by Dawn Homa
If there’s one thing I love… It’s cruising on a ship. Visiting new ports and meeting new people, trying new foods. Bobbing around in the ocean on a cruise ship is so relaxing and fun.
But now my cruises are limited due to the pandemic, and you know what’s on a ship and bobbing in the ocean? All our supplies. Yes, aluminum, coroplast, acrylics, inks and plastics are on cargo ships just outside of Los Angelos, San Diego, Seattle and New York. They’ve been in gridlock for months.
What does that mean? That fabricating and printing your signs and graphics are taking longer. We now have two people checking supplies every week. We had to change from our JIT (just in time) ordering to JFI (just find it) ordering.
It seems every day something else is on backorder. And to add to the frustration, prices are rising so fast that our vendors only guarantee pricing for a week to 10 days. You will notice that on our quotes we have a disclaimer that pricing is valid for 7 days. Where will all this end? No one knows.
But know this, we will do everything we can to find a way to manufacture and print your signs and graphics. We may need to substitute materials and look at other options. We may need to revamp how we construct your sign. Our team is so creative and resourceful that I know we can all get through, hopefully, this transitional period.
It’s just been “No Fun in ‘21”