The TV news Wednesday had the story of empty shelves in Kmart. I’d heard about this last week, that Kmart faced supply chain challenges.
Yesterday, Kmart wrote to its customers about the situation:
Dear Kmart Community,
You may have noticed (or heard) about some of the stock impacts we’re experiencing here at Kmart; and I wanted to take the opportunity to address this topic head-on; answering some of the frequently asked questions I’m hearing, whilst giving our Kmart communities as much transparency as possible about stock availability, both instore and online.
During the early stages of Covid-19, demand for much of our loved product softened; as a result, we made a decision to pause inventory shipments. This was an action that many retailers across the country, and even across the globe, took as a way to navigate through the global pandemic. With so much uncertainty around public health and safety; and such severe outbreaks of Covid-19 being reported in places like Italy, Spain and New York, we prepared for similar restrictions here in Australia. Some of the countries where we manufacture our physical products were also put into lockdown at this time, putting production of some of our goods on hold for a period of time.
The Kmart email to customers provided specific information:
The good news is that these products have started to arrive back in store and online; and we’ll be receiving weekly deliveries over the next few months. We expect stock levels to normalise by the end of July 2020. Until then, I thought it might be best to give a little snapshot of some of our more popular categories, so you can easily see when stock availability will improve…
Product category Delivery timing Home Office mid July Furniture & Accessories mid to end July Kitchen & Dining mid July Nursery end June Bikes & Exercise Equipment end July We understand how frustrating it can be when you visit us instore and can’t find the items you love; and we are so sorry to disappoint. We are working as fast as we can to correct this. I would like to thank you all for your understanding, patience and ongoing support.
There are opportunities here for engaged retailers who have stock in any of the categories listed. Home office, for example, is an immediate and easy opportunity for newsagents, especially if you have an online store connected to your business.