TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Garnet and Gold is full of merchandise. Anyone who walks in wouldn’t think the store is having supply problems.
But certain items, like hats and jerseys, still aren’t in after months of shipping delays.
Eric Nelson, operations manager for Garnet and Gold, said in his more than two decades working here, these are the worst supply chain issues he’s ever seen.
“We are struggling to get product in a timely manner,” Nelson said.
Nelson has been waiting on a delayed shipment of football jerseys since July.
“We’re gonna get them in January or possibly December, but more likely January, and then football season is over,” he said.
Nelson says supply chain shortages have hit seasonal shops, like Garnet and Gold, particularly hard.
But no industry is immune.
“Some things are ending up being out of stock and we think we’re gonna get them,” Ashley Thomas, owner of Sparkle Tallahassee, said. “So this year we really just went out of our way to overbuy.”
Small businesses like Sparkle Tallahassee and Midtown Reader have decided to overstock their products, anticipating supply disruptions.
“We’re doing a lot of guessing work,” Midtown Reader Manager Kristin Kehl said.
Midtown Reader has doubled the number of copies it would normally stock for many of this season’s most popular books.
“We’re doing everything that we can with the industry shortages,” Kehl said.
Manager Kristin Kehl expects longer supply delays beginning in December and encourages customers to do their holiday shopping early.
And of course, be patient if the exact item you want isn’t in stock, because supply chain shortages aren’t something that retailers can control.
“It is truly nationwide,” Nelson said. “All of our vendors that we’ve talked to are having the same issues, all the retailers that we talked to are having the same exact issues that we are experiencing right now.”
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