In random news today it seems like a company called Lamb Weston who is a huge supplier of French fries to companies like McDonalds suddenly decided to close one of its factories resulting in massive job cuts and as well putting businesses in a panic mode. Apparently, consumer demand simply isn’t there with the other factor on rising costs and like most businesses they are cutting back to adapt. This is not surprising as even fast-food restaurants like McDonalds has become pretty expensive over recent years where a basic combo can cost almost as much as a more formal restaurant dining experience.
But imagine you being the owner of a business that is heavily dependent on a supplier that can fundamentally close your business down as well. Do you scramble to find a new supplier in these cases in hopes to maintain operation, cut back on things as well until you find a permanent solution or would you raise prices as the supply will be scarce? I would imagine they will be able to find other suppliers who would be more than happy to fill in the gaps as most likely the company would be willing to pay a little more than normal temporarily to keep things going.
I think the only time I have experienced something like this is with Internet service providers such as a web host. When they go down that means they are taking your online business down with it which can be chaos if you don’t have a contingency plan in place. It must be worst for people in the restaurant business where these are physical products too. Life doesn’t always go as planned as this demonstrates huh?