{"id":430217,"date":"2026-01-24T12:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T12:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/430217\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T12:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T12:30:09","slug":"this-mega-snowstorm-will-be-a-test-for-the-us-supply-chain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/430217\/","title":{"rendered":"This Mega Snowstorm Will Be a Test for the US Supply Chain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here it comes. Up to two-thirds of the US is facing down the threat<\/a> of serious snow, cold, and ice this weekend, with the potential to snarl roads (and the businesses that depend on them) from Texas<\/a> up to New York City<\/a>. At this point, grocery stores, logistics experts, warehouse operators, and trucking companies have been prepping for days. Still, the effects on the supply chain\u2014and the retail store shelves that depend on them\u2014are yet to be determined.<\/p>\n

On one hand, this is winter business as usual. Snowstorms happen every year, and the freight industry has a playbook.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a retailer, this happens all the time,\u201d says Chris Caplice, the chief scientist at the transportation management firm DAT Freight & Analytics. \u201cFor people in the supply chain, this is just another Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the places where this storm is happening, and its breadth, pose an extra challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis one\u2019s kinda tough, because you don’t have a lot of snow storms hitting the states that this one is hitting,\u201d says Chris Long, the executive vice president of operations at Capstone Logistics, a third-party logistics firm. Affected southern states, including Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, are often equipped to handle hurricanes, with networks of distribution centers set up to disburse what\u2019s often needed after that sort of storm: generators, water, plywood. But if roads in those states, less equipped for cold, freeze over for several days\u2014\u201cthe worst-case scenario,\u201d Long says\u2014buyers might see shortages of some perishable items, including food and pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n

To prevent that, retailers have spent the last few days positioning specific inventory they know customers will want\u2014say, snow shovels, bottled water, canned goods, de-icer\u2014in local distribution warehouses, where it can quickly get to store shelves. Large trucking companies have situated their vehicles and staff where they\u2019ll likely be needed; independent truckers have likely vacated the road.<\/p>\n

Next week, as everyone digs or thaws out of whatever the storm has wrought, freight prices will likely spike, says Caplice, as freight companies try to get the supply chain chugging again. But this sort of shock is likely priced into retailers\u2019 businesses\u2014it\u2019s winter, after all\u2014and won\u2019t affect the prices customers see at checkout. This year, uncertainty in the freight industry around tariffs and immigration is a much bigger deal, he says. \u201cThis will be a blip.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever the next few days bring, companies are likely better equipped to respond than they were before the pandemic, when lockdowns sent global supply chains into turmoil<\/a>. \u201cWhen I first got into the industry it was all about \u2018just-in-time<\/a>,\u2019\u201d says Long, who worked for years in the grocery industry. The pandemic made retailers, and the freight businesses supporting them, more focused on stocking up to survive the unexpected. \u201cWe\u2019re in a way better place,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here it comes. Up to two-thirds of the US is facing down the threat of serious snow, cold,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,2546,8272,44,74900,11738,41,39,42,40,1133],"class_list":["post-430217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-infrastructure","tag-logistics","tag-news","tag-shipping","tag-snow","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}