President Biden hosted a roundtable, Monday, with a diverse group of retailers to discuss their outlook for the holiday shopping season, and the steps they’ve taken to meet consumer demand.
Participants noted the strength of their supply chains, especially for seasonal items, and highlighted ways they had planned ahead, diversified their supplier base, sourced new products, and partnered closely with suppliers to be ready to meet the seasonal demand.
Some noted that the backlog at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has decreased, and Walmart CEO Doug McMillon highlighted a 51 percent improvement in his company’s throughput at the ports.
Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen said that the retailer is concentrating on increasing its "safety stock" of products.
“At Kroger, we feel great about our ability to serve our customers’ needs through the holidays... We thank the Biden Administration for their efforts to alleviate current supply chain concerns. We remain focused on providing a full, fresh and friendly experience for our customers by attracting and retaining workers with Kroger’s opportunity culture, providing affordable Our Brands products, partnering with suppliers to plan for increased demand and to increase our safety stock on more than 70 of our most critical categories, leveraging our data insights to identify complementary/substitute items to fill customers’ needs where suppliers can’t meet demands, and diversifying ports of entry we schedule through.”
Carlos Castro, CEO of independent grocer, Todos Supermarket, spoke of challenges related to obtaining products.
“Although independents are resilient and our customers can rely on us during the holidays, independent grocers unfortunately continue to face competitive disadvantages when sourcing products in short supply,” he said. “We appreciate the President’s leadership in helping to address the major issues facing retailers and consumers.”
Food Lion President Meg Ham noted that its begun sourcing from new suppliers in order to overcome supply chain challenges.
“The pandemic transformed almost every aspect of our business – from the way customers shop for groceries to how food is produced and transported to our shelves. While there have been targeted supply chain issues, the food supply chain remains robust and there is ample product available for customers on our shelves,” she said. “We continue to work with our diverse and broad network of suppliers, source products from new partners and engage directly with additional local vendors. On a daily basis, we are working with our supply chain partners, ADUSA Supply Chain, to get product to our stores to help meet customers’ needs.”
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