Merchandise shortage impacts central coast businesses

SALINAS, Calif. (KION) A backup of cargo ships in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is creating a merchandise shortage throughout California.

Ports along the west and east coast are experiencing a huge bottleneck backup. With the Port of Oakland stating that a record volume of cargo on the west coast this year and pandemic issues are causing congestion. One local business, Zucchini's Tricks 'n' Things is feeling the effects.

"With my retail store, a lot of the merchandise that I used to order on a regular basis is not available from my suppliers, they tell me they’re backlogged two or three months,” said Byran Whitehead, owner of Zucchini's Tricks 'n' Things.

Whitehead feels these shipping delays are a result of a number of issues including import taxes and labor shortages. The President of the California Retailers Association says the pandemic is partially to blame for this.

"This is a national and international problem and really part of it is related to covid, part of it’s related to consumer spending, there’s a lot of different factors engaged, we need to recruit more truckers, we need to recruit more port workers,” said Rachel Michelin

Whitehead also owns a wholesale business and went to the Port of Oakland to pick some shipments of last months and says he saw a lack of workers there.

There is a new shipping route expected in November 6th from Oakland to Southeast Asia.