NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – The movement of goods was on hold for a second day in a row Wednesday while dockworkers were on strike at ports on the East and Gulf coasts.
“The water and the toilet paper seem to be going out fairly quickly, that I noticed in other shopping carts,” Ed Roberts told News 2 after his grocery run in Hanahan.
Shoppers have reported seeing shelves with low supplies in some stores, but according to an economy expert, its not necessarily due to the strike.
“In the short run, we expect to see from the strike itself, very limited effects overall because many retailers knew that this strike was a possibility as far back as June,” explained Joseph Von Nessen, a Research Economist for Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. “And so, they’ve been stocking up inventory in anticipation that we might see a strike that would take a few days or perhaps a week or two to resolve.”
Von Nessen said people are purchasing supplies post-Hurricane Helene, while others are stocking up in case of strike-related shortages in the future.