Hershey warns of looming Halloween candy shortage
The Hershey Company – the fifth-biggest candy company in the world in 2021 – is sounding the alarm that they will experience a Halloween candy shortage this year.
The Hershey Company warned that it would not be able to supply enough candy for Halloween and the Christmas holiday season. The candy company blamed a scarcity of raw ingredients on the insufficient supply.
Reuters reported, "Pandemic-induced global supply chain disruptions and the Russia-Ukraine war have crunched supplies of cocoa, edible oil, and other food ingredients, pinching production lines of packaged food companies around the world."
Hershey Chief Executive Officer Michele Buck said on Thursday, "We will not be able to fully meet consumer demand due to capacity constraints."
Buck said that the company sources a great deal of its equipment and supplies from Europe – which has faced an economic downturn because of its reliance on energy from Russia. The invasion of Ukraine has also put a strain on getting products such as cocoa and edible oil.
Buck also noted that despite the candy shortage, the company expects sales to top last year still.
"Historically, Hershey's sales growth has been driven by higher prices and not necessarily volume ... The company is entering this period from a position of strength with that expertise," CFRA Research analyst Arun Sundaram said.
The Hershey Company saw its net sales rise more than 19% in the second quarter – raking in $2.37 billion compared to estimates of $2.22 billion.
The Halloween season is Hershey's best-selling time of the year – comprising approximately 10% of the company's annual sales.
The 128-year-old company manufactures some of the most beloved Halloween candy – including Hershey's Chocolate Bars, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Kit Kats, Mounds, Good & Plenty, Bubble Yum, Twizzlers, Jolly Ranchers, Whatchamacallits, Milk Duds, 5th Avenue, and Hershey's Kisses.
On Thursday, food behemoth Nestle said it raised prices by 6.5% in the first half of 2022 because of an "unprecedented" rise in costs.
Nestle – the world's largest food company – hiked up prices in North America by 9.8%.
Nestle CEO Mark Schneider said, "We limited the impact of unprecedented inflationary pressures and supply chain constraints on our margin development through disciplined cost control and operational efficiencies."
Americans' optimism about the country's direction over the next year plummets nearly 20 points since May: poll
A majority of Americans now say they are pessimistic about the country's direction over the next year, according to a new poll.
A new ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 55% of respondents say they are pessimistic about the direction of the country for the next 12 months. This is significant because it represents a nearly 20 percentage point drop in the same poll that was taken in May, when 36% of Americans were pessimistic and 64% were optimistic about the nation's future. Declines in optimism were from Republicans, independents, and Democrats.
The previous poll was conducted on April 30 and May 1, right at President Joe Biden's first 100 days in office. The most recent poll was taken on July 23- 24, days after marking Biden's first six months in office.
Respondents gave Biden a 63% approval on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, down nine percentage points from March. There were 62% of Americans who were very (20%) and somewhat (42%) concerned that they or someone they know will become infected with the coronavirus. A majority, 74%, who participated in the poll who said they have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Biden's approval on the economic recovery was down seven percentage points since March, falling to 53%, including only 16% of Republicans.
Only 39% approve of Biden's America on the issue of crime, 37% on immigration, and 37% on gun violence, according to the survey of 527 adults. When it comes to these three issues, Biden "receives positive marks from only around one in ten Republicans."
A Gallup poll that was released last week also indicated that Biden's popularity is dropping. The survey said Biden's approval rating fell to 50%, a low for the Democrat president after sitting between 54% and 57%. There were 45% of Americans who disapproved of Biden's job performance.
This comes at a time of great division within the country. Another recent poll showed that two-thirds of Republicans in the South and nearly half of Democrats on the West Coast want to secede from the union.
Inflation wave: Consumer prices spike at fastest rate since 2008: 'Biden is adding gas to the fires'
Liberal talking mouths like Paul Krugman at the New York Times may be trying to defend the Biden administration by denying the rapidly approaching inflation wave.
But new data released by the Department of Labor Tuesday suggests that wave is already here.
What are the details?
Last month, consumer prices rose by .9% from May, the fastest pace since 2008, yet another signal that inflation is here and hurting the purchasing power of each dollar in your pocket.
The Associated Press reported:
Tuesday's report from the Labor Department showed that consumer prices in June rose 0.9% from May and 5.4% over the past year — the sharpest 12-month inflation spike since August 2008. Excluding volatile oil and gas prices, so-called core inflation rose 4.5% in the past year, the largest increase since November 1991.
The report is so bad, in fact, that experts had been anticipating a .5% price increase only — nearly half of what actually happened, Fox Business noted.
Over the last year, prices have spiked across the board. The year-over-year price increase of car rentals, for example, is nearly 90%, while the prices of gas, airfare, hotels, food, and other consumer goods also have risen considerably.
Here are the items really driving up inflation:Car rental 87.7% (y/y change)Used cars 45.2%Gas 45.1%Laundry ma… https://t.co/LtRhnonpVi
— Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) 1626180480.0
To make matters worse, real earnings, which are adjusted for inflation, dropped in June — and are down more than 1% from last year.
"Real average hourly earnings decreased 0.5%, with real average weekly earnings decreasing 0.9% from May to June. Compared to June 2020, real average hourly earnings and weekly earnings dropped 1.7% and 1.4%, respectively," Marketrama reported.
What is causing the inflation?
Behind the inflation are several factors: Supply chain congestion, labor shortage, and "largely transitory factors" the Federal Reserve says are related to the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Larry Summers, the former treasury secretary under Bill Clinton and director of the National Economic Council under Barack Obama, also said President Joe Biden's policies and stimulus, which pumped massive amounts of money into the economy quickly, may be causing the economy to "overheat." That's because, as Summers recently explained, Biden is treating the economy today as if America were still at the height of the pandemic.
At any rate, top economists are warning Americans to brace themselves for several years of higher-than-normal inflation at rates not seen since the early 1990s.
"Inflation is expected to surge longer and longer — longer than the Fed previously thought," Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, told the Wall Street Journal.
Economist Stephen Moore said, "Inflation is real and it is getting worse, not better. The Fed is behind the curve in controlling price rises and Biden is adding gas to the fires of inflation with his trillions of dollars of debt spending and 'free' money."
Still, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has insisted the inflation is only temporary, but has not said when the Federal Reserve expects the economy to cool down.
www.theblaze.com
THIS website lets you compare grocery prices under Trump vs. Biden, and it's VERY telling
These days, most are familiar with grocery store dread — the feeling of angst when you’re watching your total creep higher and higher until it’s at an impossibly steep number, even though you only came for a handful of items.
Thanks, Bidenomics.
But just how bad is it?
“The official, super PAC-supporting former President Donald Trump launched a new website allowing users to compare Trump-era grocery prices to the current high prices experienced by consumers during the Biden presidency,” says Pat Gray.
Biden-mart.com “includes over two dozen common grocery items for the user to check off to see what the cost of their total grocery bill would be.”
One user’s total under Trump was $22.03, while the total under Biden was $36.48, which is a “65.59% increase.”
And yet, one Biden spokesperson had the audacity to claim that he compared “receipts on both ends” and found that “on every metric, Joe Biden comes out on top.”
“That’s just mind-numbingly ridiculous,” laughs Pat.
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