Service Sector Still Gaining Strength - Time Out #309

Today, I am going the chat with you about a topic you have already been aware of since we began chasing that dreaded Covid-19 bug out of the room.

Without question, the deadly virus caused incredible health issues all over Planet Earth, and Our Town certainly was no exception. Many of us lost loved ones, friends, and fellow co-workers to the pandemic-generated monster. Other people have lingering health issues related to the virus they continue to suffer with every single day. The fact we had vaccines brought to the treatment table in only a few months, goes way beyond sensational. Truly countless lives and human suffering has been helped beyond our wildest expectations, due to our amazing scientific/medical community.

What has been much slower to respond has been our supply-chain economy, and our service sector. I told my bride, Lady Deborah, in late March, 2020, I thought the economic impact of a worldwide pandemic would be beyond imaginable.. I believe my previous hypothesis to her has not been entirely spot on, but we have had some major rough patches in the long journey back to "economic normalcy".

No surprises here, I am an active person; I always have been. The pandemic and hunkering down did not sit well with me, but I mostly forced myself to do it for many months. The only out-of-town traveling I did was a few road trips to visit family and close friends. No occasional trips to area airports to hop aboard a jet aircraft and fly away, as has been my normal mode of operation most of my life. Well, after my vaccinations in early January this year, I began to move around Our Town more and more. The more I moved, the more I saw the local business/service sector, and the same activities in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, were certainly not the same as they had been before March, 2020. Many business had limited hours of operation or were closed, some permanently. The ones that were operating had help issues, mostly in the form of being short-handed, employee-wise. As a result, the business "service" was not what it used to be. Customer (me/us) waiting and frustration was the norm, instead of the usual exception.

My bride and I eventually took to the upper air once again. In these adventures, whether it be airports, airplanes, or their supporting services, such as rental car locations, over and over, for us the mantra seen to be "hurry up and wait", Although it really has not affected Ms. Debbie and I too much, the supply side of products (lumber, automobiles, electronic devices, major appliances, etc., etc. etc) has been greatly disrupted, too. Of course, because of these shortages, there are also big time price ($$$) increases, IF you are even able to obtain the products. Too, interesting to me in the last few months, are the countries of origin of various produced products I glance at or purchase. Most of the articles continue to be manufactured in China, but I actually have witnessed some shift to other countries of origin, mostly located in southeast Asia.

As far as my international travel is concerned, I am not even looking in that direction until well into 2022. Why, you ask, wait until then to continue to see the world? Simply because most foreign locations are still wrestling with how to deal with Covid-19. I am certainly not interested in getting involved in a distant country's medical hassles, and additional loads of red tape to cut through, while attempting to return to the good ol' USA.

As time rolls forward, our national economic system of free enterprise will ultimately prevail, and our supply chains and service sectors will work out most of the unfortunate kinks, created by the viral nightmare.

Our incredible economic strength is one of America's many virtues. No viral pandemic is going to win over us.