This is on point. I'm Kimberly Atkins' store in for Magna Chakrabarti. This Monday,

Black Friday is on our mind. And memories of last year when supply chain issues were frustrating

retailers and consumers alike. On this very program, on November 5, 2021, we focused on

the supply chain breakdown at the Port of Long Beach, the largest container port in

the United States. You may recall those images of dozens and dozens of container ships waiting

at sea to unload. President Biden had announced that the port would be working 24-7. Here's

how local Longshore Worker Union President Ramon Ponce de Leon described to us what was

happening.

That's what's called the ports. And when they call the ports, they burst and we unload the

containers and everybody knows what those look like now because they're all out at bay

and anchored. So we unload them and load them back with exports. And primarily the exports

that we have been loading back have been empty containers.

Empty containers going out in imports stacking up at the Port of Long Beach in November

last year. The impact of that bottleneck rippled across the entire country with supply shortages

everywhere. But this year, Coles, Nordstrom and Urban Outfitters, all reporting inventory

increases in the double digits from last year.

Retailers were buying in the teeth of a pandemic. Without really understanding how consumers

were going to behave coming out of the pandemic. And therefore, they were stocking up on items

that aren't necessarily what consumers are buying now.

That's Mark Matthews of the National Retail Federation speaking on NBC's today at the

end of August. And things haven't gotten any better. Simply put, retailers have too much

stuff. And that's led to earlier than ever holiday deals in an effort to clear out their inventory.

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