By now, many are aware that tens of thousands of U.S. dockworkers across the country went on strike Tuesday morning, congesting dozens of ports along the East and Gulf coasts and potentially raising consumer prices. And that’s putting it lightly.
This strike could shut down about half of all goods shipped in and out of the country. Oxford Economics said a prolonged strike could impact as many as 100,000 jobs and impede U.S. economic activity by between $4.5 billion and $7.5 billion for every week it persists.
Specifically in the casual industry, many retailers placed orders just a few weeks ago at the September Casual Market — and so this news doesn’t bode well for those orders.
Each day a port is shut down, it takes three to five days to get it back on track. So if the strike lasts a week, that could set things back a month.
The question that comes to mind is, should retailers buy outdoor furnishings sooner — for instance, in July — to ensure they have the product for the upcoming year?
In today’s world, it’s not a question of if something else will happen, but rather, when. The July Casual Market is a valuable resource and an opportunity for retailers to order product early and be prepared for whatever the next thing is.
Retailers have their reasons for buying in July and September, but remember the early buy? It faded out after Covid, and the abundance of inventory in 2022 started to change the industry’s way of thinking about buying early — if they were even buying at all.
This seems like a sign that the early buy might be worth revisiting. It’s not something many retailers can switch to on a dime. It may sound like a huge undertaking, and that’s because it is. It’s essentially a fundamental change to retailers’ business models.
However, the retailers who navigate this and see it through are the ones who are open to change. Too often our industry has taken the side of the old guard and done things “the way they’ve always been done.” But you can’t do things the same way when everything else around it has changed.
With strategic planning and help from manufacturing partners, retailers can figure out a way to buy early and potentially save them from future delays.
The election is coming up, and with this strike and anything else that may come — remember the ship that blocked the Suez Canal for a week? — it never hurts to be prepared.
For more information on the dockworkers’ strike, I encourage you to read Editor-at-Large Ray Allegrezza’s excellent coverage of how the strike may affect the home furnishings industry.
