The news for women in the US continues to be frighteningly bleak. Another supply chain issue, similar to the baby formula shortage, is happening in the US, this time with feminine products. A shortage of tampons and pads is hitting manufacturers because of staffing and transportation issues, and the rising costs of raw materials, making it difficult for women to find products in stores.
The shortage was first reported in an article in Time, calling the issue one “no one is talking about.” The magazine spoke to Dana Marlowe, founder of I Support the Girls, which provides essential items to people experiencing homelessness, who said they’ve see shortages in tampon donations. “What’s been going on for a couple months is that organizations call us up and say, ‘we need tampons,’ and we go to our warehouse and there’s nothing there,” Marlowe said.
"Women are not only faced with a baby formula shortage, but now tampons are in short supply" as Biden's supply chain crisis worsens. pic.twitter.com/dJZWpuL7n4
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 13, 2022
CVS, Target, and Walgreens told NPR that they were “aware” of shortages at some of their locations and that suppliers haven’t been able to fill orders for several weeks. Walgreens said its shortages “may only be in specific brands while we navigate the supply disruption,” and that it is updating store-specific websites with availability.
Procter & Gamble told the outlet that “the Tampax team is producing tampons 24/7 to meet the increased demand.”
https://twitter.com/AudreyNGoodson/status/1534982622723682305?s=20&t=GUnxag5DfZCMZdm2a2xEDg
“To put it bluntly, tampons are next to impossible to find,” Michelle Wolfe, a radio host in Bozeman, Montana, told TIME. She also penned an essay about the issue for her radio station’s website in March about not being able to find tampons. “I would say it’s been like this for a solid six months.”
Because of the shortage in raw materials, prices have been steadily rising for feminine products, nearly 10% this year alone, Bloomberg reported. One reason is the materials like cotton and rayon were also being used to make masks and other medical products during the pandemic.
The great tampon shortage of 2022 is the supply chain problem no one's talking about https://t.co/GMiAe4GUP0
— TIME (@TIME) June 7, 2022
“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.
A P&G spokesperson told CNN: “We understand it is frustrating for consumers when they can’t find what they need. We can assure you this is a temporary situation.”
