I was informed recently that there was a spate of gasoline dispensers covered with the dreaded yellow plastic bags (which begs the question, “where do those bags come from and how is it that all gas stations regardless of brand, have the same ones?”) indicating an impending, if not already present, gas shortage. Since my car was down to a fourth of a tank, I dutifully filled up, doing my part to transfer as much fuel as possible from underground tanks to mobile ones.
The truth, in fact, is that we’re facing a ketchup shortage, something I never expected to see in my lifetime and which is creating a level of condiment insecurity in the populace since there’s no way to know if relish or mustard could be next. Anyway, I wasn’t sure about how to respond to a ketchup shortage. We always keep a six-months supply of ketchup as do most Americans, not counting the ketchup packets in the silverware drawer left over from takeout orders; so it’s just not clear how we can do our part to keep the shortage rolling along.
Since these crises are usually spawned and driven online, I’m surprised not to have seen a start-up related to this. It seems certain that an algorithm could be developed that could predict the next condiment shortage creating a unicorn in shortage futures space. If it hasn’t been, we can only hope that someone at MIT or Cal Tech is working on it even as I write.
Anyway, Joe Biden says that it’s Donald Trump’s fault.
Nick Decosimo
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I could not have said it better myself, Mr. Decosimo.
Mickey Spence