I posted previously about the supply chain issues and how it was affecting the kite industry. I had hopes that things would improve, but that's not the case.
In the past two days I have been updating inventory on the website and checking to see what the manufacturer had in stock. I was shocked to see how many items were no longer in stock since I updated last month. I've had to mark over 150 kites as "out of stock" on the website, and there are more going out of stock every day. When I say you better get your kite now if you want one, I'm not kidding.
In the past month, I've had a couple of orders that I couldn't fill. We try to stock many of the items we carry on the website, but we couldn't possibly stock them all. So, we drop ship the items we don't have on hand. Sadly, the manufacturers don't alert us when an item is out of stock on their end, so I have to check each item on our website against their website for availability. You can understand with over 3,000 items that we carry, this is a tedious project and one that I can only do once a month as it takes several days. I hate to get an order I can't fill, but as more and more kites go out of stock, there's no option. It's difficult for a business when about half of the items you offer are not available.
On another subject, the postal service just announced that any package over 30" will incur an additional $15 fee. Wow! Most of the items we send out (kites) are over that size. I always look to find the best deal on shipping and it's usually not with the postal service. I've had a few packages that took over a month for them to deliver when it was supposed to be 5 days. That doesn't make for happy customers. We do our best to get your packages to you as quickly as possible for the best price. Just be aware prices for all carriers are increasing.
Did you know April is National Kite Month? The weather around the country is usually pretty good in April for kite flying. With that, many people are ordering kites and inventory is constantly dropping. There are items coming back in stock about once a month, but they sell out very quickly. If you find an item on the website that you would like, but find it's not available, just click on the "Notify When Available" button and enter your email. You will be notified as soon as it becomes available again.
We appreciate your patience during this unusual time. If there's a kite you want and you see it's available... you'd be wise to order it right away. Even then, it may be out of stock by the time your order is actually processed.
Happy kiting! I hope you can find the kite you are looking for.