KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With less than two weeks until Halloween, retailers nationwide are haunted with shipping delays.
Brookside Party Warehouse in Kansas City, Missouri, is getting creative this Halloween. What you see on the shelves is what's in stock at the local party supply shop.
“Stuff that I used to get in four days, takes me two weeks, so there again, it’s not like I can call four days before an event with a balloon emergency," Manager Jerri Brandon said. "Either they don’t have it or they just can’t get it out that fast."
Brandon told KSHB 41 that she's placed several orders ahead of Halloween that may not arrive in time, or at all. It's all due to the COVID-19 shipping crisis around the world.
“The labor is compounded by two phases, now people are starting to think about new types of careers, so they’re not going back to their old jobs, so companies can’t ramp up production back to their normal levels because they don’t have the staff," Dr. Anthony Ross, professor of Supply Chain Management at the University of Central Missouri, said.
Retailers like Party City also told KSHB 41 they are also experiencing issues getting products in on time.
“What I’m seeing mostly is any of my vendors are at a 40-80% fulfillment rate on an order, so I’m getting at least 20-30% that I’m not receiving, or might never receive, there’s no ETA," Brandon said.
