There’s only one real solution for supply chain problems: Stop consuming so much

Black Friday shoppers in New York last year. Retailers expect a bigger crowd when they usher in the unofficial start to the holiday shopping season this Black Friday. — AP

THE supply chain crisis is the universe’s way of teaching us about logistics.

Before Covid-19, most people, especially Americans, neither knew nor cared about the subtleties of just-in-time management. We remained largely untroubled by the tactics through which every possible efficiency had been exacted along the manufacturing journey of our trinkets, from raw materials to box on our doorstep. With prices rising by 6.2% year over year for October, we’re starting to pay attention to the architecture and management that we once took for granted.