Why is everything taking so long?

Have you ordered anything for your house lately?

EVERYTHING is backordered!  Here in North Texas we are spoiled with regular next day delivery on all kinds of items! But now, there is a significant supply chain problem in the home furnishings industry. From discount to luxury, brands are dealing with a trifecta of problems: explosive demand, reduced supply, and inadequate transportation.  And, once again, we can blame it on COVID (or at least most of it.)

When the national "2 weeks to slow the spread" happened, local stores cancelled their orders from their distributors thinking we were going into a recession.  So Asian factories, where lower end furniture and frames of higher end furniture come from, decreased production and reduced their already COVID depleted workforces.  

But while we all sat home and watched Netflix, we realized how tired our homes looked!  With travel and all fun being off limits, why not fix things up? The lockdown caused EXPLOSIVE demand for home furnishings and vendors sold all the inventory they had on hand.  But when they went to place orders from their manufacturers, production had been cut back and there was not enough items to send.  Then as manufacturers completed product to ship, so were all their competitors and suddenly overseas and overland container space was full.  Shipping rates began to increase, and delivery times reached a snails pace.  

To make matters worse, the foam used in upholstery is a petroleum product coming out of the refineries in Louisiana.  Remember those hurricanes?  They further slowed the supply chain of the raw products needed to create that sofa you've been eyeing.

Patience is the name of the game.  All will straighten out eventually, but in the meantime, keep dreaming of that completed room!