To wonder what's going on with John Lewis? Nearly everything is out of stock

[chordil]

Okay maybe not nearly everything but ALOT. Anyone else noticed this?

I had no problem getting the Christmas decorations I wanted a few days ago.

I think stock always dips around this time of year though.

They shut some stores this year so online demand will be higher?

Everyone is probably chasing the same things

4 posts in and no mention of Brexit yet?

Yes same, there is a lot out of stock. I normally buy foundation from JL but it hasn’t been in for weeks and I want a Jellycat but they have hardly any.
DD wanted a particular thing and it was randomly in stock last week one day after being unavailable for ages, so glad I bought it cos it’s been out of stock ever since.

@daimbarsatemydogsbone

4 posts in and no mention of Brexit yet?

Or Covid?

Depends what you are looking for. It's right near Christmas and most people are shopping online!

In the past couple of weeks I've managed to order:

Ugg slippers
Bath toys as gift for nephew
L'Occitane bath foam
L'Occitane shower oil
A bouncing ball toy for nephews

Obviously there is stuff in stock, but if you go on "toys" for instance, and filter it by "show in stock only" then about two thirds of the options disappear!

@daimbarsatemydogsbone

4 posts in and no mention of Brexit yet?

Shop has a shortage of toys in the week before Christmas - who would have thought.

Haven't there been lots of reports of ships stuck in harbour in China, unable to dock at ports due to lack of staff due to covid etc
Everything is probably on a ship somewhere.
Link about Los Angeles
www.tech-gate.org/usa/2021/12/06/number-of-cargo-ships-off-la-coast-still-at-an-all-time-high-despite-claims-from-port-officials/

It's a worldwide thing. The supply chains are massively disrupted.

I went into John Lewis last week and the toy section wasn’t that well stocked in store either. It wasn’t very enticing at all even for my 3dc.

I used to work for them, by this time of year they run stock down. They used to see people wait until they had reduced goods near a key date and then people would pile in last minute and grab lots of bargains. They now run stock down so they are left with a lot less to reduce even if that means missing out on last minute purchases.

It's not just JL. All of my Christmas shopping has been done online - less choice, lots of items out of stock, long delivery times, some stuff not turning up at all.

Yesterday, in the supermarket with a list, four out of ten perfectly normal items out of stock. There were no gaps in the shelves, as other items had been spread out to compensate, so it wasn't obvious.

I assume they are short of staff across the supply chain - covid, awaiting pcr or isolating.

sickness/isolating in the delivery sector

waitrose is historically great for bargains on christmas eve.

@ErinTingey

I used to work for them, by this time of year they run stock down. They used to see people wait until they had reduced goods near a key date and then people would pile in last minute and grab lots of bargains. They now run stock down so they are left with a lot less to reduce even if that means missing out on last minute purchases.

This makes perfect sense. It's a combination of: a shift to the Black Friday philosophy a when-it's-gone-it's-gone mentality being online, so gaps don't obviously show like they do in shops

Why should shops over-stock to cater for the johnny-come-lately?

As pp have said - there are massive massive supply chain issues the world over.

Family members works with factories in China and there are shortages of everything you can imagine, it's actually surprising we're not feeling the impact more.

Everything is either stuck in China, stuck at ports waiting to go on, stuck on boats or stuck at ports waiting to be unloaded.

Because of that shipping costs have gone up so the most economically savvy thing to focus on are small, high value items e.g. mobile phones, iPads etc as you can get way more of those onto a boat and make way more money off them than you could bulky £10 toys.

Here's just one of many articles about it on the BBC

www.bbc.com/news/business-59466802

John Lewis are shit. Try Smyths.

@chordil

Obviously there is stuff in stock, but if you go on "toys" for instance, and filter it by "show in stock only" then about two thirds of the options disappear!

It’s almost like there’s a big celebration coming up which involves people across the country giving each other gifts, and especially toys to children…

Toy shortages are always common in the run up to Christmas, it’s not anything new!

I've actually always found this with John Lewis! Certainly for the past few years.

For some reason they show all the out of stock items along with the others, I think this just emphasises the problem more.

but there is less than one week to go, shops are always like this four days before christmas, BHS, Woolies,
be prepared for the big sales

@PercyPigginton I found lots of the Jellycats out of stock at JL and on the Jellycat site itself but managed to get what I wanted at an online gift shop called Fleurtations. Just in case you’re still looking.