Leftists seem to think “insurance” is some kind of magic fairy that just makes all the consequences of this action go away. I’ve seen this in multiple different incidents too, oh don’t worry insurance covers them.

This is a fantasy.

If this warehouse is even owned by KC (this is generally not the case, they are owned by a property management company and rented to the occupant), “insurance” will pay for the building damages, and likely not even close to all of it. Also KC doesn’t run their own warehouses, it’s all 3PL unless something changed in the last few years.

This warehouse was the distribution center of KC products for that entire region. DCs are run lean, empty space is wasted rent.

All of that supply chain capacity needs to go elsewhere now. Trucks coming from the plant need to unload their product somewhere. LTL and truckload carriers need to pick up their orders from somewhere to get it to the customer.

Freight costs are going to go through the roof. Order backlog will balloon. Lead times will explode. Their other warehouses will now be overflowing and plagued with inefficiencies.

Customers are still going to need product. They will go to competitors.

KC needs to open a new warehouse. Replace the institutional knowledge and leaders they lost. Spend time engineering and implementing their WMS, ERP, and processes to fit a new building. This takes time and money.

Ontario is the logistics hub of the entire West coast and Southwest. There’s a reason every warehouse is there. It’s close to the port, has plentiful cheap labor, industrial land is cheap, weather is good (well it hits 115 degrees F in summer but that’s only a problem for the hourlies), and a truck can service the entire region in a relatively short time.

None of this is covered by some benevolent insurance company. This is a significant event for KC, and it’s going to lose them a fucking truckload of money every single day they don’t have a DC running in that area.