During January, February, and March it seem that I have read at least one article per week in the Wall Street Journal about the shortage of transportation, materials, labor, and production capacity that is currently hitting many, if not most industries in the US.
Most notably the auto industry has paused production in some locations due to shortages of chips. The primary reason given: purchasing managers simply did not believe that the economy would be this good in the first quarter of 2021 stating that they "were reluctant to place orders, citing their lack of certainty about the economy and the coronavirus"*
We are in this same situation. We have issues with transportation, availability of skilled labor (we can't quite explain it, but it is true) and materials. Some of this is due to factors out of our control, some is due to the fact that we forecasted a lower demand than we are experiencing. Beginning last May we prepared for the worst.
It is a good problem to have… sort of. We are thrilled (really thrilled) to have such loyal current customers and so much interest from new customers. We know, however, that it can be frustrating when you see the item that you most want is out of stock. Our unexpected good fortune has been…well, unexpected.
We are aware of the problem areas and are working very hard to get back in balance. It took us 9 months of shattering uncertainty to get where we are- it is going to take another 6-8 weeks for us to get back to where we want to be. We appreciate you being there for us, and we want to be there for you. All of our efforts are focused in that direction.
Please be patient with us. We are committed to getting back in stock on our core favorite items, and we are excited to unveil some fresh new products in the coming months as well.
*WSJ February 12, 2021