Bay Area Businesses Find Creative Ways To Survive Months Of Supply Chain Delays
SAN JOSE (KPIX) -- Persistant supply chain issues are causing chaos for large and small Bay Area businesses. After months of waiting for the products and supplies they need from overseas, some businesses are just now getting their holiday orders in.
"This is all the stock that I have left. Barely any stock at all," said small business owner Darlene Tenes.
She runs a Hispanic lifestyle business called CasaQ, and sells online through her own e-commerce site and on Amazon.
Tenes was stung by the supply chain crisis, and it was all because of the small tin containers her Mexican chocolate product comes in.
"We make the product here in the U.S.A. but the tin cans are from China, and we weren't able to get them."
She ordered three pallets worth of product in August, hoping to get it in time for the holidays. But the shipments arrived after Christmas and are now sitting in a warehouse. On top of everything else, the warehouse can't get her pallets down because 4 forklift drivers are out sick with COVID.
"So many companies, stores, businesses were not able to get their products in time for Christmas. And they lost a lot of sales because they just had empty shelves. You just see a lot of empty shelves right now," Tenes said.
"It's a lot more work. It's a lot more work to figure out how to make it work," said Shawn Parola, who runs the small gift basket company, All the Buzz. She worked around the shortages at her San Jose shop, but found out just how interconnected we are with the rest of the world.
"The containers usually come from China, the jars, the wrapping, ribbons and even the corks come from somewhere else," Parola said. "We hoarded, we just kept bringing in things and took the risks so that our customers would have what they needed."
Darlene is keeping her business moving ahead, too. All those chocolate mixes she was planning for Christmas will now be marketed in a new way.
"We're going to have a great big Valentine's sale. You just have to roll with the punches," Tenes said.