High demand and long waits for backyard equipment and furniture

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) -Have you tried to buy something for your backyard lately? Inflatable pools, bikes, even sidewalk chalk is pretty hard to come by and expensive if you can get your hands on it.

Prospects are looking pretty bleak for people trying to score things for their patio, and backyard.

Demand is through the roof for anything that will occupy kids who won’t have camps and sports and public pools this summer.

Half the racks at Solon Bicyle are empty.

“We had an idea this was coming back when we saw the first rush of customers back in early March so we placed tons of large bike orders, from various suppliers, to make sure we had sufficient inventory for as long as possible,” said owner Dan Sirkin.

But at this point, their core suppliers are sold out of bikes under $1500 and won’t have more until July.

“It took me four tries to buy curbside pick up bikes from Dick’s Sporting Goods,” said Sandy Palenschat.

“Once they shut the schools down it just went crazy. Everybody being stuck at home, and it’s still continuing,” said Tony Adamic, owner of Playground World.

They’ve seen a 300 percent increase in demand for trampolines.

“We ordered a trampoline at the beginning of April form Wal-Mart and after waiting a month they cancelled our order with no explanation. We found one on Amazon and ordered it 3 weeks ago and it is supposed to arrive this weekend. I won’t believe it until it is here,” said Jaclyn Musselman.

“A pinch in the supply chain really is what it is, because everyone was caught off guard. Nobody thought the demand was ever going to be like this. Manufacturers weren’t prepared,” Adamic said.

Wait times for their best-selling products, trampolines, play sets and basketball hoops, are now about 12 weeks.

“Some of our furniture manufacturers have started making protective coverings for people as well as protective face masks and have devoted a lot of their energy towards that which has also extended lead times for their main business, “ said Nick Federico, owner of Country Stove and Patio in North Royalton.

They’ve seen about a 25 percent increase in demand for grills and patio sets and about double the lead time, up to 8 weeks for special order furniture.

“I think people just understand that they’re going to be a home a lot more this summer and are planning for that and want to make sure they have a comfortable area to spend some time in and also a nice grill so they can continue to cook their meals at home,” Federico said.

Adamic thinks the supply chain will loosen up by mid-July, but expects demand to continue.

“As long as it’s unknown what’s going to happen come fall with school, and I think people are really starting to think about that, I think we’ll see this continuing for a little while,” he said.

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