Holiday Shopping Concerns Emerge for Buyers and Retailers

Tinglong Dai

With fewer than 50 days until Black Friday, it's beginning to look like supply chain issues could severely disrupt holiday shopping in the United States, affecting availability of everything from apparel to toys to electronics and even groceries.

Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School Professor Tinglong Dai says the concerns are due to a perfect storm of supply chain shortages, evident in the record-level congestion at the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach that has spread to the East Coast, the widespread power outages across China, shortages of truck drivers and service workers, and COVID-19-fueled infections and restrictions.

Dai can offer perspective about what shoppers can expect this year in the lead-up to the holiday season. He can also discuss how can suppliers and retailers can cope with supply chain issues, and attempt to predict when the global supply chain network will recover and how to rebuild it.

Dai is a Professor of Operations Management and Business Analytics at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, with joint faculty appointments at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and Institute for Data-Intensive Engineering and Science. His research interests span across healthcare, marketing-operations interfaces, and human-AI interaction.

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