Economist advises Americans to ‘wait it out’ for non-urgent purchases amid supply chain crisis

The chief economist at accounting firm Grant Thornton advised Americans on Sunday to “wait it out” for non-urgent purchases in response to the current supply chain crisis.

“If you don’t need to buy a car right now, wait it out. If you don’t need to buy some of those other things that are goods that people have spent so much on. If you can wait it out a little bit, we’re going to see some discounting on the other side of this, which makes it more of a boom-bust cycle. But it is you know, being able to pace yourself in terms of what you really need,” Diane Swonk said during “This Week” on ABC.

Swonk predicted the U.S. would see “a building of inventories by 2023,” but suggested that certain items that Americans wanted to buy could be delayed in the meantime.

Swonk also said she expected inflation “will get worse before it gets better, and it will eventually abate one way or the other.”

The news comes as the holiday season ramps up and retailers plan Black Friday promotions this week. 

Responding to the global supply chain crisis, the White House announced in mid-October that several companies, including UPS, Walmart and FedEx, as well the Port of Los Angeles would be ramping up work to operate 24 hours, seven days a week.

However, the White House said at the time it could not promise that packages would be able to be delivered in time or that goods would be available when Americans wanted them.

“We are not the Postal Service or UPS or FedEx. We cannot guarantee,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in October.

“What we can do is use every lever at the federal government’s disposal to reduce delays, to ensure that we are addressing bottlenecks in the system, including ports and the need for them to be open longer hours so that goods can arrive,” she said.