Yes, Shelves Will Be Empty

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Slate

News, Daily News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The consequences of Donald Trump’s new tariffs are working their way through the supply chain and soon will start showing up for consumers in the form of empty shelves, higher prices, and potentially even layoffs and a recession. Guest: Christopher Mims, Wall Street Journal tech reporter and the author of Arriving Today: From Factory to Front Door---Why Everything Has Changed About How and What We Buy. Jessica Berger, CEO of Bundle x Joy. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Ethan Oberman, Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, Isabel Angell, and Rob Gunther. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Amazon offers employees up to £8,000 for education and training, like Juliet.
0:07.0	She's now a trained technician.
0:10.0	And to her, the sound of machinery in need of repair, reminds her of how far she's come.
0:18.0	In two years, she's landed her dream job, providing her with valuable skills.
0:24.2	That's up to £8,000 for education and training at Amazon. Eligibility conditions apply.
0:31.9	Whoa, there. Victoria's had a Friday night to remember, but now she's outside in the pouring rain and...
0:38.7	Oh, what? You are joking. I've got no data. How are we going to get home?
0:43.3	But then she remembers she's with EE.
0:45.9	Yes, Uber still works.
0:47.6	So then she...
0:49.3	Uber's on me, guys. Should we get a kebab?
0:51.7	Use essential apps like Uber and WhatsApp even when you run out of data. Search
0:56.0	E. Mobile. Stay connected at 0.5 megabits per second. Terms apply.
1:05.0	Christopher Mims is a very specific kind of nerd.
1:11.6	I can say that because he says it about himself.
1:14.5	His expertise is logistics, how goods get from one place to another.
1:19.8	When I walk into a Target or I buy something on Amazon,
1:23.0	sometimes it's like a crazy flashback scene in a movie.
1:26.3	I will kind of rewind the tape of how that object got to me or arrived on that shelf.
1:34.0	Christopher wrote a book about the supply chains that undergird our economy. The book's called Arriving Today.
1:41.3	He also reports for the Wall Street Journal. A lot of these objects made a journey of more
1:47.8	than 10,000 miles, which took at least six months. Something goes, you know, by truck or rail
	...

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