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Comment by teorema | Hacker News Reader

... except there's also news reports everywhere of an energy crisis in Europe too? Also maybe Asia as well.

I've been trying to read into the causes and dont feel like I've come to understand it any better. I'm tempted to see it as part of the broader supply chain crisis but I get the impression its a little different.

Then again I'm not sure I understand why the broader supply chain disruption is as pervasive as it is at this point in time.

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Apparently, petrol (gas for Americans) is plentiful at the refineries, but there aren't truck drivers who can drive it to the petrol station. For some weeks now, supermarkets have been somewhat sparsely stacked (no shortage of food in general, but definitely limited ranges etc.).

There is no direct link to the spikes in energy prices.

It should be noted that the photographs that the news outlets use in the articles about supermarket shortages are mostly from last year. It's deceptive.

We don’t need to rely on photographs to physically see the sparse shelves with our own eyes

I dunno, this site probably disproportionately represents the kind of demographic who just orders all their groceries on Amazon Fresh and hasn't set foot in a grocery store in months anyways. Maybe some people do need photos.

Still, there are shortages. For example, my local supermarket has for a month or so had signs explaining that "Supply difficulties" may mean some items aren't in stock, e.g. most of the Italian ready meals section (I like Italian and I'm lazy) is replaced by an incongruous display of Italian wine, even though the wine section is actually on the far side of the store.

They are clearly struggling. And even if Brexit is only 10% of the problem, they run into the fact that it's key to central government policy to portray Brexit as successful, and so you mustn't mention that element.

True.

That said, my local large Tesco had a small few aisles completely empty - yoghurts I think, and some fruit and veg.

Clearly not an apocalyptic situation, and much better than the Great Toilet Tissue Shortage, but unsettling nonetheless.

I went to the supermarket on Saturday - every shelf was fully stacked - I walked around looking for missing things. I got bored and bought a steak and a bottle of wine and went home.

In Italy I can buy gas everywhere as much as I want/can. There are anticipations of truck drivers shortage in Italy too, but guess, there's a whole EU labor market to try to fix that.

Same for all? of continental Europe. Prices are up a couple of cents but no sign of a supply crisis.

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