More than a year later, local businesses are still affected by semiconductor shortage

The problems began as a high demand for freezers when people were stockpiling food at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. It snowballed from there into a long-term shortage of semiconductors that has left Dakota TV & Appliance, as well as other local businesses, high and dry while trying to maintain profits and salvage relationships with increasingly impatient customers.

Semiconductors create partial currents of electricity that power a wide range of electrical products from vehicles to dishwashers and other appliances. The creation of these items have been left at a standstill with many still out of work due to the pandemic. Semiconductors are needed to create computer chips. Most appliances sold today, regardless of whether they are “smart appliances.” need computer chips to function.

“A lot of these appliances are electronically driven instead of mechanical,”…

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