Supply chain holdup: Toy shop reports backorder struggles ahead of holidays

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — If you’ve gone shopping recently, you may have noticed some empty shelves. And if you’ve ordered furniture online, you may find that it’s taking months to be delivered to your home.

That’s because products are stuck in shipping containers off the coast of California, thanks to a supply chain holdup.

Action News Jax popped into a local toy shop to see how the owners are handling the shortages.

Theresa Duncan and her dad opened up Villa Villekulla Toys to Fernandina Beach almost seven years ago.

“We thought, how wonderful would it be if our town had a toy store,” she said. “We really wanted the kids in the community to have access to good toys.”

The toy shop has seen its ups and downs, but Duncan says this current supply chain holdup is like nothing she’s seen before. It typically takes Duncan two weeks to get a toy from the manufacturer into her store. But things she ordered back in June are just now showing up in October.

Duncan says there are around 6,100 toys in her store currently, and 5,500 are on backorder.

Some items are even unaccounted for.

“We ordered a princess and a pirate together, and the pirate is literally lost at sea right now,” Duncan said, laughing.

She isn’t too worried about the holdup. Duncan and her dad prepared ahead of time and pack-ratted extra toys in preparation for the Christmas shopping rush. She suggests shopping in person as things online may not be available in time for Christmas.

“This year it’ll be more important that you’re getting quality toys for your kids and because things may be unavailable it might be an opportunity to do a less is more sort of Christmas where you’re getting them really good things instead of piles of things,” Duncan said.

At the end of the day, Duncan’s goal is to bring joy to local kids no matter what.

You can read about the supply chain shortage here, and what the Florida Ports Council wants to do to fix the problem.

Florida ports want to help get items where they need to go

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