A box of cereal is really a bundle of global logistics: grain grown in one country, packaging materials sourced from another, shipped through ports that can each become a bottleneck. When any single link in that chain slows down — a port backlog, a shipping container shortage, a regional weather disaster — the delay and added cost don't disappear. They get absorbed and passed forward, link by link, until they land on a price sticker.
This is why supply chain disruptions often show up in consumer prices months after the actual event that caused them — by the time your local store restocks the shelf, the story behind the higher price may already be over.
It also explains why some prices remain "sticky" even after the original shock passes: once a company raises a price to cover a cost spike, it rarely lowers it back down just because costs eventually normalize.
The bottom line: Your grocery bill is a live readout of a global supply chain most people will never see.