By Samuel Strait, Reporter at Large – October 4, 2021 – Picture Credit to livemint.com (AFP) For many the trip to the grocery store or even the pharmacy is a chore. For others who enjoy shopping it is a smorgasbord visual. You enter the doors of your favorite market, pick out a shopping cart, hopefully one that hasn't a squeaky wheel or a wheel that stubbornly fails to work, and off you go. Down the paper goods aisle looking for that toilet paper that feels soooo good, then a shock awaits you when the slot for it is empty. You search for an employee who informs you that they won't be getting any of that kind until the end of the month. Wow! not a very good start to your shopping experience bliss. Grudgingly you select that kind that your husband got last spring when you were laid up, but it costs $2.00 more per bundle. The meat section is next and you have already noticed a jump in cost for most cuts, that outdoor barbecue is going to be hot dogs and hamburgers instead of some nice juicy steaks. $8.00 a pound for round steak, really? On to the milk and bread, wow another shocker and the orange juice for breakfast is missing from the cooler. Not even the flavored water kind of juice is present. Stiff upper lip and on to the fresh vegetables to be greeted by a meager selection at breath taking prices. Wonder what it will be like this winter? Rounding out your adventure you case the spice section to find your favorite seasoning is no longer available, and you notice three other empty slots on the shelves nearby. As your gaze lifts to take in the whole aisle you notice that there are at least a dozen or more empty spaces on shelves that are normally full to the bursting. Now that you think back to previous trips to the market, this experience has become more and more common over the last six months or so and prices seem to have gone up substantially. Bread that you had previously paid for was $1.00 a loaf more, milk was up $0.75, other items were up 10% or more. Time to head for the check out counter, while quickly calculating the total of the few meager items in your cart. You've budgeted $60 for shopping this week and hope you haven't gone over. The cost of a fill up at the service station, normally about $40 came in at $62. The attendant warned you that if you needed to fill up any other vehicles, the cost was going up nine cents per gallon on Monday, that is if they got the truck in to fill the tank before then. The total on the read out above the credit card machine read $74.76. Looks like $60 was wishful thinking. And the cart was short a quite a few things that the store simply did not have in stock. Inflation and shortages we were told are short term events surely to correct themselves by September. Now government officials are not even pretending that shortages and inflation will not continue into 2022. By the time things level off, if they do any time soon, be prepared for much of the variety found in most retail outlets to shrink. With the rise in transportation costs, shortages of trucks and drivers, plus interruptions in production and manufacturing, this scenario will only get worse. This will particularly affect the Western United States where transportation has already suffered from environmental regulation and higher cost for fuel. Long distances to service retail stores, climate change mania, and the progressive/liberal agenda will insure the effects linger long after other parts of the Country emerge from the train wreck to the economy caused by the political machinations of the Biden Administration. A tip of the cap to those that voted "No" in the recent recall election as the Newsom administration will now make the problems worse over the next year and a half.