As a followup to the polling I did earlier on odd stock shortages, I did a piece getting to the bottom of it (with valuable input from @man_integrated!). https://theprepared.com/blog/product-shortages-and-shipping-explainer/?utm_campaign=blog&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

To MBD's point, here, there is definitely something going on with the smaller and mid-tier makers, and the piece explains what that is. https://twitter.com/michaelbd/status/1280234729107795970

The short answer is that consolidation at every level of shipping and logistics has combined with the destruction of shipping capacity (thanks to coronavirus) to mean that even as Chinese factories come back online, the shipping capacity isn't there unless you're a retail giant.

There are a number of other wrinkles in there as far as why odd things are out of stock here and there, but what it means for shoppers is this:

- This situation will persist as long as COVID does. It may get better or worse, but it'll stay with us.

- Lower-volume goods will are hit harder than higher volume goods. So if it's some low volume thing you need, be prepared to get aggressive about hitting "refresh" on the retail page for that "in-stock" notice, & scoring it quickly.

- It's good to be an Amazon or a Walmart or a Target or similar size. Everyone else is going to have to just scrape by on the scraps, or go bankrupt.

- Do your back-to-school shopping right now. I know that nobody knows what's going on, but try to get the shopping done anyway. If everyone is scrambling for webcams & netbooks again in late August, good luck with that. Get it now.

And yes, this phenomenon is part of the Great Jankfication that I talked about back in early April. https://twitter.com/jonst0kes/status/1248430989631557633