**Update 6/9/20** – Paint is starting to flow again, slowly. Many colors arrived and were made available today, and another shipment will be here in early July with MUCH larger numbers of the constrained colors. Some colors still remain unavailable, but we will be ordering as often as they let us and as many as they let us. Stay tuned!
The outbreak of COVID-19 has affected each and every one of us in one way or another. Fortunately, my family and I have stayed healthy I have been able to continue working and shipping daily. I isolate both at home and at the shop, and my only contact is with the Postal, UPS and FedEx drivers. And I am tired of washing my hands!
Quarantine, isolation, and social distancing has been a good reason for many people to get projects done around the house, many of which include painting furniture. We have seen a sharp increase in orders because of this trend, and it has affected our shipping times and our inventory. Our processing times have slowed from our normal 1 business day to 2 or even 3 business days in some cases. While this is the norm for many businesses it is slow for us. I do my very best to get your paint to you as quickly as possible, sometimes as soon as 2-3 days from the moment you order it. Quicker turnaround times will return, once things get somewhat back to normal.
Our inventory, on the other hand, has been hit very hard. About a month ago, Fusion stopped producing paint. They even stopped shipping for a short time, until they decided to re-open their warehouse with a skeleton crew to keep paint moving. But they are only able to ship the paint that was already produced, and once they sold out there would be no more until production started again. That is where we stand now. Many of our most popular colors are already, or will be very soon, sold out. Those same colors will be in very short supply when production starts again, as Fusion will be limiting the number of jars that each retailer can order per week until they can ramp production back up to full capacity. This is expected to last for 4-6 weeks, but we do not really know. For now, the affected colors are:
Algonquin
Ash
Casement
Coal Black
French Eggshell
Limestone
Midnight Blue
Raw Silk
Picket Fence
Pebble
Little Lamb
As of this post we still have stock in some of these colors. As they begin to sell out their quantities will be restrained by whatever number we are able to get in our future shipments. As you probably know, we do our best to estimate when a shipment will arrive and post that date near the top of our site to make it easy for customers to keep track. This is the best we can do with the resources that we currently have.
Unfortunately, our current website does not have the capability to notify users of items that are back in stock, nor can we hold or “pre-order” out-of-stock items. We have tried this in the past with mixed results, so for now it will stay that way. I am hard at work on a new, more capable and user-friendly web site that will help with some of these problems, including a favorites or wish list, stock notifications, and product reviews. I plan to launch the new site by the end of the summer.
To summarize, product will be tight for the next couple of months. Many items will show up on our site as “sold out”, even though our shipment may have come in the same day. It will be frustrating for all of us, and I appreciate your patience while we work through this pandemic aftermath.
We have a small shipment due in around the 22nd of April, but none of the above-mentioned colors will be in it. The earliest ETA I can give on any of those colors is the middle of May, and quantities will be extremely limited. We are planning to place an order once a week to get our allotment, and orders take about 3 weeks to arrive. So assuming I can order any of these colors as early as the last week of April, their ETA will be the middle of May and then again weekly after that, pending availability.
I will do my best to keep my arrival estimates accurate, and we will post a specific time when the site’s inventory will be updated to make it as fair as possible for our customers to place their orders.
I apologize for the long, wordy rant, but I had a lot of information to share, and I invite any questions via our contact form, email address, phone, or comments below.
Stay safe everyone,
Mike