Published June 1, 2020
It’s safe to say that the term supply chain has finally become a widely recognized concept, in literally every corner of the world. It’s just too bad that it took a global pandemic to familiarize the general public as to what a supply chain actually is. It’s also regrettable that the misperceptions as to how supply chains work are just about as numerous as the number of people who now use the term in their daily conversations.
Anytime a retailer has an empty shelf where a desired product should be sitting, the kneejerk reaction now is to blame the supply chain. And in a way, I think retailers should shoulder some of that blame, especially the mass market giants who’ve been telling their customers for quite a while now that “if you can’t find an item in our store, we’ll find it for you in another store. We can hold it for you at the other store, or we can just have it shipped to your house.” That’s a great idea… when it works. Trouble is, it doesn’t always work.
