I’ll admit that I’m guilty of this, not realizing that when the world returned to “normal” after Covid things would just never be the same. I actually did realize that would be the case for many parts of our lives, but I did not realize the drastic effect it would have on our promotional product industry.
Here's what is surprisingly different:
· Customer service from the majority of our suppliers is at an all time low, regarding quality. Some of their employees, like in other industries, have simply decided not to return to work, or want to work from home. While I’m a huge advocate of working from home (myself and my assistant have worked from our respective homes for years now), there’s seems to be a disconnect it is causing with our suppliers. Information is not accurate. Responses take longer. It is generally much poorer.
· Price increases are occurring, and at a higher rate than usual, mid-year and into the fall. The price of shipping containers is through the roof, getting space on the ships to get the goods into port is more expensive and harder to come by, and this is also affecting the supplier’s cost of raw goods.
· The inventory shortages, especially for apparel and caps, are at an all time high. By this I mean inventory is at an all-time low.
· Production time, again likely due to staff shortages, is longer than normal. Times were typically 5-10 days and are now 3-4 weeks. This is not true in all cases but in many.
So the new “normal” means your swag is likely going to take longer, cost more, and you may have to settle for substitutes.
Prognosticators predict these problems will be solved by Q1 of 2022, and we hope so.
On the other hand, there are new opportunities now, which we will address later.