SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO)– Shipping and inventory issues are affecting Christmas shopping this year.

A few months ago Child’s Play Toys was telling customers to make sure to shop in advance for Christmas this year.

This week Child’s Play Toys owner Nancy Savage said the shipping issues are still having an impact including prompting some people to do more local shopping.

“People are worried about shipping issues too and I think that has played a big part in why people are shopping local as well so they know they have their presents in their hand for delivery,” said Nancy Savage, owner of Child’s Play Toys.

This year, Child’s play toys filled an extra warehouse with items to make sure they had enough inventory on hand for their busy season.

“It is empty. Completely empty,” said Savage. 

But they do continue to get in shipments of items they purchased several months ago.

“It’s really interesting how this year has kind of played out because you know things didn’t come in right away and things were just kind of slowly coming in and it’s really worked to our favor because we have had a constant flow of inventory. Normally we would have all of our inventory probably by at least October, and we have been getting big shipments constantly, so it’s been really nice because we’ve been able to keep the shelves pretty full,” said Savage. 

Some shoppers have also been preparing for the holidays way in advance.

“I do a lot of Christmas shopping in summer because I find things that I don’t find later on in the season or I find things on sale. And then as we get closer to Christmas I’ll hit some of the sales and then there’s always that last minute got to have item,” said Chrystal Moldenhauer, shopper. 

Savage says that having the late shipments coming in has really benefited her business, and she may consider changing her purchasing strategy to get items closer to the Christmas holiday.