The supply chain disruptions of 2020 and 2021 are the worst I have experienced in my entire life. In addition, I am watching prices go up in real time. We are going through the worst inflation I have ever experienced. We got some crazy price increases when steel shot up a decade ago, but we could always get steel. This is the first time in company history where we legit can't get things sometimes.
We have had trouble getting steel, cotton, wood, and many other basic materials. We typically buy direct so we are having trouble getting steel from a steel mill. We are having trouble getting wood from a sawmill. Times are crazy.
It has been about a year since we could reliably order materials from all of our vendors. Just in time has gone out the door. Our new policy is to order it and keep it until we need it. Our styles haven't really changed in 40 years. We are buying as much steel, wood, cotton, foam, thread, staples, and vinyl as we can get.
Our inventory is triple what we normally stock and we still have truckloads upon truckloads of steel on order. Hopefully, there will be lots of people buying furniture even as the market starts to go crazy. With container costs so high, we believe there will be a big move to source domestically again. As a domestic producer, we are going to be prepared for when the onslaught of business comes. And if it doesn't you all know a good place to buy parts cheap. We will have tons upon tons.
