As a retailer that often negotiates its own shipping containers, purchasing large quantities of whiskey from abroad and from the other side of the country, we’re quite familiar with how long a delivery can (and should) take.

A container of whisky from Scotland usually takes about a month to dock in California. A truck full of Bourbon from Kentucky takes a little over a week to hit the warehouse.

During the pandemic, those wait times obviously skyrocketed; but what I think few consumers understand about the situation now is: it’s worse than ever.

We may have invented vaccines to combat COVID-19, but we have yet to find a solution to the logistical nightmare that is international shipping during a pandemic. Hence, if you’re expecting online stores and local retailers to be flush with inventory for the upcoming holiday shopping season, think again.

This article from CNN this week pretty much sums it up.

“The vast network of ports, container vessels and trucking companies that moves goods around the world is badly tangled, and the cost of shipping is skyrocketing. That's troubling news for retailers and holiday shoppers.

More than 18 months into the pandemic, the disruption to global supply chains is getting worse, spurring shortages of consumer products and making it more expensive for companies to ship goods where they're needed.”

Yep.

As an example, I ordered 10 cases of Bordeaux to be shipped from the East Coast to California this past June. The supplier told me it should be available for delivery by the first week of July. Tomorrow is September 1st. I’m still waiting.

Another example?

I ordered whisky samples from Scotland that were shipping by Royal Mail on August 1st. One month later, they still haven’t left the country.

Why is this happening, you ask? A number of reasons.

Let’s start with COVID-19 protections and labor shortages. You can’t work as fast as you used to, and you can’t find enough people willing to work. Put those two things together and it spells trouble. I went to get my oil changed yesterday and it took an hour rather than the 15 minutes promised on the outside banner. Why? They were short-staffed.

Now apply that scenario to a logistical warehouse and you can imagine the potential for backlog.

Here I am telling you to buy what you need now due to potential shortages and wait times, and we haven’t even mentioned inflation! The cost of shipping a container of whisky from Scotland right now is double what it normally costs, and it may be triple by the end of summer. That’s going to force an increase in wholesale pricing, and then an even larger spike in retail pricing. Hence, the longer you wait, the more it’s going to cost you.

Plus, the longer you wait, the more you might have to just keep waiting.

-David Driscoll