From the Heritage Foundation, I'm Michelle Cordero, and this is Heritage Explains.

So last week, I was shopping at the mall for some work clothes clothes and something weird happened at my favorite women's clothing store.

Instead of an array of fall-colored wrap dresses and trendy puffy-sleeved sweaters, they had pretty much nothing.

Their racks were spread out and sparse.

It was like someone had moved clothes around just so that there was a little bit on each display.

Were they closing?

I panicked and asked an employee.

Get this.

They were waiting on shipments that were delayed.

What?

This happens with paper towels, toilet paper, lumber. The last I heard, maybe even refrigerators, but clothes now too?

I thought the stuff was starting to get better. Or is it?

What are we seeing and what is it going to take for it to ease? Yeah, and so you are seeing over 70 containerships still waiting right now at the Port of Long Beach,

but that's not the whole story. There's actually over 130 containerships waiting at U.S. ports.

So the East Coast has some traffic congestion.

Seattle, you're seeing similar things.

And actually, it's even worse than that.

If you go over to China, you'll see even more container ships, 90 waiting in Shanghai.

Hey, good morning to you, Joe.

You know, a record 71 container ships are waiting to unload at the port of Los Angeles, Long Beach.

It's a new record and a 31% increase just from early September. Companies racing to get holiday goods into stores has led to a surge in container shipping,

but container shipping on U.S. rails has declined over the last two months, even though

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