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  • 2021-10-14 (xsd:date)
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  • Viral Grocery Store Meme Uses 2018 Photo To Illustrate 'Biden's America' (en)
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  • On Oct. 12, 2021, a Facebook user posted a meme that purported to compare grocery store shelves as they appeared in Trump's America vs. Biden's America. The meme was somewhat similar to another one we previously reported about on the subject of gas prices. Both were highly misleading. In reality, the photograph of fully-stocked grocery store shelves labeled Trump's America was captured in 2012. At the time, former U.S. President Barack Obama was in the White House. Also, it wasn't even taken in the U.S. According to the Wikimedia Commons caption, it was shot at a Coles Supermarket at Westfield Southland Shopping Centre in Melbourne, Australia. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Faced_products_on_a_supermarket_shelf.JPG Meanwhile, the second picture showing nearly empty shelves that was labeled Biden's America was captured while former President Donald Trump was in office. According to MyHorryNews.com, which publishes local news for South Carolina, it was shot after a hurricane in September 2018. The caption read: Randy Spivey, Hills manager, concerned about when he can get his shelves restocked after Hurricane Florence and the flood that hit the area recently. https://www.myhorrynews.com/news/local/loris/customers-find-bare-shelves-after-storm-passes/article_c4ea1ab2-c0c4-11e8-b9da-176624af8143.html Presidents of both parties have been faced with natural disasters like Hurricane Florence that emptied some store shelves in impacted areas for temporary periods of time. Further, readers may recall that shelves were emptied of popular foods and other goods at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The New York Times attributed the empty shelves to panic shopping. The misleading Facebook meme was apparently posted in reaction to a shipping container logjam that was also occurring in October 2021. According to The Associated Press, it led to mass shortages of goods and delays that have caused a longer than expected bout of inflation. As for what caused the supply chain issues in the first place, the Los Angeles Times described the root of the problem in the simplest way: the COVID-19 pandemic. The Times published that the pandemic whirled up a toxic brew of forces that triggered and then exacerbated the shipping logjam. The Washington Post also published an interview with Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, who said that the United States is 'decades behind' foreign ports in getting carriers, terminals, and shippers to provide each other access to commercial data for planning purposes. In sum, the viral Facebook meme that purported to display Trump's America vs. Biden's America showed pictures from the wrong presidential terms, and one of them wasn't even captured in the U.S. Further, it appeared to be attempting to score political points on a much larger problem. (en)
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