The consistent news of supply chain issues due to the pandemic had encouraged many shoppers to start their holiday shopping early.
Everyone was afraid to not get their holiday presents in time as experts predicted supply chain issues to only get worse, per Deseret News.
But despite the early fears, holiday shoppers received their gifts on time. Many reasons contributed to this success — customers shopping early and in person, retailers ordering merchandise ahead of time and delivery companies hiring more people and building more warehouses, according to The New York Times.
- UPS, FedEx and the Postal Service delivered a majority of their packages to essential addresses, per the report. Nearly all packages arrived on time or with short delays.
Per Business Insider, White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday celebrated the Biden administration's efforts to help these delays.
- “Good news, we’ve saved Christmas,” she said during a press briefing, per the report. “And that is because President Biden recognized this challenge early, acted as an honest broker to bring key stakeholders together, and focused on addressing practical problems across the global supply chain.” The issue of the global supply chain is yet to be resolved, she said.
Earlier Wednesday, Biden met with business and industry leaders to address the problem.
- “We brought together business and labor leaders to solve problems and the much-predicted crisis didn’t occur. Packages are moving, gifts are being delivered and shelves are not empty,” Biden said, per the report.