PRAGUE Cabinets or tables as scarce goods and long delivery times. The coronavirus has also signed up in the furniture business – due to the massive production of drapes, there is a lack of fabrics for mattresses.
IKEA will buy its furniture from customers for up to half the original price |
Furniture retailers are facing the effects of the coronavirus crisis. Manufacturers lack material and manpower. The result is empty warehouses and angry customers. “You don’t always have the goods in stock, is the covid to blame?” The user asks on the official Facebook profile of IKEA Česko. “Ikeo, supply has been quite a disaster lately, there have been no corpora for Pax cabinets, now there is no Hemnes chest of drawers, do you think you will stock it on the date you state on the website?” Another customer immediately asked. And the mentioned products are still not available on the IKEA website.
The problem of the whole world
The Swedish furniture giant has admitted that some products are not currently in stock. “The coronavirus pandemic is affecting our supply chain around the world, while customer demand has increased as many people have moved to work from home and purchased the necessary equipment,” Petr Šašek, IKEA spokesman, told Lidovky.cz. At the same time, he admitted that the current demand exceeds the current capacity of the company, and therefore some products are unavailable.
The availability of specific products can be found directly on the store’s website. “We recommend that customers check whether the required product is available before visiting the department store. We have increased the accuracy of inventory information and the data is now updated every ten minutes, “explained Šašek.
But even with such a procedure, some customers do not have good experience. Another user of the social network described that the required chest of drawers “still shone as available”, so she went to the store across Prague the same day. But there was an unpleasant surprise when she found out that the furniture was sold out.
The first week after the reopening, over 135,000 people visited the Czech IKEA stores. Most in Brno |
The supply of goods in the furniture segment is currently a worldwide problem. “After reopening in the spring, we are seeing an increase in turnover. Which, of course, is because we sell more than we expected. These are not just home-made furniture, such as chairs and tables. The situation is also more complicated in the category of mattresses, which concerns the whole of Europe, “said Eva Kozich, a spokeswoman for Jysk, to the Lidovky.cz server.
She admitted that due to the massive production of protective drapes, there is a lack of a sufficient supply of the substance that the company needs for the production of bag mattress packaging. Deliveries will therefore be partially limited by the end of the year. In January 2021, the company expects full restoration.
The Asko Nábytek chain is also facing the effects of the spring wave of coronavirus, when the entire production segment of practically all industries stopped for several weeks. “We currently have stocks replenished, we have tried to prepare for the situation and our most popular products are available. The only problem is the selected custom furniture. Unfortunately, delivery times of several weeks extend here, but the customer is always notified when buying and we try to secure and deliver the selected goods in the shortest possible time, “said Andrea Štěpánová, marketing director of Asko, to the Lidovky.cz server.
Shopping centers and all stores remain open for the time being. However, customers can only move in two of them, there must be a distance of two meters between the individual groups. A week ago, however, IKEA reduced the number of customers in its stores due to the pandemic. There are a maximum of 1,800 people in Prague’s Černý Most, 1,600 in Zličín and Brno, and 1,100 visitors in Ostrava.
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