When a major haulage firm here tells you it's pulled 20 lorries-worth of trade from Great Britain each day, it should be evident that a solution must be found and that the current grace period for certain checks must be extended.
or some, dealing with the impact of the Northern Ireland Protocol has been surmountable - the feeling that stories around the first few days, post-transition, have been overtly negative.
Try telling that to the swathes of companies and hauliers trying to get goods into Northern Ireland.
"French and Spanish hauliers have no interest in coming into the UK," one leading haulier tells me. A chunk of his business was shipping fresh goods from Great Britain to Ireland, much of it "groupage", where a lorry's load contains products from a range of different sources.
He says the complexities around that make it no longer viable and he's pulled that part of his business and pivoted away.
"If you collect a pallet of strawberries in Dublin, then a pallet of spuds (from someone else) and he doesn't do the paperwork, one has done nothing wrong, but it impacts on the others."
In one case, a lorry full of avocados - due to arrive in Dublin around 24 hours after setting off from Great Britain - remained sitting at the port for several days due to paperwork hold-ups.
It seems that, while Northern Ireland and its representatives fought tirelessly for a system in place to protect our trade with the EU and avoid any sort of border infrastructure, the impact of such a protocol on Great Britain to Northern Ireland trade was something of a surprise to some of our English, Scottish and Welsh neighbours.
"The surprising thing is that this has come as a surprise to many of Britain's industries," Stephen Kelly, chief executive of Manufacturing NI, tells me.
"They were fed a narrative that it would be business as usual and that there is no border in the Irish Sea."
One major food supply business based here remains optimistic. "Our supply chain is strong, with our pre-Brexit stock-build and contingency plan helping to ensure our stores are receiving orders," it tells me. "We are working closely with our suppliers, many of which are Northern Ireland-based, to ensure continuity of supply and, at present, are trading as normal."
That doesn't appear to be the case for some of the major UK supermarkets. Sainsbury's was the first to break cover, as consumers began seeing Spar-branded products on the shelves - the chain doing a deal with Henderson Group here in Northern Ireland to ensure the security of supply of dozens of product lines.
You only have to take a quick scan of the forensic coverage from the BBC's John Campbell to get a sense of the challenges which have emerged already, and continue to do so, as each new hurdle is reached.
For example, the Government's Movement Assistance Scheme - covering the cost of certificates for things like food and drink - cost £330,000 in the first 20 days.
Retailers have said the number of certificates being issued under the scheme could increase significantly in April, once the three-month grace period ends, and said it must be extended, or a long-term solution put in place.
And what we are also now faced with - and it's a challenge facing our Executive and other relevant organisations - is having to let the world know that Northern Ireland remains open for business with the EU and we remain part of the single market.
All this bluster before a deal was struck about having the best of both worlds only works if nations across the globe are fully aware of our different legislative position.
But the impact is already being felt at a micro level. AliExpress, for example, which is a China-based global marketplace akin to Amazon, now appears to have stopped shipping some if its products from its European bases in Spain and the Czech Republic to the UK as a whole.
So, is trade from Great Britain now a less appetising proposition for many retailers?
Looking at the last few days and speaking to those who have already made the hard decisions and pivoted, with the barriers still in the way, in our current state, it appears to make it less appealing, and less realistic, from a financial point of view.
I can't believe I'm saying, 'We need a deal' again. I thought we were past that. But it seems, with one 11th-hour, rag-tag and piecemeal 'solution', we're in need of a proper solution to the problems that we are now coming up against.
"What I would be worried about is Government leaving this to the last minute again in March and trying to get another derogation," Seamus Leheny of Logistics UK tells me - a man who has been at the sharp end of things of late.
"We need to deal with this now."
John Mulgrew is editor of Ulster Business
