of what you use on hand so that you will be able to get over the empty shelf moment.  What you want will probably show up sometime.  You need to buy it when you can, not when you need it.  You might keep your feelers out and buy what you know a friend needs.

I recently ran out of ground cinnamon.  I know my wife has it stocked up somewhere but I could not find it.  Rather than ask and be told it was where it always is, I figured I would stop by the dollar store and pick some up on my next shopping trip.  The spice shelf was not empty but it seemed that there was a poor balance of choices.  There was row after row of dill but I could not find any cinnamon.  I was out of luck.  I found it an another dollar store a few days later and if I had wanted to pay a premium I could have found it that day, but you get the point.

One of the strategies we will use is the same one that people used before modern transportation, canning and refrigeration.  We will plan our menu based on what is available instead of what we want.  Fresh corn is only priced for common people a few weeks a year.  Plums are a summer fruit.  I am sure there are many more cycles I am not aware of.  It is why my mother went to the grocery store almost every day.  She wanted to check out what was on the mark down shelves.

A lack of cinnamon is not the end of the world but notice what has been happening with baby formula.

Don’t get down to the point of running out.  Learn to plan ahead.

homo unius libri