There were supply disruptions in steel starting in 2017 that I noticed at work, but in summer 2020 some of our other consumables (lubricants, abrasives, fasteners) really went downhill in quality, causing me all kinds of headaches at work. I attribute this to personnel turnover at the production level. The lubricants recovered far more quickly than the other two items I mentioned, because of differences in inventory, distribution, and expense.
A good friend who is the tech at my local music store related to:me that he was having strings break after one or two gigs, sometimes quicker, around the same time. We joked about “COVID strings” then, and still do. The way music accessories are distributed makes me unsurprised that even if production recovered quickly, we could still be using them years later.
I also know that these are more likely “bootleg” rather than “counterfeit”. What’s the difference? They actually roll off the same production line as nice, quality products, but are (or should be) rejected because of production errors. Instead they are stolen, along with packaging materials, and sold on the side. Easy to do with the proliferation of third party sellers, outsourced production, etc.
My father spent many years as a consultant in factory settings and had tons of stories about this sort of thing.
