Why does it seem all the US suppliers are having constant stock issues?

ABU - out of stock except for smalls and a few exceptions. Crinklz (via northshore) backordered. Tykables says shipping march but even then I'm not sure that'd be accurate. Bambino has no stock indicator so one could only wonder. So far I've seen very little stocking issues for all other countries. This is one thing that is just more irritating than it should be.

Sounds like it is supply and demand. In need of new companies. Don’t see why plenty of money to be made!!!

I think its not just supply and demand, i also think that part of it is companies not wanting to have to keep too much at one time.

Better for them to get a certain amount it, sell out, then restock and do it all over again.

If they had too much at once (Which would probably be an insane amount), they would have to find a place to store any extras until sold out and keeping things in a warehouse = extra expense.

ABU and Tykables are known for always running out. They are notorious for only ordering more when they are really low on stock. And of course, that inevitably leads to them being out of stock almost as much as they are in stock. You'd think they would have learned by now to order before running low, but nope.

Northshore's Adam has already stated they just started carrying Crinklz, and did not expect them to be so popular. They have already pre-ordered two separate, and large, batches for the months ahead, They anticipate smoothing things out within a month or so. Now if only they can address those poor tapes of late.

Chinese New Year. The whole country basically shuts down for weeks, some of them for an entire month.

Never plan orders from China around that time. never. Happens every year at the same time.

eBay gets hit hard by that too. Lots of sellers there flat out telling you in their listings they will be closed for usually around 3 weeks around that time, and don't expect shipments or even email responses during that time. "All orders placed during that time will be processed when we get back." They're on vacation and they mean it.

I don't think the Chinese New Year would fully explain it. I do believe it is supply and demand, where people are sick and tired of inferior products oriented strictly to the elderly. So they order from the likes of ABUniverse instead.

Honeywell6180 said:

I don't think the Chinese New Year would fully explain it. I do believe it is supply and demand, where people are sick and tired of inferior products oriented strictly to the elderly. So they order from the likes of ABUniverse instead.

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Demand has gone up, supply capabilities have remained the same (but we are working HARD to increase). We plan our productions and shipments on a weekly basis looking at past trends, but sometimes it isn't possible to order a certain product for a period of time.

klo555 said:

Demand has gone up, supply capabilities have remained the same (but we are working HARD to increase). We plan our productions and shipments on a weekly basis looking at past trends, but sometimes it isn't possible to order a certain product for a period of time.

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I would definitely say, that your company has made some discoveries. The market for adult-sized disposable diapers with juvenile patterns is actually quite HUGE. In fact, I feel this market rivals that of the more traditional adult medical garments and pull-ons. People don't like being lied to, when they see a package of "briefs" and know what they actually are. I am glad that ABUniverse is willing to call a spade, a spade. I am sure that once more manufacturing capability is opened up, economics of scale will eventually take over with the arrival of new distribution centers. Notice how North Shore Supply just recently had their eyes opened by all of this.

I'm not sure the reason. I do know that I can only afford to stock up about once every 9 months or so and it seems like every time I have the money to do so, they're out of stock. I only have 1 bag left and I'm gonna have to make it last. I hope I still have the cash when the time comes.

I think its because alot of people are buying like 12 cases at a time

gnd567 said:

I'm not sure the reason. I do know that I can only afford to stock up about once every 9 months or so and it seems like every time I have the money to do so, they're out of stock. I only have 1 bag left and I'm gonna have to make it last.

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so set the money aside and don't spend it. spend it when they're back in stock.

I hope I still have the cash when the time comes.

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well that's entirely up to you! unless you get robbed regularly?

bambinod said:

so set the money aside and don't spend it. spend it when they're back in stock.



well that's entirely up to you! unless you get robbed regularly?

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Well, yes, that's the plan but sometimes that's easier said than done in my situation. Like I said, I can only ever order about once every 9-12 months and when I do, I order a case. But $150+ is a bit much for me to spend on myself so I have to save it up. I'm lucky if I bring home $200 a week this time of year.

gnd567 said:

Well, yes, that's the plan but sometimes that's easier said than done in my situation. Like I said, I can only ever order about once every 9-12 months and when I do, I order a case. But $150+ is a bit much for me to spend on myself so I have to save it up. I'm lucky if I bring home $200 a week this time of year.

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And yet you have already indicated you the money now. Hence why bambinod said to just save up the money you already have for when they are in stock. Yes it's can be really hard making money, thankfully it can be really easy saving it though.

Here's another reason there are those buy up stock to resell on eBay at very inflated prices.
Two diaper lots cost is like with shipping 5 plus a piece.
Some doubling the price.
Some of that is driving up demand.

I think it's like any business. You have to sell your stock to have the money to buy new stock. Most companies operate that way. In fact, big companies and corporations borrow money to buy stock and materials. That's why the stock market crashes when the Fed threatens to raise interest rates. Now imagine a small dealer selling diapers. If a case of diapers is $150.00, how much is ordering a large order? If you go to some of the China sites, you have to order 10,000 diapers in order to get them cheaply. That takes a lot of money. Diaper dealers have to sell a lot of their stock before they've made enough profit to buy more stock.

dogboy said:

I think it's like any business. You have to sell your stock to have the money to buy new stock. Most companies operate that way. In fact, big companies and corporations borrow money to buy stock and materials. That's why the stock market crashes when the Fed threatens to raise interest rates. Now imagine a small dealer selling diapers. If a case of diapers is $150.00, how much is ordering a large order? If you go to some of the China sites, you have to order 10,000 diapers in order to get them cheaply. That takes a lot of money. Diaper dealers have to sell a lot of their stock before they've made enough profit to buy more stock.

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You'd be surprised the extra zeros businesses deal with. That price difference is actually quite normal. And also why a short term loan rate makes such a huge difference. Even a 0.25% rate change can mean the difference in making money or loosing it.

It's also why I gave up running a business. The margins are too close. (well, that and the taxes- omg).

foxkits said:

Here's another reason there are those buy up stock to resell on eBay at very inflated prices.
Two diaper lots cost is like with shipping 5 plus a piece.
Some doubling the price.
Some of that is driving up demand.

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Which is why you NEVER want to buy them from an EBay seller.

Slomo said:

Northshore's Adam has already stated they just started carrying Crinklz, and did not expect them to be so popular. They have already pre-ordered two separate, and large, batches for the months ahead, They anticipate smoothing things out within a month or so. Now if only they can address those poor tapes of late.

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Good news, we just received a new batch of Crinklz and BetterDry in stock so all backorders have shipped and we should be able to fill all new orders for a week or so. We have tested the Crinklz and have not found any tape issues with this new batch. We had even more orders supposedly coming in March, but they were delayed by backlog at European port so they won't be here until early April. After that we should be through the worst of the delays.

It has been a challenge for all companies in 2018 importing goods from Europe or Asia. Kind of a perfect storm...New electronic monitoring for truckers became the law in the US on Dec 18th, 2017 and will not allow truckers to drive beyond a certain limit. Since we already had shortage of truckers for many years, this was a huge reduction in driving hours that hit all at one time. Additional delays at many railyards due to financial difficulties by CSX and other railroads so, often times containers just sit for days or weeks waiting to be put onto trucks. In past they never sat for more than 2 or 3 days. Additionally, already 3 major east coast storms in 2018 at the same time as the increased volume from chinese new year was kind of the last straw. And now the European ports have their own labor shortages and backlogs. It's been a daily struggle to try and expedite shipments from all suppliers and you can read endless articles of this affecting all industries including Walmart, etc...Needless to say that prices are rising from the shipping companies due to supply and demand which will translate into rising prices in US for sure. When we became aware of the scope of the delays in late January, we placed extra orders from all international suppliers. Yet those won't start arriving until April due to all these delays. The Trump trade war is also making the exchange rates jump so that it is even more expensive for US companies to buy from overseas. He wants it to be cheaper from other countries to buy from US. It's possible the trade wars could slow down all economies and thus maybe make it less busy for the shipping companies too. We'll have to wait and see...

Yeah, and yeah. I was running low, but already see fedex has imy delivery on the way. Thanks!

And wow, I had no idea you guys were having that many problems. Glad to see you're still able to work through them. Tha ks for the effort, and especially for keeping us all updated.

These companies should consider manufacturing their products in the United States, instead of having to import them from China. It starting to become a logistics nightmare.