I read this great interactive article in The Guardian Yesterday that explained the Supply Chain Crisis through one hypothetical toy - the cheekily named Snowflake's Lodge*
The toy is basically your typicaly gaudy Christmas piece of junk, and I think it's been imagined to represent the grim, materialistic side of not only toys but also decorations - the toy is a plastic lodge with lights and music, and not easy to pack, and TOTALLY unnecessary!
The article uses a series of infographics to explain the problems with the supply chain - imagined as going from a manufacturing plant in China to a shop in the United Kingdom.
They point out the following:
- The price of some plastics have doubled in the last year due to production having halted in 2020 lockdown and the industry still being on catch up
- The same is true of microchips the products uses
- And the material that makes up the packaging.
- Once the product is manufactured it will probably wait for 3 days at a Shanghai port because of a shipping backlog, due to China's strict Covid prevention rules.
- And then the same at Felixstow in the UK.
- Finally, a lack of HGV drivers in the UK means the products might sit around in regional warehouses for a period before they get shipped.
The final line on this is the rather amusing....
Now sounds like a good time to rethink a traditional 'gaudy-crap' materialist Christmas...
This whole supply chain problem is just a big phat reminder that the more you have bought into the cheap-products from abroad model of consumption, the more you and your normality are going to be affected by these supply chain issues.
I mean yes, there are LOTS of essentials (like building supplies) that have been affected by the supply chain squeeze, but we can't avoid those, but when it comes to totally unnecessary products maybe not being available for XMAS, that's NOT an issue, it's something we should be able to let go of reasonably easily, hopefully.
So to my mind this is an opportunity... an opportunity to move away from buying 'the usual' gaudy XMAS bling bullshit and plastic not so fantastic children's toys and think a bit more creatively, a bit more locally, and/ or a bit more virtually about how you might celebrate Christmas.....
I mean there are lots of ways to celebrate besides buying 'Snowflake lodge (* which I'm sure is thus named to indicated a kind of 'weak' addiction to such products) - either thinking about virtual products, buying someone some Splinterlands NFTs for example.
Or just source something locally, or just even go without gifts for a year.
To think about it, it's almost a moral duty to not buy gaudy bling XMAS bullshit, to maybe give the more essential materials time to get where they need to be with a bit more urgency.
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Totally agree.
Last year i went no gift Xmas.
This yr I'm going gift books.
For my little nephew Bitcoin...
Less plastic pls.
Sounds good to me!
Sending cash to my girl - I think she's having a haircut :)
A haircut for an Xmas present? That's a new one on me.
I hope it's one you don't have to pretend to like!
They aren't cheap these days apparently - mine are, i do it myself :)
Hopefully she'll be happy with it!
My wife and I started to make the shift a long time ago to start buying our nieces and nephews experiences rather than things. This year we are taking the "little's" to a water park for a night. The bigger nieces we are taking to a concert. Stuff like that...
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I think that's a trend, isn't it, generally?
Not a bad one for sure!
Maybe. I am not really sure. We have been doing it for a while now, so maybe we started it! :)
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I will be sending home made gifts out, not spending a lot this year. Crafters work hard, why not see what people are making at local craft fairs in your area. It is a good place to see what people are making. Just a thought.
Sounds like a great idea to me! Local crafts, nice presents!
This is food for thought. I don't buy a lot at Christmas in any case anymore, but it's good that people are giving more consideration to the supply chain. That plastic will end up in a landfill soon enough also, so the less we use, the better.
Ah yes of course that's another advantage - less plastic in landfill!
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