TORONTO – –    “The Tsunami in Japan.”

That was the quick response of a Future Shop clerk when todaystrucking.com asked why there were so many empty shelves in the electronics store on Wednesday.

Our reporter had to buy a memory chip for a digital camera and an a/c-adaptor so North American appliances could be used in Europe. (His daughter was traveling from Toronto to Spain later in the week.)

The Future Shop in North Toronto had but one of each item in stock.

Admittedly, there was more than one memory chip, but only one of the size in question.

As for the adaptor the single version available came in a taped-up box, which is a clear indicator that it’s a return.

 The clerk blamed the dearth on the Japanese crisis.

Our man wondered: Could the lack of stock could be attributed to Japan’s woes?

We asked around.

We called the Future Shop, Walmart and Panasonic. After two hours, none had returned our calls. 

Truckers we talked to today hadn’t heard of any problems.

Bob Armstrong, the president of Supply Chain & Logistics Association of Canada, said he was dubious that the lack of goods in the store could be directly attributable to the ‘quake.

 “The ports are still busy, and they haven’t reported a slowdown,” he said.           

“If a product is from Japan,” he added, “then it may be a problem, but usually that takes longer while they [merchants] use existing inventory plus inventory that was in transit, too.”

Ruth Snowden, the executive director of the Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association, echoed Armstrong’s remarks.

However, she added, “check back in a few weeks.”

Snowden explained that takes about 40 days for a container to go from a Japanese port to Canada, so if Japan doesn’t have its factories back in operation soon, shortages for consumer goods — and indeed for carriers who make their living hauling the stuff — will be a real possibility.

“Did you see those photos of shipping containers completely turned upside down and thrown around? I’m wondering what’s in those containers. And we’re not going to find out for a while.”

Evidently, like Panasonic, the Future Shop clerk was slightly ahead of his time.