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In an unprecedented action, the Walmart on Maui has declared its own State of Emergency due to the alarmingly low supply of Spam on island.
“We’ve exhausted our resources and contacts,” said Fred Weisenheimer, Vice President of Regional Affairs for the global retailer. “It was a rare instance where we tried to form an alliance with Target to avoid this looming disaster, but they’re low on Spam, too.”
National retail experts blame the war in the Ukraine for the Spam shortage in the Pacific.
“We all know that gas prices are ridiculously high due to that evil Russia,” said Joe Plaski, spokesman for the American Supply Chain Management Association based in Portland. “When this happens suppliers and transportation logistics companies tend to cut costs, which can lead to crossed wires and missed deliveries.”
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That might be addressable on the mainland where truckers can be re-routed to plug supplies to where there are shortages.
But when that happens in Hawaii, Plaski says, there are few options.
Couple that fact with the record-setting Spam consumption levels on Maui, and it’s a recipe for disaster.
At the Walmart in Kahului on Wednesday, store employees more than once had to break up scuffles among customers grabbing for the last cans of Spam on shelves.
“We thought we might have a Spam riot again,” said Johanna Minsk of Haiku, who said she’s been buying Spam by the caseload from the Kahului store since the 1990s.
“Reminds me of the Great Spam Depression of ‘97, caused by a pork workers union strike in New Hampshire,” she said. “Just goes to show how one kink in the supply chain far away, whether it’s a union strike Back East, or a war in Ukraine, can impact us all.”
Officials at Costco said they have been concerned the past month about its rice supply.
