The United States’ supply chain crisis continues and is now creeping into grocery stores and could impact the holiday shopping season.

Empty shelves in grocery stores are due to a backlog of goods and services. Experts say that the issue could last for several months.

But those experts say that there is no reason to panic and that this is not like the early days of the pandemic when manufacturing was shut down worldwide.

“It’s not because the goods are not there. It’s just that they’re waiting at a warehouse to get transported,” says Dr. Karti Puranem, of Rutgers-Camden.

Puranem says that if items aren’t stuck in a warehouse, they are likely in a container stuck at a port or stuck on a ship on their way from a foreign country.

“So if you’re buying toys, you might not have such a big selection. If you’re buying clothes, you might not have such a big selection,” Puranem says.

The labor shortage is creating this backlog. Longshoremen in Los Angeles and Long Beach have just been given the go-ahead to work 24 hours.

But there is a shortage of truckers to get those containers out. The industry has lost 80,000 drivers. Some have retired, some were laid off and others left the industry because of COVID-19 protocols that kept them at port longer and thus lost money.

Officials in Washington D.C. say that this is part of pandemic recovery, but recovery coming on too quickly.

“Remember, these are fundamentally private sector systems. And the private sector was not expecting the speed of the economic recovery that we have been experiencing,” says Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

This backlog is also causing prices at stores to increase.

Experts say to beat the backlog, it is recommended that consumers buy local and buy early. They say that it could be 2022 before the issue resolves.