Daniel Buzzell, co-owner of Ace Hardware in Downtown Midland, made his due diligence in preparing for the holiday season. He ordered holiday lights back in February to make sure he had enough stock by the time the holiday shopping season rolled around, being one of his biggest sellers by this time this year.
Now its November, and some of his orders till have not arrived yet. Normally, the light orders get to his store by mid-September.
“We are into November and past Halloween and people are going to start putting up lights here pretty quick,” Buzzell said. “I still have… all those empty spaces on that shelf. I am expecting product to ship still, and hopefully it gets through in the next week. But it is a little nerve wracking.”
Ace Hardware, located at 419 E. Main St., is not the only Midland-local retailer facing stocking woes right now. Disruptions to the global supply chain is one the latest non-flu like symptoms of the COVID-19 pandemic, exacerbated by the busiest consumer season of the year. While local retailers have stock to sell, they are still missing much of what they ordered as the shopping season starts and as people buy early for the holidays.
Bo Brines is the long-time owner of Little Forks Outfitters, located downtown at 143 E. Main St. The store sells fly fishing gear, outdoor clothing and general outdoor gear. Clothing has been one of many stocking issues for Brines, with shipments arriving with only small and double-extra large sizes. However, the mid-range sizes being are the ones he especially needed in stock, he said.
In total, about a third of the products he ordered for the holiday season is still missing from the store. While he said he can find a home for products after the holiday season ends, it is less useful for him to have these products come in January.
“The surest way to not get your sales is to not have the inventory,” Brines said, “If I do not have the inventory to sell when people are coming in looking for Christmas presents, I for sure will not get that business.”
Also in downtown is Julia Kepler, owner of Serendipity Road and Joyful Tantrum, at 213 and 215 E. Main St. Serendipity Road is a gift shop stocked with local-Michigan business products and Joyful Tantrum sells toys free of screens that center around STEM, crafts, books, games and puzzles.
Kepler is still missing 20-25% of the stock she ordered back in June for her stores. She said toys are going to be “rough” to get this year and tried to order from vendors in the Midwest to minimize wait times. If there is something a customer wants at her store, she said to buy it now.
“Anything that is out there right now or even coming in, is not going to make it by Christmas,” Kepler said. “That is the reality of it.”
Buzzell has seen drastic decrease in he orders being shipped, even outside of the holiday season. Less than 40% of the products he orders are arriving in a given week, he said.
These shortages and delays strike during their busiest shopping time of the year. Buzzell said Ace Hardware has seen an increase in holiday shopping over the past couple years, with November and December slowly becoming some of his busiest months. Little Forks Outfitters’ busiest months are November and December, with in-store business increasing rapidly in sales over the past two years, Brines said. Joyful Tantrum alone sees about a quarter of its sales in the last two months of the year, Kepler said.
On top of the stocking issues and wait time comes increase costs for products and shipping. Brines said he has owned Little Forks Outfitters for the past 26 years and said price increases usually come as new seasons start. However, this was the fist time he saw product price increase in the middle of a season, with one pair of shoes increasing price twice by its vendor. First it was by $15, then by $10 a second time.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Brines said. “There is just all this stuff that does not really have resolution.”
Other businesses have seen increases to shipping and product costs, causing Buzzell, Brines, Kepler, and to increase prices for the consumers as well.
These shortages have made some of these businesses try other vendors to keep the store shelves from becoming barren wastelands. Kepler said Joyful Tantrum alone started 25 new companies to make up the difference. Ace Hardware also had to find alternative suppliers to bring in missing products, Buzzell said.
But not all is hopeless for these local retailers. Kepler said that local retailers should be more prepared for this shortage than big-box retailers. This is because many of them saw the shortages coming and ordered early, along with the fact that they have smaller stock orders for one store compared to big box chains like Target.
While he has felt effects from these delays, Brines said he has a lot of good inventory to sell, especially since they had a good holiday season last year.
As to how Midland area consumers can help local retailers during this time, Buzzell said to buy gift cards for local stores so people can buy what they want from these stores later. Keplar said something that reflects what many other retailers are saying: Buy early and buy local first.
“Local businesses give back to their community sometimes far more than they get,” Kepler said. “We are sponsoring Little League teams and soccer teams, and giving donations to the nonprofits and to the schools. If you support small businesses, they support the communities.”
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