SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — With just 12 days left until Christmas, many people are putting the finishing touches on their holiday decorations before family members start to arrive, but supply chain issues may limit selection for last minute holiday shoppers this year.
“Christmas is a huge part of our store at Lewis,” Lewis Stores Senior Category manager Christy Ellman said.
The holiday section at Lewis Stores goes up before November each year, but it’s something the store’s buyers start planning for right as everyone else is just taking down last year’s decorations.
“We put our order in in January, things should normally flow in July, August time frame,” Ellman said. “This year it was more in the September, October time frame.”
The ongoing supply chain challenges had holiday decor still arriving as late as November this year at Lewis stores, but the local retailer says they were still better off than many other stores.
“A lot of their stuff came in really late or they haven’t gotten it at all…things like the lights and the décor,” Ellman said.
While Lewis still has a good selection of holiday decorations, some high in demand items like Christmas lights have been hard to find just about everywhere.
“Our lights are very low,” Ellman said. “That was one of the hard things to get. We did have a good supply; would we have sold more if we had had more? Of course, but we did get our initial shipment in.”
And while some areas may be running low…
“I asked if they have foil cards and they do,” Lewis Shopper James Erinberg said.
Shoppers are happy to find there are still some options to choose from so close to Christmas.
“Well there are some empty spots but I think they have a good selection here,” Erinberg said. “They’ve devoted a large part of the store to Christmas decorations.”
It’s an area Lewis plans to keep strong as it prepares for more product delays even into the next holiday season.
“We’ve had across the board challenges in getting products. But we just work with so many different vendors being a small company that we can order from this person one time while they have it and another vendor another time when they have it and just bounce back and forth,” Ellman said.
In just a few weeks, Ellman will be making her big order for next year’s holiday decor at Lewis. She is starting a little earlier than usual hoping to get holiday decor up in their stores even before November next year when many shoppers are already eager to start their Christmas shopping.
