A tampon shortage is the latest nightmare for women
By: Allison Morrow (CNN)
What does American capitalism actually do anymore? There's a ready supply of excuses and scapegoats. And we're constantly reassured there are firewalls to prevent price gouging.
But that really doesn't address the problem of empty shelves. The richest country in the world cannot supply its own needs?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
New York
CNN Business
—
Supply chain problems and inflation have hit virtually all consumer goods, but women who menstruate are now facing an added strain as a shortage of period products hits the United States.
Top retailers and manufacturers acknowledged the shortages this week, confirming complaints that have been circulating on social media for months. The issue garnered national attention this week after an article in Time called the dearth of tampons and pads the shortage “no one is talking about.”
“I haven’t seen any products in stores for months,” one user posted on Reddit. “I’ve been ordering my tampons on Amazon and have been getting price gouged.”
Tampon prices are up significantly — nearly 10% from a year ago, according to Bloomberg. But an Amazon spokesperson denied rumors of price gouging, saying its policies “help ensure sellers are pricing their products competitively,” and that the company actively monitors pricing and removes offers that violate its fair pricing policy.
The shortages appear to stem from supply constraints around key materials like cotton and plastic, which are also used in personal protective equipment, and have been in high demand from the start of the pandemic. The war in Ukraine has further crimped supply because Russia and Ukraine are both major exporters of fertilizer, which is used to grow cotton. A drought in Texas hasn’t helped, either.
Shortages of raw materials and supply chain bottlenecks aren’t unique to period products, but much like the US infant formula shortage, there’s an unrelenting and urgent biological demand for them that can’t be easily substituted. People who menstruate can’t simply wait for the shelves to be restocked.
“Getting raw and packed materials to the places we need to get them to continues to be costly and highly volatile,” said Andre Schulten, Procter & Gamble’s chief financial officer, on a recent earnings call.
When Time asked Procter & Gamble, which owns the popular Tampax and Always brands, about the shortage, a company spokesperson blamed increased demand linked to an ad campaign featuring the comedian Amy Schumer.
Since the ads launched in July 2020, “retail sales growth has exploded,” the spokesperson told Time.
Of course, putting the blame on Schumer’s ads doesn’t account for why other brands also are hard to come by. A P&G representative told CNN Business Thursday that the Tampax team is “producing tampons 24/7 to meet the increased demand.”
“We understand it is frustrating for consumers when they can’t find what they need,” the P&G spokeperson said in an email. “We can assure you this is a temporary situation.”
As headlines about the Schumer comment circulated this week, the comedian, who’s spoken publicly about her hysterectomy last year, responded with a quip on social media.
“Whoa, I don’t even have a uterus,” she wrote on Instagram Thursday beneath a screenshot of a headline reading: “Why Amy Schumer is getting blamed for the national tampon shortage.”
Schumer’s representatives didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Both Walgreens and CVS said they are aware of tampon and other period product shortages in some areas and that they are working with their suppliers to ensure they can restock as soon as possible.
The tampon shortage shares uneasy parallels with the infant formula shortage, primarily in the unhelpful responses offered by men who aren’t directly affected by them. In both cases, women say they are being bombarded with comments — some genuinely offering help, others dripping with indignation over women’s supposed biological failings.
“If we could imagine a world where men had to breastfeed their babies … the formula shortage there would not be so dire,” wrote journalist Elizabeth Spiers in an opinion essay for The New York Times. “In that alternative reality…formula would not be stigmatized because it’s a choice men would want to have available to them.”
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Not to worry, Biden will invoke the Defense Production Act and have the military fly in supplies from somewhere. So, American capitalists won't have to dirty their hands building factories. Biden has you covered so go on with the business-as-usual of American capitalism; whatever that means anymore.
Do you blame Biden for tampon shortages?
Biden has been in elected office for fifty years. Biden does share a large measure of responsibility for the neoliberal idiocy that has become American capitalism.
Biden wants to tax the rich, pander to the poor, and ignore the problem. That's third way politics.
Biden is not the determinator Arnold is.
Really? Wasn't Arnold trying to change the future by rewriting the past?
that, sounds more like 45, but i digress, though i am curious as to why you believe the potUS is capable of determining costs in our "free" markets ?
So you blame Biden for the tampon shortages.
Is it a 'free' market? The Federal government meddles in the economy all the time. The Federal government is responsible for establishing trade agreements, subordinating the US economy to international trade bureaucracies, and providing trade advantages to foreign manufacturers. The Federal government has incentivized profit seeking using financial transactions. The Federal government has established impediments for an industrial economy through tax and trade policy. The Federal government even manipulates the national GDP with deficit spending.
Biden is not an outsider. Biden has held elected offices for fifty years. Biden does share a large measure of responsibility for neoliberalism becoming American capitalism. Biden really was in positions of power to address the industrial decline of the United States.
These shortages became inevitable when Bill Clinton embraced neoliberalism as the new American capitalism. Joe Biden had held a seat in the Senate for 20 years before Bill Clinton became President. Joe Biden had held a seat in the Senate for almost a decade before Ronald Reagan became President. Biden was elected to the Senate when Richard Nixon was President.
So Chuck Grassley has been in the senate for about 41 years. What has he done for any problem?
What utter nonsense. With that logic you can blame literally everything that has happened in the last 50 years on Biden.
Do you truly think your ‘argument’ is persuasive and not laughably ridiculous?
Chuck Grassley has done as much as Joe Biden. It's all about being reelected, isn't it?
Biden has a choice. Biden can pursue the same politics he has for fifty years. Or Biden can change course.
It's becoming all too apparent that the United States has been on the wrong track for far too long. Biden has earned the blame for doubling down on what has created the mess instead of changing course.
Is Biden pursuing policy that will change the future of the United States? Or is Biden using policy to bolster reelection? What did Biden learn during his long career as a Senator?
Was embraced by American capitalists well before Clinton moistened any gal's chin. It has been embedded into the system by none other than: " American Enterprise Institute , the Heritage Foundation , the Cato Institute , the Institute of Economic Affairs , the Centre for Policy Studies and the Adam Smith Institute ."
You appear to have a fondness for some economic system of the past ... can you define it and list its attributes?
Alan Greenspan was put in place by Reagan and re-nominated by Clinton. Greenspan ran the Federal Reserve and controlled monetary policy for Clinton's eight years as President. Neoliberals were placed in the positions of power that mattered.
Bill Clinton was a staunch advocate for 'free trade' which was really about the free flow of money.
China has become the second largest economy with an industrial economy. The United States won World War II with an industrial economy.
The United States began transitioning to a services economy in the 1970s. Ronald Reagan endorsed that transition and Bill Clinton worked to make the transition happen. Clinton succeeded.
Brilliant.
I'm guessing you will like the article I just seeded:
I watched Target CEO explain that as the global supply chain slowly returns to
normal, Target finds itself swamped with XMAS merch in June, along with
hoodies and winter sweaters during the current heatwave, prompting
30 to 50% online markdowns to eliminate unwanted/unneeded stock
in favor of groceries and 'correct' seasonal products.
gotta love a good pandemic and the unseen consequences
Christmas in July!
I can always use a good hoodie.
104 here today, but we keep the house at 72 all year.
Recent guests from AU went to Target for hoodies, lol.
Ok, it is comical to me that now that Biden is in the WH, according to his detractors, the republicans all the sudden have zero capability and cannot do anything...
I think it's a scheme caused by the pro-lifers. As long as all American women who menstruate are kept pregnant there will be less need for tampons and pads. But the kicker comes in when they need baby formula.