Mass. appliance chain warns dockworkers' strike could cause pandemic-level delays
NORTON - Yale Appliance's VP of Sales, Dennis MacDonald, is getting COVID-era flashbacks with the ongoing dockworkers' strike.
The International Longshoremen's Association went on strike on Tuesday, demanding better wages and less automation at East and Gulf Coast ports.
MacDonald worries that could create pandemic level delays in kitchen appliances.
"It harkens back to some of the things we saw in the pandemic," he said. "People still are building their homes and finishing their kitchen projects and getting occupancy permits, wanting to move their families in and builders to finalize in what has already been a gritty economy this year, so we worry for them, and we worry will the product be in when they need it."
MacDonald took WBZ on a tour through the company's new 225,000 square foot Norton warehouse, which houses tens of millions of dollars of appliances. The family-owned company is over 100 years old and has six locations in Massachusetts - most recently announcing a new location on Nantucket.
Concerns about price hikes
Despite the packed warehouse, MacDonald says the company probably only has up to six weeks of product in stock. The company already received alerts from several upcoming price hikes unrelated to this strike - which will trap imports on container ships with no workers to unpack them - and he worries that more price hikes will come after distributors face a backlog of deliveries once the ports reopen. Experts have estimated that each day of strike means four to six days of recovery on the back end.
Many retailers post pandemic, "tried to start to get back to a new normal of 'just in time' inventory...and I'm worried for most of them that if they don't have operations like this, they don't have the ability to store things, what happens again? Are we right back where we started? That is a real concern," he said.
His advice to customers - which he promises is not a sales pitch - is to buy your appliances now if you're mid-renovation or in need to guarantee access to existing inventory.
Regarding the ILA strike, "I think every hard-working American should have an opportunity to earn, and I can appreciate that," MacDonald said. "I hope cooler heads prevail, and they can figure this out quickly."
