Over the last several months, I have eluded to some of the supply chain issues we have been experiencing and I have even mentioned it in our weekly Facebook Live a few times. At the beginning of the shutdowns last year, our fabric reps would inquire, "Would you like to keep your existing orders in place, cut some of them back, or cancel them altogether?" After a short corporate meeting, the 2 shareholders of Arizona Quilts, Debe and I, came to a consensus very quickly ... Keep The Orders Flowing!
Considering the vote was unanimous, a corporate memo went out immediately and we have been very deliberate in procuring the volume of products consistent with our historical tenure.
Midsummer last year, we started hearing from our vendors, that certain shipments were going to be delayed a week or two, and as the year progressed those comments became more and more prevalent.
Now that 2021 is in full swing when a supplier alerts us that a shipment is going to be on time, it becomes the exception NOT the rule!
Here at Arizona Quilts, we have been working hard to migrate new products from our receiving area to our sales floor...and then our website for you to enjoy as quickly as possible! The challenge is, that many shipments are at least two months overdue when being delivered to our back door,
and to that, we all say, "UGH!"
To help illustrate our dilemma, the above pictures are of the port of Los Angeles where some containers are stacked up to 10 high with 25 + ships floating offshore waiting their turn to get to the dock and unload!
The below text is a snippet from a very long news article by Peter S. Goodman, Alexandra Stevenson, Niraj Chokshi and Michael Corkery
that was linked on a quilting trade forum that we are a part of and briefly explains some of the hows and whys our shipments are being delayed.
"In major ports like Los Angeles and Long Beach ships bearing goods to unload, are frequently stuck for days in floating traffic jams. The
pandemic and its restrictions have limited the availability of dockworkers
and truck drivers, causing delays in handling cargo from Southern California
to Singapore. Every container that cannot be unloaded in one place is a container that cannot be loaded somewhere else.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Lars Mikael Jensen, head of
Global Ocean Network at A.P. Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest
shipping company. “All the links in the supply chain are stretched.
The ships, the trucks, the warehouses.” Economies around the globe are absorbing the ripple effects of the disruption on the seas. "
This article goes into much more detail but you get the idea.
Please be assured that our vendors and we are doing everything we can to keep our shelves chocked full of thousands of beautiful bolts of fun fabric for you to enjoy. So if you see a hole in our shelves here and there where fabric usually is, just remember this newsletter and say ... oh yeah ...
Floating Traffic Jam!
Happy Keeping Shelves Full Quilting!
Murray & Debe
Susan, Patsy, Nanette,
Vickie, Lauren, Jane & Lori
