APB Speaker Dr. Nada Sanders: Start Your Holiday Shopping Now
05 Oct 2021
The holiday season isn't quite upon us yet, but the time to start shopping is now, warns Dr. Nada Sanders, APB speaker and Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management at Northeastern University in Boston. In an interview with Boston 25 News, Sanders says we can expect longer shipping times and shortages of some items this holiday season. “Consumers are not going to be able to get the goods that they want by the usual holiday time,” Sanders says. “Lead times are extremely long, massive shortages, price hikes. It’s not going to be good.”
Sanders says she believes this holiday season is the perfect storm for lack of goods. Factory shutdowns in Asia because of COVID, labor shortages, crowded U.S. ports and high demand are all playing a role in disrupting the supply chain and getting gifts into the hands of consumers. Online shopping will be affected, too.
So, what’s Sander’s advice to be able to get everything on that holiday list? “I would recommend that people start shopping yesterday,” she says.
And Sanders should know. She is an internationally recognized expert in forecasting, enterprise digital transformation and global supply chain management. Ranked in the top eight percent of individuals in the field, she offers a compelling look at the continuing challenges COVID is causing for not only consumers, but businesses worldwide. With prices on the rise and inventory waning, she examines the three most important things corporate decision-makers need to know: global supply chains have become extremely complex, just-in-time inventory replenishment is exacerbating the pandemic situation and, when COVID is contained, ramping up manufacturing will take time.