Jamie Teets, partner with GRJ Health, explains the reasons for the critical shortage of nitrile gloves that has plagued hospitals and healthcare workers since the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic.

Attempts in the early dotcom era to sell food and other grocery items over the internet sputtered. But with the coming of COVID-19, everything has changed.

Many of the supply-chain shortages caused by the coronavirus pandemic have one thing in common: a lack of plastic and cardboard containers to put them in.

While no industry was completely immune, the food industry was hit especially hard by the pandemic, which restricted worker movement, forced production facilities to close and brought food distribution to a halt — all while consumer demand fluctuated with little predictability.

As vaccines roll out more broadly, and countries begin to get the coronavirus under control, attention will turn to the recovery and a return to normal operations. The supply chain will play an integral role in this effort, and will itself emerge in a different shape, with COVID-19 leaving a lasting legacy on many areas of transportation and warehousing.