From News Nation:
“Start your holiday shopping
now or risk items being out of stock, experts say”
Forget December! If you want the
most wonderful time of the year to be holly and jolly, you might want to get
shopping even while it’s still hot outside. “As it relates to the holidays, now
is the time because all of the things are going to be impacted — the factories,
the warehouses, the trucks,” UMSL Professor Mitch Millstein said. Millstein,
who teaches supply chain and analytics at the University of Missouri St. Louis
Business School, said nearly a year and a half into the pandemic, companies and
consumers are still navigating a changing landscape. “The disruption that
occurred last year is like a wave. We’re in the wave. The wave is going through
the supply chain now. I was talking to a vice president of operations just the
other day. He’s working in the warehouse because he’s got people out and his
warehouse manager is packing orders,” Millstein said.
Whether it’s workers or widgets,
the shortages are real and quick solutions aren’t always realistic. “What
happened overseas is containers ended up in the wrong place. This is really a
once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon. Because we stopped ordering them or put a stop
to the orders, they had to go someplace. They ended up in the wrong place. This
is still being sorted out today,” Millstein said. Rod Sides, vice-chair and US
leader of retail and distribution for Deloitte, said rising prices are causing
concern. “Consumers are showing us they are worried about inflation and the
cost of goods going up,” he said. He points to back-to-school shopping as an
indicator of how the holiday hustle will function. “Folks moved earlier in the
season because they were worried about stockouts. We’re going to see the exact
same thing happen with the holiday,” Sides said. Experts say if you want to
make sure your gifts make it under the tree, start your holiday shopping now. “We’re
going to have to think not days ahead, not I’m going to shop on Black Friday
for what I want on Christmas because that’s a month ahead of time and I get
great details. We’ve got to go a couple of months,” Millstein said.
^ As I do every year I have
already started my Holiday shopping. ^
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