The Pacific Southwest Better Business Bureau is telling holiday shoppers to start early due to backed-up supply chains and inflation leading to fewer holiday bargains and higher-than-normal prices.
The supply chain issue is impacting all sorts of businesses across the country and in San Diego County, including shoppers looking for Halloween and Dia De Los Muertos items.
"Some of the things that are really popular right now are not going to be delivered until like November 10th and well Halloween is over by then," said Belle Martin. "Even Amazon, who is usually on point, they're struggling."
Martin, the artistic director for Flavor Company Dance Entertainment, said she has several Dia De Los Muertos performances coming up and she’s searching for certain hairspray and make-up that’s been backed-up by the supply chain disruption.
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Gypsy Treasure makes many of their costumes and tailors them on-site. Seamstress and employee Kira Conrad said they rent most of their outfits which helps keep their inventory stocked, but not all things are readily available.
"I know we ordered some costumes for Halloween and we never got them," said Conrad with a chuckle. "Those are the types of issues we have even as a costume shop that’s been around."
The La Mesa gem has been around since the late 70s, but they closed down when the matriarch retired and in April it was revived by her son inside the Grossmont Mall.
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"We have a lot of people who just couldn’t get their costumes in time. I had a lady buy an entire Viking outfit because her costume wasn’t going to be here and it got delayed in shipping, got stuck or whatever," said Conrad.
Despite the challenges, there’s a lot of passion from customers and the staff that note how some of these upcoming holidays have a deeper meaning -- this Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos don’t have the same ominous COVID-19 cloud hanging over it as last year.
"We’re so happy that we’re back, you know doing what we love to do and making people relive their youth," said Conrad.
