How Bad Are Supply-Chain Delays? So Bad That Companies Are Already Placing Holiday Orders

Plagued by problems from last year that haven’t been solved, companies are getting a jump by two to three months so history won’t repeat itself.

During last year’s holiday shopping season, Fat Brain Toys president Mark Carson couldn’t keep enough stock on hand of his best-selling product, a gadget called Dimpl, with squishy, brightly colored silicone bubbles that little kids love to push in and out. Many of the toys were delayed, floating somewhere on the Pacific Ocean, only to show up in January, after the Christmas trees came down and the stockings were back in storage. To avoid that happening again, Carson is already finalizing his holiday order, three months earlier than normal.

“We’re trying not to repeat history,” Carson said. His strategy this year is to order early and place bigger, more aggressive bets on products that he believes are likely to sell well, with orders of up to 80,000 units at a time, up from a previous range of 5,000 to 10,000. “We played it kind of conservative last year and were hurt,” said Carson, who started the company with his wife out of their Nebraska home in 2002.