AUGUSTA, G.A. (WJBF) – We tell you every year how local businesses look forward to the extra foot traffic from the Masters Tournament, but this time around some owners are dreading it because of supply chain issues.
“It’s going to take a little more effort,” said Brad Usry, the owner of Fat Man’s Hospitality.
Brad Usry is the owner of Fat Man’s Hospitality. He says supply chain issues are having a huge impact on local businesses.
“Our costs are higher. I hate to give a percentage, but I mean across the board, we’re paying more,” said Usry.
And of course, since they’re having to pay more, customers will have to pay more. Aside from that, Usry tells NewsChannel 6 that they’re not getting 100 percent of what they’re ordering when it comes to ingredients and other necessities for the restaurant.
He says, “Typically it’s around 80 percent of what we order, but we just have to suck it up and go shopping and find it. We have to do what what we have to do to make it work.”
And that’s the same motto that the manager at Bee’s Knees is going by. Right now the establishment is facing a shortage of cups.
“Things are taking much longer to get here, whereas things use to take one week or two weeks now it’s taking three four sometimes more,” said Porter.
John Porter is the manager at Bee’s Knees. He says because of the delay in getting the cups they usually use, they’re having to buy a bulk order of a different type of cups.
“So, now we’re at a point where we’re kind of desperate and we have to order these cups that are inferior, just to be prepared for the Masters,” said Porter.
And of course, those cups cost more. Hannah Barnes, owner of Greenbrier Nursery in Evans says Masters Week brings in a lot of money for her store.
“Because a lot of the new rentals coming around people want to redo they’re entire landscaping for this week of Masters,” said Barnes.
She says they usually get a lot of special requests to do planters and arrangements for indoors and outdoors. Barnes says her biggest concern is selling out and not being able to restock once the tournament is over.
She says, “I worry that it might. Especially if people are already buying a lot of the larger ceramic planters, the palms, the hard to find things like the Boston fern. If someone comes in and they have a big porch, they might want to buy 6 at a time. Then customers who come in after the Masters who just want to buy things for their own home, they might have issues find those specific plants and items.”
These local business owners just ask that locals be patient as they try to navigate through this rough patch.
