JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – If you place that order for a new bed or coffee table and think it’ll come in right away, think again.
People are waiting months for new furniture orders to arrive, and it doesn’t look like the problem will let up anytime soon.
There was already stress on the supply chain, but COVID problems took it to the next level and have made the issue a lot worse.
The owner of JaxCo Furniture said when his store opened three years ago, the average wait time for products was seven to 10 days.
“At this point, the average is 16 to 20 weeks,” Mike McCann said.
McCann said his customers have been dealing with the waiting game for the last year and a half.
It’s the culmination of a number of problems like overseas factories shutting down and worker shortages.
McCann said while most customers are understanding, others say something else.
“They literally say, ‘I don’t care about COVID. I want my furniture,’” McCann said. “And it’s like, ‘That’s great, but we can’t do anything about that. We can’t make it.’”
McCann’s advice for people looking to shop right away:
- Be patient, because you’re going to be waiting.
- Be flexible, sometimes you can get something that may not be exactly what you were looking for, but is still good.
- And last but not least, don’t wait until the last minute.
“Some people walk in and say, ‘I need this now. What do you have?’ And it’s, there’s limited availability and that’s whether you go from us or Havertys or Rooms To Go,” McCann said. “Any large furniture chain is in the same position that the smaller individual retailers, like ours, are.”
McCann said something else he and his staff are doing is making sure there’s an open line of communication with the customers. That way, they can make plans in case an item is taking longer to arrive than originally expected.