On Monday, August 21, perhaps the most visible solar eclipse in recent history will cover the U.S. This includes a 60-mile wide swath of complete darkness, deemed the Path of Totality stretching from Oregon to South Carolina. Due to the the high levels of traffic and public interest in the event, at least one company is taking steps to avoid potential eclipse-related shipping challenges.
Corvallis, Oregon-based Case Printing Solutions is moving a duplicate inventory to New Jersey to ensure all customers will still receive their printing supplies. Oregon officials guess as many as one million people could converge on communities in the Path of Totality for "what could be a once-in-a lifetime event."
According to Case Printing Solutions president Rob Schneider, "Our local Chamber of Commerce has forecast as many as 400,000 people coming to our college town of 50,000. The governor is even calling out the National Guard. We were nervous of our ability to meet customers' orders due to gridlock in our town and on Interstate-5. We didn't want to make our problem our customer's problem.
"Our customers buy ink to code products and packaging with critical dates and barcodes. If they are out of ink, the production line shuts down. To mitigate potential traffic issues, Case Printing Solutions has set up duplicate shipping, receiving, invoicing and billing systems 2,000 miles away in the New York/New Jersey area as a precaution."
