ORANGE, Ohio — Holiday cheer may cost a little more this year due to the supply and demand backup, but local retailers say they aren’t letting shipping delays steal their Christmas spirt.
“We’re just lucky to be here” said Lauren Bosworth owner with Laura of Pembroke at Pinecrest.
After trudging through our first pandemic holiday season last year, consumers learned to be flexible and alter the way they shopped. This year, the holidays continue to be impacted by the pandemic with supply chain disruptions and delivery delays around the country. Bosworth tells us it was all about pivoting and pre planning this holiday season.
“Some of the things that we typically sell a lot of, not only in the holidays but all year round, have been super backordered or not even able to get it," Bosworth said. "They’re kind of moving targets as far as the arrival date, so we’ve been chasing those. But we’ve kind of pivoted and found things that we are able to get that we think our customers would like just as well.”
Just a few stores down, it's the same story with different supplies.
“We’re having a little bit of a delay with our leather and our hardware," said Jackie Wachter, creative director of Fount. "We saw this about 12 months ago, so we started overordering our hardware and leather to be prepared.”
She added that although shipping has been behind, they did everything they could to prepare for the holidays.
“We heard from a lot of businesses that there will be supply problems, so that was something we were trying to be prepared for to make sure our customers are happy at Christmas."
Even through the setback, the silver lining was getting more foot traffic from customers who are buying things on the spot instead of online.
Looking to save this year? Here are three holiday shopping tips:
- Ask your kids to be flexible
- Shop early and often
- Check local stores first
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