The global shipping crisis continues to be a major concern around the world, and there's no industry who hasn't seen a detrimental impact because of it. If anyone has tried to order merchandise in the last few months, you've felt the wrath of the global shipping crisis. Our industry merchandise companies are doing the best they can, but they just can't keep or get inventory into their warehouses. When a merchandise order used to take our operating company five minutes to place and receive confirmation now takes hours, sometimes days, sifting through what we ordered, what's on back order, and what we can replace it with.
Unfortunately, there is no end in sight, and this can have a devastating impact on holiday shopping (for information on what to stock your prize centers with, see our latest article "Holiday Shopping Lists").
This impact will not only be lack of inventory, but most toy companies are already prepping us for price increases because of inflation and the shipping container companies continuing to raise their prices (CNN.com). Not to continue the dire news, but according to Isaac Larian, CEO of MGA Entertainment, even when the containers get to our ports, there is a shortage of trucks and drivers to deliver the product, only adding to the crisis (CNN.com).
Is there anything we can do? To this question, many would answer "NO. We're stuck and just have to deal with it". I tend to agree and disagree. Is there anything we can do about the global shipping crisis? Not much. Continue to pressure your local government, join AAMA and AMOA on their visits to Capitol Hill, and...hope...hope for a temporary solution while they work on a permanent one. However, there is something you can do right NOW and that's order your holiday merchandise today. Get ahead of the rush that is inevitably going to happen after Thanksgiving. Start ordering, stocking, and storing. Tap into your reserves and spend more than your budget may call for because an FEC without product is an FEC no one visits.