|  Photograph by Hollie Adams / Getty The beginning of November marks a distinct turn toward sensory overload: twinkle lights begin to adorn storefronts, discount stickers glisten on body-lotion gift sets, and the familiar drumbeat of Wham!’s “Last Christmas” comes rushing back. It’s here again—the season of consumption. But holiday-shopping efforts in many countries around the world may be thwarted this year by the dreaded supply-chain crisis. In the United Kingdom, as Anna Russell writes in her most recent dispatch, a “decidedly unfestive pall” has been cast over holiday preparations, and “members of Parliament have been forced to confront an unpleasant prospect: What if there’s no Christmas turkey?” Blaming things on the supply chain has become a popular meme (“Being single is a consequence of the supply chain crisis,” a recent tweet read), but it is a real conundrum that, in the U.K., has resulted from the “dual crises of the virus and Brexit-related disruptions.” On farms, crops are going unpicked, and animals are being culled by the thousands because they can’t be processed. Meanwhile, people are panic buying—“one Cornish farm said customers were trying to order their Christmas turkey in August.” The government is issuing temporary visas for seasonal poultry workers, but even those “seem particularly Scrooge-like,” Russell writes. “They expire on New Year’s Eve.” —Jessie Li, newsletter editor Read “Will Supply-Chain Issues Ruin Christmas?” Anna Russell has written recently about Edith Wharton’s ghost stories and this year’s “Hot Wharton Fall,” the legacy of a women’s prison in London, and the new Amazon Salon. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment