\n\n“Right now, distribution networks across the world are massively congested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLos Angeles \u2014 which is a major port of entry for the United States \u2014 New York, and New Jersey are all pretty full up,\u201d says O\u2019Leary. \u201cWe\u2019re hearing reports of delays of weeks for getting things cleared.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cContainers are not moving out of ports and onto trains quickly enough,\u201d explains Chris Tang, a UCLA business professor specializing in global supply chain management. \u201cAnd on top of that, all of the warehouses in the Midwest are full. So everything is stuck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An increase in online shipping in part of what\u2019s driving the congestion. Meanwhile, the complications of Brexit<\/a> and the internet\u2019s beloved container ship Ever Given<\/a> \u2014 both of which dramatically disrupted global supply chains \u2014 certainly aren\u2019t helping ports empty themselves out faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even more pressing, however, is a shortage of truck drivers. There just aren\u2019t enough trucks on the road to pick up as much stuff as we\u2019re currently shipping around the world. \u201cWe\u2019re talking tens of thousands fewer truck drivers than we need,\u201d says O\u2019Leary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And as stuff sits in warehouses, waiting to be picked up by increasingly scarce truck drivers, the price of storage goes up, adding to overall shipping costs. \u201cIt used to be around $3,000 per container,\u201d Tang says. \u201cNow the price is closer to $20,000.\u201d The skyrocketing costs mean that companies selling luxury goods will take more warehouse slots, since they can afford them, while lower-priced goods, like books, compete for what\u2019s left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barnes & Noble CEO Daunt notes that books do have one big advantage over other goods when it comes to shipping: They\u2019re durable. \u201cThe reality is that books are fantastic because they don\u2019t really perish, so you\u2019re able to print lots of them in advance,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re incredibly robust, so you can send them through the most basic of supply chain routes. They\u2019re not strawberries or peaches or delicate things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But right now, even the most basic of supply chain routes are finding themselves overwhelmed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “One of the big underlying problems when it comes to printing and shipping books is the same labor shortage<\/a> that\u2019s currently roiling the rest of the country. There aren\u2019t enough press operators to get books printed, and then there aren\u2019t enough truck drivers to get them to bookstores. Wages have gone up<\/a>, but there still aren\u2019t enough people working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the whole national workforce, you\u2019ve got 8.4 million unemployed<\/a> but 10.9 million open jobs<\/a>,\u201d says Baehr. \u201cThat\u2019s a two and a half million-person shortage, period, and that\u2019s across all buckets. The book industry is getting hit with that just as much as the paper industry is getting hit with that just as much as the transportation industry is getting hit with that. It all just compounds on itself. It\u2019s just a rough spot right now for the book business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSimply put, the working-age population in the US has stopped growing,\u201d says Gad Levanon, founder of the Labor Market Institute. \u201cAnd the working-age population without a BA is shrinking quite rapidly.\u201d That\u2019s a major issue for the industries we\u2019re discussing here because in general, people with college degrees prefer not to work in warehouses, as truck drivers, or in printing presses.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n