°®¶¹´«Ã½

Last week, customers at the UPS Store in Seattle’s Interbay neighborhood got a pretty good demonstration of what the global supply chain looks like when you try to run it backward.

Final sales for Cyber Monday fell short of estimates and didn’t surpass last year’s record as lackluster sales and scarce inventory kept shoppers from breaking out their credit cards during the start of the holiday shopping season.

A year after COVID-19 staff shortages delayed mail and packages, the U.S. Postal Service says it is ready for the expected rush of holiday packages and cards.

Though it’s not yet Halloween, delivery companies UPS Inc., FedEx Corp. and the U.S. Postal Service have released their recommended deadlines to ship packages in time for the holidays.

The trucking industry, working since March to replenish inventories depleted by the coronavirus, now has to grapple with holiday season demand.

XPO Logistics has increased its use of robots in the United Kingdom in anticipation of holiday retail volumes, the Connecticut-based company said in a Nov. 19 news release.

Delivery companies are warning shoppers to send holiday gifts and make online purchases within the next 10 days as a record number of packages are expected to be delivered.

With a strong U.S. economy, a tight freight market and a looming trade war, industry experts believe shippers have been rushing to get products into the United States several weeks early — ahead of tariffs being implemented by the Trump administration and before the approaching holiday shopping season ramps up.

Several of the shipping industry’s largest entities have unveiled their plans for holiday season hires. The temporary employees will help support an anticipated increase in packages beginning in November and continuing through January.

UPS announced that it is hiring about 100,000 temporary workers for the holiday shipping season.