What’s missing from current discussions about the supply chain?
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Everyone is now accustomed to the Amazon effect and they demand that everything be shipped for free in two days or less. But that is not possible. You might have some drop shipping, etc., but it costs $7.50 to move a truck each mile. We can't continue to uphold those types of on-time deliveries for things that are non essential without paying a premium price. I think it's going to come back on the consumer a lot more as companies figure out that their top and bottom lines are cut and they're no longer able to meet the shareholder expectations.
So the main thing that we haven't talked about is: What are we going to do with all these costs? Where's it going to go? And we're already seeing it: inflation is about 7% for eggs and meat. We are already feeling the impact but our behavior and what is incentivized might start to change.
You're right, there's only two ways to address that equation: You either need to pay more so you're not breaking the economic model, or you reset your expectations and decide that the bird feeder you ordered from Amazon could come next Monday instead of tomorrow afternoon.
I think Amazon is doing that with consolidated shipments and they give you a credit for it. But I also find it fascinating that while all of this on-time, in-full, ordering-from-your-couch is happening, there are so many discussions on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) and sustainability when we don't behave that way. The corporations are being expected to uphold sustainability but consumer behavior doesn't align.
I would never say that security and supply chain is not discussed. Multiple breaches have been shown to have been caused through relationships with suppliers. But the security aspect is not necessarily discussed in the context of what really needs to happen. Anybody that relies on cloud or IT services knows that there's a set of customer responsibilities that you have to adhere to as well. It's not just about what the provider does. It's also about what you do to make sure that the provider’s delivering a service that's safe, reliable, secure, etc.