Ómicron leaves almost empty shelves in US supermarkets.

“It’s not as dramatic as last Sunday, but there are still a lot of empty shelves,” says Justin Toone, a regular supermarket customer, disappointed. The pandemic continues to affect supply chains and many supermarkets in U.S face product shortages.

“For several days in a row, there were no fruits or vegetables in this Giant (the one in Bethesda) but also in all the supermarkets in the sector, Trader Joe’s or Safeway,” says Toone.

Some products are not found, laments another 64-year-old client who asks to remain anonymous. “A couple of days ago, I was just looking for baking soda to make a cake, impossible to find. Now, the same for the spices to make soup. Last week was worse,” she says angrily.

In other stores, honey, eggs, milk or meat are the products that have disappeared from the shelves.

In Washington and neighboring states Maryland and Virginia, snow has exacerbated this recurring stockout problem since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There are not enough truckers and because they are subject to strict regulations regarding hours of work and rest, they say ‘let’s stop’, well, they stop and they don’t supply us”, explains an employee of the Giant supermarket in Bethesda who has been there for eight years and wishes to remain anonymous. When snow falls, it’s even worse.

At the beginning of the pandemic, due to fear of shortages, there was an avalanche of demand for some products such as toilet paper, which generated shortages. “This time it’s different,” the employee said.

“The omicron variant is so contagious that it has an almost simultaneous impact throughout the United States,” says Patrick Penfield of Syracuse University.

A multitude of employees along the food production chain are sick or quarantined, completely disrupting the supply chain.

“We cannot produce as much food as we need. There are not enough people to deliver the food, and even when the food is delivered at the supermarket, there is no one to unload it or put it on the shelves,” says Penfield.

The phenomenon is widespread throughout the country, but it is more significant in regions that also face bad weather, such as Washington.

Perishables

And in the case of fresh, easily perishable products, it is impossible to store them too far in advance, in anticipation of bad weather.

Hence the completely empty shelves on Sunday, when it had snowed overnight from Thursday to Friday. For the professor, the shortage of food products will probably last until the end of March.

That, “if everything returns to normal and there is no new variant,” he says cautiously.

The National Federation of Trade (NGA), which represents independent players in the food retail sector, also points out that labor shortages continue “at the national level, putting pressure on essential industries, such as supermarkets and the industry”. food in general.

In a recent survey of its 1,500 members, several of them “reported operating their stores at less than 50% of their normal working capacity, for brief periods, at the height of the wave” of contamination.

In addition, the federation warns consumers that they should still expect “sporadic interruptions” as has happened for a year and a half.

Meanwhile, supermarket workers are trying to find solutions to fill the gap.

They fill the first rows. The products that are available crowd the shelves and for the scarce products they only put a few at a time to avoid that the same customer takes the few that are there.