Steep Steel, Panic Purchases, and a Salary Side-Eye
In this short and snappy edition we look at some relevant headlines and revisit a major supply chain event from the recent past. Enjoy!
Did You Catch This?
“Did You Catch This?” is a look at recent stories and news items that caught our attention and that we think are worth sharing.
Here are this month’s:
They make how much?
Curious how much supply chain practitioners earn annually? Of course you are!
Good thing for our shared curiosity, the Institute for Supply Management released its 2025 Salary Survey, a survey of supply chain professionals conducted between December 2024 and February 2025.
See what the average, median, and Top 5 percentile salaries are, broken down by position and gender. After all, there’s nothing better than comparing salaries to spark some feelings!
Panic at the (Disco) Costco
Tariffs! They’re here, we jeer, we hope they disappear.
Supply & Demand Chain Executive shared a survey done by ReturnPro that helps give more detail on how tariffs are reshaping the customer mindset.
Two stats that jumped out?
● Nearly 30% of consumers have already begun panic purchasing essentials, including household goods, groceries, and back-to-school items in anticipation of future cost increases
● 73% of consumers say a retailer's return policy directly influences whether or not they complete a purchase
The takeaways? Consumers are already panicked, and retailers with a bad return policy should panic.
Aluminum foiled
Sticking with tariffs, Supply Chain Drive alerted us to a US Commerce Department reminder that a 50% tariff on aluminum and steel, double the current levy, will take effect on June 23rd.
Aluminum and steel are used in a variety of household appliances including refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, dishwashers, stoves, garbage disposals, and more.
The 50% tariff is applied to the materials not the appliances directly, making the full impact on consumer prices hard to predict.
However, price increases are likely so if you are thinking about buying one of the above items do it soon. Like this week.
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The Time Machine: March 23rd, 2021
We don’t have to go back very far for another example of severe supply chain disruption: on March 23rd 2021, a mega-container ship called the “Ever Given” got wedged inside the Suez Canal and remained stuck for 6 days.
Estimates pegged the value of the goods delayed each hour at $400 million, and the cost of the disruption at $9 billion per day.
By the time the “Ever Given” was dislodged, on March 29th, at least 369 ships were waiting to pass through the canal.
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