US shoppers finding more empty grocery shelves

Shortages at U.S. grocery stores have grown more acute in recent weeks as new problems, like the fast-spreading omicron variant and severe weather, have piled on to the supply chain struggles and labor shortages that have plagued retailers since the pandemic began.

 U.S. groceries typically have 5 to 10% of their items out of stock at any given time; right now, that's hovering around 15%. The U.S. is short an estimated 80,000 drivers, a historic high. And shipping remains delayed, impacting everything from imported foods to packaging that's printed overseas. Retailers and food producers have been adjusting to those realities since early 2020. The omicron variant has sent new U.S. cases of COVID-19 exploding to more than 700,000 per day on average.