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Lockout casts pall on holidays
By MARK ALBRIGHT, Times Staff Writer
A St. Petersburg Kmart recently had to issue rain checks for sale-priced $8 sweaters and $19 toaster ovens that were out of stock. "The ads were printed weeks in advance, but we didn't get the merchandise in time because of the West Coast dockworkers situation," assistant store manager Adrian Chase said. President Bush ordered dock workers at 29 West Coast ports back to work after a lockout ended Oct. 9. But a month later, scattered product shortages are cropping up in Tampa Bay area stores just when the stores are supposed to be jammed with holiday merchandise. At a Target store in Clearwater the trim-a-tree department is pockmarked by missing items, and the selection of $29.99 fiber optic Christmas trees consists of only four display models. A nearby Wal-Mart is out of $38.88 Transformer action figure sets and some Toy Story items. Signs at Burdines and Sears, Roebuck and Co. stores advise shoppers that some merchandise may be out of stock because of the dockworkers dispute. Publicly, retailers say the shortages are minor enough that shoppers won't notice. They say the interrupted flow of holiday goods into their stores only delayed their annual holiday inventory buildup. But many retailers are concerned things will get worse if the dockworker dispute gets ugly again. A recent national survey of top retailing executives found that 40 percent expect delivery delays to cause stock shortages during the critical holiday season; another 20 percent said they did not know what will happen. "There are still a lot of toys and Christmas gifts sitting on the docks up and down the West Coast," said J. Craig Shearman, spokesman for the National Retail Federation. "We still are seriously concerned that retailers will be able to get all their holiday goods in time. It's clear now that there will be shortages of many products, such as the most in-demand toys. So if you really must have an item, buy it early." More than half of all Asian imports flow to retailers through the West Coast ports. Most retailers anticipated problems even before the lockout. Many stocked their warehouses early or diverted shipments to East Coast ports or to pricey air freight. After a month working through a backlog of more than 200 ships, West Coast ports are now back to a more normal schedule. But the ports, warehouses and the delivery system that takes merchandise to stores remain backed up with undelivered goods. Negotiations continue between the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents the shipping lines and terminals, and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, although a federal mediator called off talks for a weeklong break that ends Wednesday. The union has accepted management proposals to automate cargo paperwork but is still arguing about how much in pension and salary improvements its members will get in return. Meanwhile dock workers face claims by the port association that they have been staging a work slowdown since Bush ordered the ports reopened. West Coast ports have been working at one-third their normal output, said Shearman of the retail federation. His organization revised its estimate that retailers need up to six weeks to get the backlog from clogged ports to their shelves. Now it's six to eight weeks, which puts final delivery to stores into the middle of the holiday season. Other problems linger at the ports. Some ships simply off-loaded all their U.S deliveries at the first port-of-call and returned to Asia. Container chassis and rail cars are in short supply. East Coast ports where many retailers diverted shipments are also jammed. Still many big retailers are confident they will have sufficient stock if the port labor situation does not deteriorate. "So far so good," said Edie Clark, spokeswoman for the International Mass Retail Association, the discount chain trade group. "Right now we feel our backlog is pretty much cleared up," said Sharon Webber, spokeswoman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The prospects of early season shortages further heightened the pressure at online and catalog retailers. They face a more compressed timetable to ensure customers get delivery in time for the holiday this year. Most mail-order houses will not take an order unless the item to fill it is sitting in their warehouse. Also, there are six fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas than last year. So many online and catalog retailers are using the lure of free shipping (except for air freight orders) to coax customers to order before Thanksgiving. Normally, free shipping offers increase the number of orders by a third, say some online retailers. "We're still projecting no delays and being fully stocked for the holidays," said Roy Arthur, president and chief executive of Toysrus.com, which generated 60 percent of its $277-million annual sales during the last two months of 2001. He expects some shortages once a few hot toys are declared "must haves" this season. "But that happens every year," he said. -- Mark Albright can be reached at albright@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8252.
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From the Times Business report
From the AP
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