Global supply chains.

[hannah]

There's BTS branded coffee drinks for sale at grocery stores in my neighborhood.

It's not that BTS products are sold near me that I find confusing; I know they're loved all over the world. It's not that BTS branded coffee drinks baffle me; if I've heard of them, I know they've made it big, and selling coffee helps them stay big. It's not that they've attached their faces to coffee drinks; I understand how marketing firms works. I know they're well-known enough their names and faces can sell coffee all over the world. All that makes sense.

But when I look at these drinks, I think how the coffee was grown in Ethiopia and Honduras. I think about how it was grown and then shipped to South Korea. I think about how those beans were roasted, brewed, mixed with milk, and put into special containers. I think about how these containers were themselves manufactured, and then had the coffee and milk and sugar put into them, and those drinks - needing refrigeration the whole time - were then shipped to the United States from South Korea, and then from their entry point across the country to New York, and then to the grocery stores where I see them.

I look at these drinks and wonder, Could they just sell the cups with the faces, and not make the coffee travel so far to get to me? Because isn't it their faces the reason these drinks are being sold? Couldn't we just buy the cups and make our coffee at home and cut out at least one step in the journey of coffee?

I look at these drinks and think of the miles the coffee took to get to this shelf and wonder, What went into making this possible?

Comments

[lilacsigil]

I work in a pharmacy and right now we're having major but random medication shortages. Why? Because we have plenty of this medication but the packaging is made in China and is stuck in a shipping container somewhere. Because the active ingredient of this medication is still in the factory in India. Because we've got the active ingredient but not the excipients that make it into a medication, those are stuck in Ireland. Or because something needs refrigeration and nobody can guarantee the cold chain over shipping or air freight now, so it's only being sold within mainland Asia. So far we've managed to scrounge up something for almost everybody, but it's confusing to older and disabled people, and harmful people with major allergies or celiac disease, as we may not be able to get the right brand without the problem ingredient, so they have to change medication. And of course it's a lot more work for everyone in healthcare as we try to track things down and other pharmacies call us to do the same. The last time it was this bad was immediately after 9/11 when air traffic suddenly halted.

[lebateleur]

I look at these drinks and wonder, Could they just sell the cups with the faces, and not make the coffee travel so far to get to me? Because isn't it their faces the reason these drinks are being sold? Couldn't we just buy the cups and make our coffee at home and cut out at least one step in the journey of coffee?

I bet a lot of it's due to human psychology: the cups with the coffee made at home wouldn't be the "real" BTS product to many people. It's the same reason people won't buy Corona or Guinness beer brewed in the US--even though brewing domestically would make a vastly better product, quality- and taste-wise. All examples of how globalization is pretty weird when you look at it closely.

[duskpeterson]

One good thing this pandemic has done is make me look more at ways to get away from the supply chain. My first thought when I realized the supply chain was breaking was, "Oh my gosh. I need to find more farmers in this area."

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, I had the same experience earlier this year. I'm just much more aware of where things are coming from and who is having to work to get them to me.

Re: the BTS cups, I suspect that the coffee is important because it spurs repeat business whereas, how many cups does one need? And BTS fans in particular are very organized and aware of how purchasing behavior benefits the group in terms of publicity power if not finances.

But I quite liked your thoughts about tracing where this fannish thing comes from and goes. I would also extend this to how they will become unrecycled plastic waste.