HILL CITY, S.D. – Milk, eggs, bread and a meeting with Representative Dusty Johnson.
Shoppers and staff at Krull’s Market in Hill City left with more than they bargained for on Tuesday night, including the chance to talk shop and supply chain issues with the congressman.
For Krull’s Market co-owner Eric Lind in particular, pandemic-related supply issues continue to linger.
“You know, you hear from different manufacturer’s that it’s a glass shortage or it’s a lid shortage, or an aluminum shortage. Or whatever it might be,” Lind said. “Then it’s a trucking issue. They can’t get the products to the warehouse, or the warehouse can’t get it out to stores. The issues are numerous.”
Creativity has played a role in keeping up with customer demand, with employees working to acquire goods as close as possible to any items missing from the shelves.
According to Lind, hardware supplies are coming into the store at about 65 percent of what was requested, with non-perishable and pre-packaged foods around 75 percent.
Representative Johnson’s appearance on Tuesday night gave him a first-hand look at the struggles and challenges the store has faced.
“In America, we’re not used to shortages. We’re more accustomed to seeing old pictures of the Soviet Union when we think about open spaces on grocery store shelves. And it does not have to be this way,” Johnson stated. “We are not in the depths of the early pandemic here. We are not in the middle of a depression or a recession. We are two years into these economic problems. They are resolvable.”
And while Johnson understands it would not solve everything, his recently-introduced bipartisan ocean shipping reform act aims to help. The bill involves pushing for more American products and the following of service standards to improve shipping practices.
“60 percent of the containers that have been hauled back to Asia over the course of the last year were hauled back empty. That’s at a time when you’ve got American agricultural products literally rotting on the dock,” he explained. “My bill holds their feet to the fire and making sure that they do right by places like Krull’s Market.”
“My view is that it’s going to be quite a while before all these issues are fixed,” Eric Lind said. “Some of Representative Johnson’s work in Washington is to resolve those issues, but we could have a long road ahead of us to get these issues fixed.”
