Add Campbells Soup To COVID-Related Shortages
No matter what filter you look at it through, 2020 is definitely been a strange year. First - a once-in-a lifetime pandemic afflicted the world, which led to massive shutdowns of the economy. Those shutdowns led to hoarding and shortages. First it was things like toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and anti-bacterial wipes. Then, those shortages migrated into other consumables like meat and lumber. Well, you can add one more item to the shortage list: Campbell's canned soups.
Recently, consumers in some parts of the country have found it difficult to find some of their favorite varieties of canned Campbell's soup on the grocery store shelf. While the entire category line hasn't been depleted, there have been shortages reported on some of the more-popular varieties.
News source suggest that as an industry category, canned soup consumption has risen up 60% since the pandemic (and the related shut downs) started. Within those numbers, Campbell's Soup has specifically reported even larger growth numbers. Using information obtained from the official company website for Campbell's Soup, they're reporting that they had one-week case order increases that were up 366% over the same period last year. 366%! That's a lot of soup.
And while it appears that a large company like Campbell's Soup is meeting the challenges and demands of such an increase, there are news reports of some shortages throughout the country. To meet demands, Campbell's has stepped up production, increased pay incentives for their employees, and added a "Strength Of Our Supply Chain" page to their company website, which explains some of the pitfalls of doing business in 2020.