Wow, just when you think you understand how a pandemic will affect your business and your clients, you learn something new…..

In this phase, all those suppliers of appliances, lighting, plumbing, finishes, and furnishings have used up all of their ‘just in time’ purchasing of materials for their inventory and new inventory is being slowed due to the pandemic.

We’ve learned that refrigerators and dishwashers have been affected the most according to one of our appliance sources.

He said, “manufacturing was mandated to shut down or was reduced to skeleton crews based on the factory location. It will take a while to get back up to full speed since even though manufacturing was shut down, people were still busy building and remodeling, which created a major backlog. Some companies even refused to take orders for a while, because the backlog was getting out of control.

For furnishings, another supplier mentioned that manufacturers are following social distancing limiting how many workers can be on their production floor which then slows down their process. We also learned that any fabric with any polyester content is difficult to obtain as the polyester yarn is going toward PPE (personal protection equipment).

And of course, with on and off shutdowns, remote work, and social distancing rules our building department is also backed up. What was a three-month wait for a permit is now much longer….how long remains to be seen as some of our projects are waiting for their permit!