Spruce Things Up...

This past weekend I was walking through one of my favorite places, Dollar Tree. After passing all the Halloween decor I noticed that they had a full aisle of Christmas decor, "Get the elf outa here" I said to myself. Let me have my autumnal experience........PSLs, pumpkin patches, flannel shirts, boots, girls dressed like Luke Skywalker.....let me have it, let me have my fall season! It's too early to be thinking about holiday decor, right? WRONG! according to the Wall Street Journal, retailers are upping artificial tree prices by 20% to 25% to keep up with expensive shipping costs. Throughout the pandemic, a supply-chain crisis escalated. Many thought that by Holiday 2021 things would be better, unfortunately, they continue to worsen.

“People should expect empty shelves and very high prices if they wait until Thanksgiving (the typical shopping window) to purchase their holiday decor,” Chris Butler, CEO of National Tree Company when speaking to Brew.com “There will be incredibly high demand...this year because people have money to spend,” he said. “Last year was a bust due to Covid.”

Want the real thing? Things aren’t that much better. Tree farmers were encouraged by the warm weather, who wasn't? However, the heatwave and seasonal droughts meant 10% to 20% of supplies were affected in some way for major growers.

To get ahead of anticipated shipping delays, an option for retailers is to push discounts earlier because the shipping delays are only going to get worse as the holidays get closer.

Costco’s CFO said in an earnings call last week that the retailer is “ordering as much as we can and getting it in earlier.”

So the next time you see an aisle of holiday decor......lose your resting grinch face, and stock up. You will thank me later.

Happy Holidays!!