Sometime in the next few days hundreds of millions of Chinese workers will get on trains, buses and for the lucky, planes, to return to their hometowns and families for the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration.
But in this, the year of the ox, the annual migration—no doubt the largest regularly scheduled movement of people in the history of civilization—will be anything but the same old thing. And as such, how it all plays out will have a big impact on the American businesses —and the American consumer—that rely on China for their products.
Chinese New Year has always been a great disrupter in global supply chains as thousands of factories in the country shut down for anywhere between one and four weeks to allow their employees to return to the home towns to celebrate. Think of it as Times Square multiplied by about a million…and for as long as a month, rather than one night. There is nothing comparable to it anywhere else in modern times.
And this year it carries extra special significance.
