Twenty-five thousand dollars — that’s how much Beth Hughes, owner of local soy wax candle company, Little Light Co., said she estimates the company lost in sales in 2021. She said she believes clients sought similar products from other businesses when she couldn’t provide candles due to supply issues.
At the beginning of 2021, there was promise that the supply chain challenges brought on by the pandemic could become less pronounced. However, this did not happen. Rather, they worsened, resulting in a crisis that is expected to remain and progress in 2022, according to a Bloomberg article.
Athens-based businesses and consumers alike have felt the crisis. But in between these groups lie creatives, many of whom are freelance and rely on specific materials for their craft and timely arrivals to customers to maintain a living. In the absence of these, some have had to pivot and find other avenues of income.
Hughes said the supply chain issues she experienced were “at moments, devastating” and emphasized the fear she possessed during a peak of the crisis last year.
In April 2021, Hughes went to place an order of glassware after her company received candle orders from “major clients and corporations.” But when she went to buy the glass she pours her candles into, it was nowhere to be found.
“At first, it was 30 days, 60 days, 90 days — it took six months,” Hughes said.
For some, the inability to obtain certain items wasn’t unexpected, yet that still didn’t lessen the blow of supply chain issues. Kristen Bach, owner of Treehouse Kid and Craft, said she could feel the breakdown of the supply chain happening in May 2021.
Bach ordered materials in preparation for the holidays, but she is still receiving items. With no use for the product, Bach said she is frustrated with the persisting issues.
Frustration is something that Hughes also described feeling throughout the worst of her backorder issues. At one point, she even called distributors who carried the glassware and asked for a definitive delivery date. She said she no longer wanted to be placated, she didn’t care what the answer was — she only wanted the truth.
After developing relationships with distributors, Hughes got a notification that a boat full of her product had arrived at the Port of Savannah, one of the largest ports in the country. It stayed there for another three weeks.
“What in the hell is going on at that dock that we couldn’t get the supplies off of it? It was infuriating,” Hughes said.
Last year, ports around the nation became backlogged, some with record numbers of cargo ships. A shortage of workers led to issues unloading ships, which left containers on board for days or weeks at a time, according to The New York Times.
While these issues did not only affect small businesses and artists, Bach said she believes the latter was hit particularly hard.
Local printmaker and muralist Amanda Burk has been creating art for years. She’s done murals for Boulevard Animal Hospital, Automatic Pizza and Agua Linda. Burk said a positive of the pandemic has been the increased demand for artwork — people want sources of joy and businesses want visibility.
Burk, like Hughes and Bach, made it through 2020 without encountering shortages but has also found them in the last few months. As a muralist, Burk works with quarts of paint –– it’s cheaper and easier to buy multiple because muralists often work with many colors, but recently the quarts have “disappeared.”
A combination of an increase in the price of raw materials needed to make paint and the impact of a winter storm and Hurricane Ida on key suppliers in Texas has contributed to the disappearance, according to a CNN article.
If a paint shortage wasn’t enough to deal with, Burk said she has noticed a special paper she needs for her prints has also been unavailable. Burk has checked in with local shops like K.A. Artist Shop and larger retailers like Blick Art Materials to no avail.
While Burk said it’s a “pretty weird” issue, it’s one that she’s found a way to manage and not let her art suffer, which has in turn allowed her sales to remain intact. Others haven’t been as lucky. Bach said overall, sales for Treehouse have trended down in the past year.
Despite losing thousands in sales, Hughes said the holiday boom in December helped recoup some of what was lost. She sold at 14 different markets. She said she is certain things would’ve looked more grim for the company without this push. When Hughes couldn’t find glassware, she collaborated with other artists, hoping instead to generate social media interest in her company.
After products became available once more, there was an urgency Hughes felt to stay on top of inventory as it seemed glass started selling out faster. That plus the added weight of trying to compete with retail giants who she predicted would get word on products coming in first and be able to bear the brunt of rising prices and shipping costs has been overwhelming.
Bach said the task of keeping up with price changes has become a full-time job in itself. Treehouse has a flat rate of $10 for shipping, but with exorbitant prices, Bach wonders if it’s worth continuing to eat the prices for the sake of keeping customers.
Hughes and Burk noted that the prices of their materials have gone up across the board. Though the increases haven’t been outrageous, Burk said it’s “enough to make a big impact if you’re buying multiple of things.”
While Burk said she hasn’t felt the need to price her work accordingly, Hughes will review whether she needs to in the coming months. With her candles already priced higher than ones at big retailers, Hughes said it breaks her heart to think of doing so.
“I can’t compete,” Hughes said.
When reflecting on the past year, Hughes said she sees a supply chain issue, political issues involving the stalling at the port and big industry versus small business issues.
The question now is: In this new year, will these issues ease up?
“With all the new variants and everything that keeps hitting us, you still never know. We can just hope it’ll get better and manifest a better outcome, but who knows?,” Bach said.
Though only time will tell, Burk, Hughes and Bach all stress the importance of locals continuing to support the creatives and small businesses around them. Together with patience and community, they hope to weather the storm — however long it takes.
