Shoppers across the U.S. are confronting alarming shortages of basic foodstuffs, as a variety of factors exacerbate supply chain issues.
Severe winter storms have disrupted shipping in parts of the country over the past week, and surging cases of Omicron are driving millions of absences from work, disrupting basic functions such as shipping, unloading and stocking.
On Monday, the U.S. confirmed a world record 1.46 million new cases of COVID-19, and one economic expert has predicted that five million people, or 3 percent of the national workforce, will have to call in sick this week as the virus spreads.
From Washington DC to Anchorage, Alaska, shoppers are finding uncomfortable shortages as a result and demanding to know when the supply chain issues will ease.
Some shelves are seen nearly empty at a grocery store in Washington, D.C. on Monday
Empty shelves are seen inside a Trader Joes on Court Street in Brooklyn on Tuesday
Shelves sit empty at a Walmart in Anchorage, Alaska, on Saturday. Shortages at U.S. grocery stores have grown in recent weeks as new problems like the fast-spreading Omicron variant and severe weather have piled on to the supply chain
Empty medicine shelves are seen in a Long Island, New York store on Sunday, shared by a Twitter user who blamed '#BareShelvesBiden'
Grocer Albertsons, which owns Safeway, Vons and Jewel-Osco, said on Tuesday the Omicron variant had put a dent on the recovery of its supply chain, and expects the issues to linger for a longer duration.
'There are more supply challenges, and we would expect more supply challenges over the next four to six weeks,' said Vivek
