Reading:

In many countries, the "straw" has utilization needs by cafes, hotels, bars, restaurants, and individuals at home. Plastic straw manufacturing consists of three main sizes of six, eight, and ten millimeters(Market Watch, 2021). Through global advancements, the plastic straw market faced significant challenges in strategic planning to remain at a competitive lead. Wow Plastics, Inc., located in Texas, provides customer service abroad, meeting the food operation standardized requirements(Wow Plastics, Inc., n.d.). In offering a competitive reduction to cost, their business supports one hundred percent of biodegradable products with statistics from environmental science. Their mission to provide excellent customer service provides bulk straw orders to restaurants, hospitals, bars, prisons, schools, and many other consumers.

During the Covid-19 surge, people and businesses moved to one-time-use products instead of reusable options such as stainless or wooden straws. The selection of a safer option in packaging and a contactless approach developed an increase in production needs for more take-out dining(Thiry RDN, 2020). Additionally, the previous enforcement of taxes or bans for plastic straws and bags has undergone a transitional period of being provisionally lifted according to executive orders based on specific state regulations in New York and Maine and a B2B (Business-to-Business) decisions of other states. The rise in supply and demand for consumers created the opportunistic innovation for businesses to produce alternate options based on these lifestyles changing needs. Collaboration of consumer needs and customer satisfaction of the products positively impacted Wow Plastics, Inc. to offer other customizable options through technological operation advancements.

My Questions:

• Is there a participant in the product's production that identified in the reading as most important?
• What reasons did the reading give for the choice to select the company?
• In what ways do they feel fluctuations of supply affect the market?