Datex Blog 

Labor Shortages Driving Supply Chain Disruptions It seems as if nearly every day now we are hearing about supply chain disruptions.  What are the primary drivers of this problem?  Notably, labor shortages and transportation impediments. Ports in various locations...

The COVID-19 Pandemic:  The One-Two Punch for the Cold Chain As the pandemic began, then raged on, consumers were locked down, trapped in their homes with their families.   The supply chain struggled to adjust to the dynamics of the pandemic.  With restaurants,...

Amazon Invests in New Disaster-Relief Hub Amazon currently owns over 800 warehouses and has increased its real estate footprint by 50 percent from 2019 to 2020.  In its usual forward-thinking capacity as a supply chain industry leader, Amazon has learned from the...

Wood Wields Power over Housing Starts and Renovation As with numerous industries, the lumber industry experienced supply chain disruptions due to mill closures during COVID as well as a rampant escalation in demand for which the industry was not ready.  The lack of...

New Bipartisan Bill Offers Incentive for U.S. Chip Production New legislation originating from the Senate Finance Committee provides a 25 percent tax credit to semiconductor producers that manufacture their silicon in the United States.  This incentive would apply to...

UPS Leverages COVID Infrastructure Investment to Ramp Up Pharma Cold Chain Service Building the infrastructure needed to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine, including freezer farms, dry ice production and tracking technology is about to come in very handy for UPS.  With...

Since last year, semiconductors have been in short supply across the globe.  Initially anticipated to only last a short time, now the semiconductor shortage is at pandemic proportions, impacting industries from electronics to home appliances, cell phones and vehicles....

Supply Chain Problems Are Not Limiting U.S. Economic Growth Although supply chain disruptions held back supplies needed for manufacturing, the United States economy grew at a slightly faster pace in both April and May 2021 according to a Federal Reserve report. ...

Chinese Burst Steel Bubble Is a steel shortage creating a bubble?  With steel in short supply, steel stocks are rocketing to the moon.  U.S. Steel is up 200 percent in only 12 months and Nucor is up 76 percent just this year.  The pandemic last year forced...

What Is Omnichannel? You undoubtedly have heard of omnichannel.  The word is widely used when talking about everything from mobile devices, customer loyalty, online marketplaces, and digital channels to the customer experience.  Do you really know what omnichannel is?...

Supply Chains Disrupted by COVID Still in Flux When one stops to think about the complexity of today’s supply chains, disruption almost seems inevitable.  Supply chain disruption and product shortages seem to be the hot topic of the day.  From the sourcing and...

Aging of Chinese Population Will Impact Global Supply Chain The results of China’s once-in-a-decade census were released recently and found to have a potentially profound influence on the global supply chain.  With population growth at the slowest rate since the...

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, it occurred at a precarious moment in time.  Cybersecurity threats were ramping up.  Tensions had mounted across the world due to trade policy uncertainty and the imposition of U.S. tariffs.  Truck driver and warehouse labor...

Walgreens Delivers in Two Hours or Less Aiming to capitalize on the e-commerce craze, Walgreens recently announced that it launched two-hour delivery service nationwide.  Walgreens consumers can now order from an inventory of 24,000 items for quick delivery without an...

Big Box Distribution Centers Booming Industrial real estate firm CBRE evaluated the current state of the warehouse industry, specifically “big box” distribution centers, 200k square feet or larger in size.  According to CBRE, 2020 was the strongest year on record for...

Are 24/7 Operations on the Horizon for the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach? With West Coast ports faced with congestion stalling operations at multiple points for incoming cargo, the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are starting to consider moving to 24/7...

Is Vertical Farming a Potential Solution to Food Supply Chain Problems?  Perhaps last year’s global pandemic did humanity a favor by bringing to light problems in the global food supply chain.  From inefficiencies to unreliable methods of transporting food goods from...

Warehouse Rents Rising in Response to Supply Shortage The warehousing industry is roaring forward in 2021.  With the lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the growth of omnichannel e-commerce was tremendous.  This led to the need for more warehouses,...

Target Ups the Ante, Enhancing Inclusion of More Black-Owned Businesses As retailers and brands consider potential action to help advance the issue of racial equality and opportunity for Black-owned businesses, Target has announced new commitments to the cause....

3 Bad Brand Experiences?  Consumers Will Likely Abandon You Did you know that approximately 73% of consumers will abandon a brand after only three or fewer customer service experiences?  A recent Coveo report provided to Retail Dive regarding a survey of 1988...