Christmas is on the way, and it can have escaped no one’s notice that there have been reports of toy shortages due to the ongoing shipping problems around the world. Christmas is a joyful time of gifts, and family, and watching as Children around the world open toys and play with them on Christmas morning. Could we imagine Christmas without gifts? Of course not!
Fortunately, the team at Bears 4 U team have all the Teddy Bears you need for this Christmas, but we know there will be other Bears waiting around the world waiting to be shipped to their forever homes with children and adults who will make them part of their family.
With the demand for toys going up and the shipping industry falling behind we thought we would take a look at why some teddy bears and other toys will be waiting a little longer to be gifted that in previous years.
Teddy Bears & Worldwide Shipping
There are a few reasons why this year everyone’s favourite Christmas toys are not making it onto the shelves, and most of it is wrapped up in the way we ship toys around the world. Many Teddy Bears and other toys start their life in distant lands, then they are carefully packed and loaded onto shipping containers which are then shipped across the seas to their final destination.
Teddy Bears are dependent on the freight and shipping industry to help them find their forever homes and these are a few of the factors impacting their journey this year:
Pandemic Factory Closures – No country has been immune from the effects of the pandemic and many Teddy Bear and Toy factories have had closures and changes to their working practices meaning their normal output has been reduced and shipping times have been late. Once factories started shipping again there was a huge amount of stock ready to go all at one time clogging up the system
Pandemic Affecting Shipping – Shipping companies also felt the effects of the pandemic reducing the number of ships and routes meaning less goods could travel, and again causing a clogging effect when they started to get up and running again.
Increasing Costs – Shipping container prices have skyrocketed in recent months as availability, inflation and demand have all increased right around the world.
Port Congestion – The glut of goods arriving all at once and increased consumer demand has meant that many ports around the world have become congested with huge delays in getting containers off ships and onto trucks.
Truck Shortages – In the UK especially there is a shortage of truck drivers able to move the goods that are coming off the ports meaning that the teddy bears are perhaps in the UK but unable to get to the shops that will sell them for Christmas.
Teddy Bear’s Picnic
This combination means that the Teddy Bears trying to make their way to you for Christmas are spending a lot longer together in their shipping containers. We like to think that this gives them much more time to get to know each other and that in each container these cute fluffy toys are making Teddy Bears picnics for themselves and all the other toys that are stuck this year while waiting to meet the children that will play with them.
Well-Travelled Teddy Bear Friend
So have a thought for the Teddy Bear that you open with love on Christmas morning, he is already a worldwide traveller and has passed across oceans. Has spend time with his other Teddy Bear friends in a shipping container, has then travelled by road to be distributed to different stores and online shops, placed on a shelf or on a website waiting for the right person to choose him to be part of their family. Just think of the stories he can tell you, and the adventures you can now have together now he has reached you!
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