Many parents who send their kids to college want to know that their children will be in stable housing.

A 2022 report that surveyed students at historically Black colleges and universities shows that more than half of students said they struggled to maintain safe, affordable, and consistent housing.

Fisk University, an HBCU in Nashville, Tennessee, has a plan to address the issue. Decommissioned shipping containers are being retrofitted into dorm rooms for the 2023 fall semester.

Fisk University Executive Vice President Jens Frederiksen says a trustee brought the solution to the table as an affordable way to help the university house its growing population.

"The reality is we've grown so fast,” Frederiksen said. “Enrollment has grown roughly 41%-42% in four-and-a-half years."

The inside of each container will have a bed, lounge area, kitchen and bathroom.

"I think the beauty of it is you can actually stack them up to levels of four is what we had originally looked at,” Frederiksen said. “These are stacked in levels of two. So you could basically upload two more containers on top and create a total of 200-bed availability."

It's not an entirely new idea. The College of Idaho was the first school in the nation to transform shipping containers into dorm rooms in 2020.

Frederiksen said students like how it's a sustainable solution. Sophomore Gift Eni says sustainability is very important to many students.

"It's repurposing something that was old and making it new," Eni said. “As soon as the videos dropped, like they did the tour of the inside and we were all 'I don't know how we apply to this, but I need to apply to it immediately. I need to be living here like yesterday.'"

Frederiksen said other universities are already reaching out with interest in doing something similar.

With real estate prices continuing to soar nationwide, he said creative solutions to house students are necessary.

"Real estate prices are, at this point, a prohibitive factor, which then means students to live off campus would live 35, 40 minutes away," Frederiksen said.

"I feel like it makes school more accessible,” Eni said. “That's important. And you have to be able to get to school on time when you need to be here."

The only challenge now is deciding who will be the first to live in the shipping containers.

"I think to date, we've probably had 30 prospective students who called and said, 'If I choose Fisk, do I get to be in the containers?’" Frederiksen said. “And we're like, 'No, we can't leverage that as a decision-making tool'. The reality is we're going to end up doing some kind of lottery."

 

Severe winter weather that has spread across the United States this week could cause delays with your packages. 

FedEx's Memphis, Tennessee headquarters is under an ice storm warning as the company tries to avoid any disruptions in deliveries.

The company says it's keeping an eye on the weather, but the safety of employees comes first.

FedEx released a service statement on its website which said, "FedEx Express experienced substantial disruptions at the Memphis and Indianapolis hubs last night due to freezing rain in the Memphis area and snow in the Indianapolis area. The storm has created potentially hazardous operating conditions and the safety of our team members remains our number one priority. Potential delays are possible for package deliveries across the U.S. with a delivery commitment of February 3, 2022. Contingency plans are in place and we are prepared to provide the best possible service as conditions allow. Operational impacts to other FedEx operating companies may vary due to local weather conditions."

A major winter storm has left more than 200,000 homes and businesses without power across the U.S. The multiday storm dumped more than a foot of snow in parts of the Midwest and triggered weather warnings from Texas to the Northeast. Power companies have struggled to keep pace with freezing rain and snow that weighed down tree limbs and encrusted power lines.

Travelers also are dealing with thousands of canceled flights around the U.S. The storm's path stretched further from the central U.S. on Thursday into more of the South and Northeast. Forecasters say more heavy snow is expected, while heavy ice buildup was likely from Texas to Pennsylvania.

This story was originally published by Dave Briggs of Newsy. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

It’s not just people, freight is also a burden for the airline industry this season.

“We are a passenger airline, but not many people realize that almost every flight you go on, there’s actually cargo below as well,” Chris Busch, the managing director of the Americas region for United Airlines Cargo, said. “This is a normal peak season for air, but it’s definitely, I think, the largest one any of us have seen in a very long time.”

Ships are backed up at seaports across the U.S., waiting to unload cargo from overseas.

“The demand is strong from all places into the U.S.,” Busch said.

As a result, air cargo is seeing more demand, especially from overseas markets. But the number of international flights isn’t back to pre-pandemic levels.

“Our transatlantic network, I think, right now, is roughly 75 percent of what it was pre-pandemic, but our transpacific network is only around 25 to 30 percent of what we were pre-pandemic,” Busch said.

And planes can only carry so much.

“The amount of freight you can carry on an airplane is a lot less than what you can carry on an ocean vessel,” he said.

“Typically we would use air cargo for very expensive, very time-sensitive products,” Donald Maier, the Dean of Maritime Transportation, Logistics, and Management at the California State University Maritime Academy, said. “There are so many different factors right now that have impacted our supply chains from inventory levels to significant consumer demand, COVID closures of the ports, our ports trying to catch up with it.”

The bottlenecks go from one area to the next. It’s something Maier said consumers should be wary of.

“As a consumer, plan on having higher prices. Unfortunately, and I can’t say that’s all because of the delays in the supply chain, there’s just a significant amount of demand. And we still have a pandemic we’re all living through so because of the uncertainty there is that challenge we still have to manage,” he said.

“Definitely a rise in prices, there's no question about it,” Joel Sutherland, a professor of practice in supply chain management at the University of San Diego, said.

He has more than 30 years of experience in logistics.

“If we’re going to meet the demand of consumers, then we have to use air freight. More importantly, if they don't use air freight and pay the premium then they risk losing business to their competitors that are doing this,” he explained.

Many airlines, like United Airlines, are trying to meet this demand by offering cargo-only flights. While it’s more expensive, Busch said it helps support the supply chain.

“They are still passenger aircraft, but we call them our freight-only flights,” he said.

United has moved more than 1.6 billion pounds of cargo since the beginning of the pandemic. The airline says 730 million pounds were moved on cargo-only flights. About 14,000 cargo-only flights have been flown by the company since the pandemic began.

“We’re doing all we can to support, but I don't know if it's going to be the solution for everyone," Busch said.

For now, consumers can still expect longer shipping times, higher prices, and possible delays.

“Be prepared for this to continue for at least another year, rough guess estimate,” Maier said.

Weary retailers continue to battle pandemic uncertainty as the delta variant causes new spikes in coronavirus infections. But for now, at least, expectations for a merry holiday season remain intact.

What's happening: Data published Thursday is expected to confirm that U.S. retail sales declined for the second straight month in August.

But new forecasts from Deloitte, Bain & Company and Mastercard predict a huge sales boom in the coming months, the most important time of the year for retailers.

Deloitte estimates that holiday sales will increase between 7% and 9% in 2021 as vaccinations help shoppers feel more comfortable venturing out to spend some of the cash they've been hoarding.

"A steady decline in the savings rate to pre-pandemic levels will support consumer spending and keep retail sales elevated this season," said Daniel Bachman, Deloitte's U.S. economic forecaster. "Further, e-commerce sales will continue to grow as consumers demonstrate an ongoing and steady movement toward buying online across all categories."

The consulting firm expects online sales to jump between 11% and 15% year-over-year, reaching up to $218 billion.

Mastercard, for its part, sees U.S. retail sales rising 7.4%. While online shopping could rally 7.6%, in-store shopping is expected to increase by 6.6% compared to 2020. Bain & Company is also calling for a 7% sales growth rate in November and December.

"The pandemic has impacted nearly every inch of the retail industry," said Aaron Cheris, the head of Bain & Company's Americas Retail practice. "However, heading into this holiday season, we also see important tailwinds for nominal retail growth, including boosts from inflation, rebounding employment, healthy savings rates and wage growth."

But wait: Supply chains remain badly tangled, causing shipping costs to soar. Some companies worry that empty shelves and shortages of in-demand products could dampen the mood.

"The demand is going to be there," MGA Entertainment CEO Isaac Larian told CNN Business late last month. "What is not going to be there is the product to fill the demand."

Mastercard thinks retailers will try to get around supply chain concerns, as well as persistent difficulties in hiring workers, by offering earlier holiday promotions in stores and online — particularly for electronics and clothing items.

"This holiday season will be defined by early shopping," Steve Sadove, senior advisor for Mastercard, said in a statement.

Investor insight: A spending surge would be good news for retail stocks, which shot up earlier this year but have been caught in a holding pattern in recent months. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF is up 45% year-to-date, but has shed 4.4% in the third quarter.

U.S. retail sales for August will provide a crucial look at how spending amidst the delta variant is holding up in advance of the holiday season. A consensus estimate from Briefing.com predicts retail sales dropped 0.7% after declining 1.1% in July.

Data released earlier this week from China showed that retail sales struggled in August, increasing just 2.5% compared to a year earlier. That was much weaker than expected and a dramatic slowdown from the 8.5% uptick recorded in July.

Video above: Amazon outpaces Walmart in Customer spending

The vast network of ports, container vessels and trucking companies that moves goods around the world is badly tangled, and the cost of shipping is skyrocketing. That's troubling news for retailers and holiday shoppers.

More than 18 months into the pandemic, the disruption to global supply chains is getting worse, spurring shortages of consumer products and making it more expensive for companies to ship products where they're needed.

Unresolved snags, and the emergence of new problems including the delta variant, mean shoppers are likely to face higher prices and fewer choices this holiday season. Companies such as Adidas, Crocs and Hasbro are already warning of disruptions as they prepare for the crucial year-end period.

"The pressures on global supply chains have not eased, and we do not expect them to any time soon," said Bob Biesterfeld, the CEO of C.H. Robinson, one of the world's largest logistics firms.

The latest obstacle is in China, where a terminal at the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port south of Shanghai has been shut since Aug. 11 after a dock worker tested positive for COVID-19. Major international shipping lines, including Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM have adjusted schedules to avoid the port and are warning customers of delays.

The partial closure of the world's third busiest container port is disrupting other ports in China, stretching supply chains that were already suffering from recent problems at Yantian port, ongoing container shortages, coronavirus-related factory shutdowns in Vietnam and the lingering effects of the Suez Canal blockage in March.

Shipping companies expect the global crunch to continue. That's massively increasing the cost of moving cargo and could add to the upward pressure on consumer prices.

"We currently expect the market situation only to ease in the first quarter of 2022 at the earliest," Hapag-Lloyd chief executive Rolf Habben Jansen said in a recent statement.

The cost of shipping goods from China to North America and Europe has continued to climb over the past few months, following a spike earlier in the year, according to data from London-based Drewry Shipping.

The company's World Container Index shows that the composite cost of shipping a 40-foot container on eight major East-West routes hit $9,613 in the week to Aug. 19, up 360% from a year ago.

The biggest price jump was along the route from Shanghai to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, with the cost of a 40-foot container soaring 659% to $13,698. Container shipping prices on routes from Shanghai to Los Angeles and New York have also jumped.

"The current historically high freight rates are caused by the fact that there is unmet demand," Soren Skou, CEO of container shipping giant Maersk, said on an earnings call this month. "There's simply not enough capacity," he added.

Port congestion

The terminal shutdown in Ningbo will add to bottlenecks arising from the closure in June of Yantian, a port about 50 miles north of Hong Kong, after coronavirus infections were detected among dock workers.

While a partial reopening of Yantian took only a few days, a return to normal services took nearly a month to achieve, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence Panjiva, as the congestion spilled over to other ports.

That spells trouble for retailers and consumer goods companies trying to restock inventories heading into the crucial year-end holiday shopping season. "The closure at Ningbo is now particularly sensitive as it may hold up exports for the peak season of deliveries into the U.S. and Europe which typically arrive from September through November," S&P Global Panjiva said in a research note on Aug. 12.

Drewry Shipping said Friday that congestion at nearby ports Shanghai and Hong Kong is "spiking" and spreading elsewhere in Asia, as well as in Europe and North America, "particularly the West coast" of the United States.

Some 36 container ships are anchored off the adjacent ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to a report Thursday from the Marine Exchange of Southern California.

That's the highest number since February, when 40 container ships were waiting to enter. Ordinarily, there would be just one or zero container ships at anchor, according to the Marine Exchange.

The congestion in California is starting to spread to "pretty much every port in the [United States]," according to Biesterfeld of C.H. Robinson. "The chances of your vessel arriving on time are about 40%, when it was 80% this time last year," he told CNN Business.

The backlog at ports will have a ripple effect on already jammed warehouses and stretched road and rail capacity. Logistics networks have been running at maximum capacity for months, thanks to stimulus-fueled demand led by U.S. consumers and a pickup in manufacturing. Truck driver shortages in the United States and United Kingdom have only exacerbated supply disruptions.

U.S. imports in March and May exceeded levels seen in October 2020, typically the peak of the shipping season, said Eric Oak, supply chain research analyst at S&P Global Panjiva.

"This means that logistics facilities have been running flat out for most of the summer," he added.

It's not just ports that are under pressure. Air terminals are receiving increasingly large amounts of freight as companies turn to alternative methods to transport their goods. At some of the larger U.S. airports such as Chicago, there are delays of up to two weeks to claim cargo, according to Biesterfeld.

Efforts to contain COVID-19 outbreaks have recently disrupted traffic at Shanghai Pudong and Nanjing airports in China.

Retailers brace for impact

"Name almost anything and it seems like there's a shortage of it somewhere," Biesterfeld added. "Retailers are struggling to replenish inventory as fast as they're selling, let alone prepare for holiday demand."

Supply chains were discussed on nearly two thirds of some 7,000 company earnings calls globally in July, up from 59% in the same month last year, according to an analysis by S&P Global Panjiva.

Consumer goods producers are taking drastic steps to meet demand — such as changing where products are made and moving them by plane instead of boat — but companies such as shoemaker Steve Madden say they're already missing out on sales because they simply don't have enough goods.

The company has moved half the production of its women's range to Mexico and Brazil from China in an attempt to shorten delivery times.

"In terms of the supply chain ... we could talk about this all day. There are challenges throughout the globe," CEO Edward Rosenfeld said on an earnings call last month. "There is port congestion, both in the U.S. and China. There are Covid outbreaks at factories. There are challenges getting containers. We could go on and on."

It's one of several major apparel brands hit by factory shutdowns in Vietnam over the past month. Data from S&P Global Panjiva shows that nearly 40% of the volume of goods imported into the United States by sea over the 12 months to July came from the Southeast Asian country.

Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted said the sportswear company will be unable to fully meet the "strong demand" for its products in the second half of the year due to the shutdowns, despite switching production to other regions.

Supply chain difficulties have been "leading [to] significant delays and additional logistics costs, particularly as we have been making more use of airfreight," he said on a recent earnings call.

Andrew Rees, the CEO of Crocs, said that transit times from Asia to most of the company's leading markets are approximately double what they were historically. "That's been the case for some time, and we're expecting [to] live with that," he told investors last month.

To ensure product availability during the holiday season, Hasbro, which makes Monopoly and My Little Pony, said it is increasing the number of ocean carriers it works with, utilizing more ports to expedite deliveries and sourcing more products earlier from multiple countries.

For consumers, the supply chain crunch is likely to mean higher prices. Hasbro, for example, is increasing prices to offset rising freight and commodities costs. The company is projecting that its ocean freight expenses will be on average 4 four times higher this year than last, according to chief financial officer Deborah Thomas.

Shoppers should also brace for longer than normal delivery times and may need to have several different gift ideas up their sleeves.

"As we've been forecasting for months, shoppers are going to see some bare shelves at the holidays," said Biesterfeld. "And if you buy most of your presents online, get it done early. Delivery time may be four to six weeks."

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Steve Negaard knows one thing better than most. It’s in his blood.

“You know, my grandfather came over from Sweden and he didn’t really know much except shoe repair. I’m the owner of a family business here in Minneapolis. We’ve been in business since 1929. It’s called Nokomis Shoe."

Nokomis Shoe is an unassuming but quaint store in south Minneapolis. And while Negaard knows shoes, lately he hasn’t known when his next order will be filled.

“I’ve never had it where it’s so slow to get the product that I’ve ordered. It’s a day-to-day battle to get product,” said Negaard.

This isn’t just a problem for Negaard, and not just a problem for businesses selling shoes.

“The last few weeks, feels like the last few months, we’ve had a lot of a lot supply chain challenges, the result of COVID-19. And obviously a couple weeks ago we had the incident with the Evergiven in the Suez Canal, which is further stressing the supply chain,” said Jonathan Gold, the VP of Supply Chain and Customs Policy for the National Retail Federation.

He says the late March obstruction of the Suez Canal in Egypt only made global trade issues even worse.

“You’ve seen the congestion on the West Coast for a couple of months now,” said Gold.

Or maybe you haven’t seen it. Ports on the West Coast have been clogged since before Christmas. Now, the same thing is likely to happen on the East Coast, even though ships are flowing through the now unblocked canal.

“Your vessels are now heading to the East Coast and it’s going to cause some port congestion as a result. Instead of the vessels being staggered as they normally are, they’re all going to come at once,” said Gold.

And that is going to affect you when you go shopping on items you might not ever think about.

“Even soaps out of Seattle, it’s everything. I don’t see the situation improving for at least 120 days,” said Negaard.

Negaard has made a ton of adjustments and Nokomis is doing OK. But he’s worried about other small businesses around the country.

“I just, I hope the consumer shops local and thinks about these people that are supporting their neighborhoods and communities, because we won’t be around if they don’t.”