Biden enlists Target, Walmart to fix bottlenecks threatening holiday
sales
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[October 14, 2021]
By Alexandra Alper, Steve Holland and Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden
on Wednesday urged the private sector to help ease supply chain
blockages that are threatening to disrupt the U.S. holiday season and
said the White House plans a nationwide overhaul of the clogged system.
Biden said the Port of Los Angeles would join the Port of Long Beach,
two of the country's busiest, in expanding round-the-clock operations to
unload an estimated 500,000 containers waiting on cargo ships offshore.
Walmart, Target and other big retailers would also expand their
overnight operations at the ports to try to meet delivery needs, Biden
said.
It is a "big first step" to revamping supply chains in the United
States, the world's biggest consumer market, Biden said, adding the
government would be heavily involved.
"If federal support is needed, I'll direct all appropriate action, and
if the private sector doesn’t step up, we’re going to call them out and
ask them to act,” the president said in remarks at the White House.
The broader goal, he said, is to address long-standing weaknesses in the
U.S. supply chain.
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The stop-and-start nature of the pandemic has snarled global supply
chains that are optimized for just-in-time movements of goods.
The supply crisis is driven in part by the global COVID-19 pandemic, as
sales of durable goods jumped amid worker shortages and transportation
hub slowdowns. A shortage of warehouse workers and truck drivers to pick
up goods is partly to blame.
Lower-than-expected Christmas sales could hurt U.S. companies and pose a
political risk for Biden, who is already battling a host of other
domestic problems in his first year in office.
The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll shows the economy continues to be the most
important issue for Democrats and Republicans alike.
White House officials have said that Americans may face higher prices
and some empty shelves this Christmas season due the supply chain
problem.
White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters Biden could not
guarantee there would be no holiday disruptions.
"What we can do is use every lever at the federal government level to
reduce delays," she said, when asked about the possibility of mobilizing
National Guard or other troops.
ALL HANDS ON DECK
Besides the stepped-up port activity, three large carriers of goods -
Walmart, FedEx and UPS - plan to step up their round-the-clock
operations to speed the shipment of goods across the country.
Samsung, Home Depot and Target are also increasing their work in
off-peak hours.
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![](../images/101421pics/news_a1.jpg)
President Joe Biden speaks as he participates in the virtual CEO
Summit on Semiconductor and Supply Chain Resilience from the
Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 12,
2021. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
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The White House expects the pledges from the six
companies to expand their hours will amount to 3,500 additional
containers moving each week through the end of the year.
Biden spoke after meeting with executives from the two ports as well
as from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the
Teamsters, the AFL-CIO, Walmart, FedEx, UPS, Target, the National
Retail Federation, the American Trucking Association, the Pacific
Maritime Association, and more.
Some CEOs scheduled to attend noted they are already working
around-the-clock. "We’ve been running 24/7 supply chain operations
for years, including at the ports," said Target CEO Brian Cornell in
a blog post ahead of the meeting.
Target handles about 50% of its containers that arrive in California
ports at night, he wrote, and is committed to increasing that amount
by 10% over the next 90 days.
The Consumer Brands Association urged the White House to set up a
supply chain war room and bring in private sector experts and
government officials to help rapidly identify problems.
“We cannot ignore the warning signals of higher prices and reduced
availability,” said the trade group's CEO, Geoff Freeman.
The White House has been trying to tackle inflation-inducing supply
bottlenecks of everything from meat to semiconductors. The
administration formed a task force in June that meets weekly and
named a "bottleneck" czar, John Porcari, to push private-sector
companies to find ways to get goods flowing.
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(Reporting by Alexandra Alper, Steve Holland and Nandita Bose in
Washington; Additional reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles,
Arriana McLymore in New York, and Richa Naidu in Chicago; Editing by
Tim Ahmann, Heather Timmons and Lisa Shumaker)
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