[tinfins]

There are a few things that happen every New Year that combine to contribute to shortages:

- Distributors have changed delivery schedules to work around New Year's Eve and Day.

- There's a large increase in demand for produce and some other ingredients (resolutions)

- Employees at the store and regional level take a few more vacations than usual, since we aren't able to during much of the holiday season. People also tend to plan the hell out of ordering for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but relax too much by New Year's since they figure crunch time is over. This is made worse by the relatively short tenures of most store buyers, since they either move up or quit relatively quickly.

So I would say there probably was a nationwide spike in out-of-stocks spread out over a few days. But it isn't really because of OTS.

[Chaebixi]

> So I would say there probably was a nationwide spike in out-of-stocks spread out over a few days. But it isn't really because of OTS.

Is it though? If OTS drastically decreases the backstock, wouldn't it also decrease the ability of a store to respond to these kinds of changes?

[tinfins]

You wouldn't want backstock for produce of more than a day or two, because that's going to reduce freshness. You can't just constantly keep tons of backstock of everything year-round just in case there's a storm one week.

Also, OTS allows backstock of top selling items or in emergencies. If you can predict a big storm like what probably caused most of the problems in the article, you are allowed to stock up on product.

That's why I have a problem with the article, it's just so factually incorrect.

[framebit]

Not to mention that winter often brings big weather events that can disrupt supply chains.