Will the Supply Chain Ruin the Holidays?

As the holidays are approaching, most are starting to shop for their gifts, decorations, and other holiday related items, but this year it may be a bit different. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple issues have sprung up in the supply chain, affecting how quick items are shipped to you or the stores you shop in. Unfortunately, if you haven’t done most of your holiday shopping, you may be out of luck. Shipping delays are becoming a bigger problem this holiday season. Something more serious is the uprise in supply chain issues. Items that come from overseas are increasingly getting harder to find due to the shipping delays from overseas shipments. Something you should expect is higher prices for your holiday decorations and gifts since demand is higher and supply is limited. 

Less workers and labor constraints have been a serious cause for the shipping delays across the world. Less workers means the items get made slower, shipped slower, therefore not arriving as quickly as it used to. If you usually wait until the last minute to do your shopping for gift wrapping, ribbons and other items related to those because it’s usually cheaper closer to the holiday, well you may be out of luck. Experts are saying that the items you are looking for may be gone by then or have increased in price due to higher demand closer to the holiday. So, if you haven’t done most of your holiday shopping early, you may be a little too late. 

A big role in holiday spirit is the decorations you have in your home, on your porch, or see driving late at night, but this year that may also be a problem. As stated before shipping delays are a big problem but supply chain issues are an even bigger problem, especially for your holiday decorations. This year decorations and specifically electrical decorations such as christmas lights and pre-lit artificial trees are going to be increasingly hard to find as we creep up to the holidays.

 Although not all stores may be out of stock of essential Christmas items, your best bet is to shop around and purchase things as soon as you can. It was an issue last year and many had problems getting things under the tree, but hopefully we can rely on the stores that learned from last year’s problems. Good luck in all of your holiday ventures this year.