Local business leaders discuss impacts and issues of the supply chain

(ABC 6 News) – Local and regional businesses are still reeling from the effects of the pandemic as supply chain issues create shortages worldwide. On Tuesday morning, community members attended a panel to explore how our area is being impacted.

It was the latest in a series of panels held by the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce called “Eggs and Issues: The impact and Issues of the Supply Chain,” with the goal to allow local business leaders an opportunity to discuss their own adversities.

Various regional industry representatives gathered to speak about their personal experiences with supply chain issues, including Kwik Trip’s Category Management Supervisor, who spoke on the company’s struggle to maintain food inventory amid ingredient shortages.

“We’ve had to make some difficult decisions where if it is too expensive, and we feel like our consumers aren’t willing to tolerate that price we delete the item,” says Micah Rupprecht. “Sometimes that’s what you have to do, and a lot of manufacturers are doing that. So, we’re deleting items and significantly adjusting the retail of items, and some items become too difficult to make.”

Other panelists said issues caused by the supply chain can’t be narrowed down to one problem, saying that it’s a chain reaction.

ABC 6 News spoke with the President of the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce about why he feels it’s important for business leaders to gather like this, and what some of the key takeaways were.

“As we connect with the area business community there are two issues that come up most, there are many, but the main two ones are workforce and supply chain,” says Ryan Parsons. “What we wanted to do today is create an opportunity with various industries and get insight into what the experience is like for them. So, we’re lucky to have retail, manufacturing, construction, trade, and transportation all represented this morning with a good conversation for members of our business community to attend.”

Parsons also says what he noticed the most during the discussion is the resilience of local and regional business leaders and how they’ve been able to adapt to these issues.