In these #quarantinediaries I’ve written quite a bit about various supply-chain issues I’ve seen while shopping in my area. Today I saw something I haven’t seen before: product packaging with absolutely no English. There are quite a few things with only English. But it’s not uncommon to see packaging with English and Spanish, Merica’s second language. With things imported from Canada, English and French. And with some ethnic food packaging, occasionally English and Hindi or English and Chinese.

But this package of paper napkins had not one word of English on any of its six sides:

Not even for country of origin which, if I’m not mistaken, is a Federal law. All it had indicating where it was from was a .ar URL and a Buenos Aires mailing address that didn’t even include the word Argentina. Clearly originally intended for sale there domestically. I take this as a clue that wholesalers are hunting for any source of supplies they can find, probably having failed to find supplies from their traditional vendors.

And in this week’s chapter of simply unavailable, disposable gloves, either latex or vinyl:

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