Newspaper Page Text
Page 12A — Wednesday, May 12, 2021, The True Citizen
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Gough volunteers distribute food boxes
Gough community volunteers distributed 100 USDAfood boxes in their Saturday morning drive-through food giveaway at the
Gough Community Park. The volunteers were coordinated by William Bessent II, a local cattle farmer. Loretta and Sam Ad-
derson of Adderson Produce Farm provided additional fresh organic romaine lettuce from their farm and some nape cabbage
from Star Light Root Farm.
Shortages
one of the companies that
I work with, they had over
200,000 pieces in backlog.”
Pre-pandemic, Powell said
he could order 12 pieces or
more of upholstered furniture
and receive it within four
weeks, but now sofas, loveseats
and recliners that he orders will
not even be manufactured until
January.
Fifty percent of the furniture
store’s sales come from
mattresses. It recently took
Powell five weeks to receive
two deliveries.
Oil refinery shut-downs in
Texas during recent storms
added to the COVID-related
dilemma. Approximately
600 different chemicals are
produced from oil, according
to Powell.
“One of those chemicals is
used to produce foam,” he said
and pointed out that COVID-
related allocations of foam
availability went from 70% to
30% after the storms. “There
is no delay; I just don’t have
anything coming.”
Powell said he currently has
nine orders of mattresses placed
between two manufacturers.
Orders placed in March have
not been filled.
“Normally, I keep about 150
pieces in my warehouse here,”
he said. “Before I finally got
those two orders in, I was down
to about 25 pieces.”
Wholesalers have raised
their prices due to increased
shipping costs and the
scarceness of raw materials.
Those increases have forced
Powell to raise his prices as
well. Gas prices have raised
his cost of delivering furniture
to his Burke County customers,
although he doesn’t charge for
delivery for sales over $300.
Companies that normally
changed their price sheets
once-a-year, have changed
them five and six times in the
last year.
“It’s been unprecedented,”
Powell said. “Inflation is
happening.”
Craig Elliott of Salter
Building Supply said hardware
and building supply companies
are experiencing the same
struggle when it comes to
keeping up with demand.
However, the reasons are
different. They can’t keep up
with the demand because lay
offs and stimulus programs
have enabled people more time
to stay-at-home and work on
needed repairs.
Elliott said his business is
receiving about 60-70% of the
orders they place. Additionally,
the wholesale price of supplies
like plywood and lumber has
tripled.
PVC pipe is difficult to keep
in stock. “We don’t have it,”
Elliot said is a phrase he finds
himself repeating to customers.
Those in the automobile
industry are saying the same
thing.
Earl Huddleston is the parts
and service director at William
MizellFord. He said the global
semiconductor shortage is
greatly impacting new vehicle
inventory.
“They can’t build the volume
of vehicles because of the
shortage of chips,” he said
and pointed out that initially
China-based supply-lines
experienced COVID-related
delay. Later on, the supply of
chips was affected by a Japan-
based fire that burned a major
manufacturing plant.
Huddleston said the
dealership would typically
keep 200-300 new vehicles
on the lot. It is now down to
about 80.
Last month the dealership
Continued from front
received 29 new vehicles,
including five pick-up trucks.
Pre-pandemic, the dealership
received about 100 a month,
of which 70% would have been
trucks.
The result is less of a
discount incentive to purchase
a new vehicle.
“If we sell one, it might
take us six months or more to
replace it,” Huddleston said.
Some of the other things
he is seeing are also
“unprecedented.” The value
attached to used vehicles
is currently higher than he
has witnessed in more than
40 years of working in the
business. There are not enough
new cars to prompt trade-ins of
older models.
Part shortages overseas are
causing longer repair times.
“We have an engine job
that it took four months to get
all the parts,” he said. “It’s
a global economy. We are
becoming a nation that doesn’t
produce here, we import, and
we are at the beck and call of
other countries.”
How the pandemic truly
altered life, remains to be seen.
All four local business owners
said they don’t know when
and if anything will go back
to what they considered to be
“normal.”
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