High Country Serves as Hidden Paradise for Yuletide Gifts; Avoid Supply Chain Woes
Trevor Phipps
Everyone has heard the news about the supply chain problems recently affecting all types of products across the globe.
In fact, any time you turn on the news, there are headlines highlighting the issues regarding moving products across the country.
Some blame the problems on labor shortages amid the pandemic shutdowns, and others say increasing regulations on the trucking industries are the true culprit. Whatever the reason, the problems with moving products through the supply chain in America is real.
Ships in just about all ports in every major U.S. city are lined up and waiting to be unloaded. In some places in California, shipping containers have been moved onto the sides of neighborhood streets to make room for more ships to unload.
Trucking companies everywhere say that they are in a severe need of truckers ever since the nationwide labor shortages started in the beginning of the year. Whereas, many truckers say that hundreds are leaving the industry due to poor working conditions and/or pay.
Again, whatever the case may be, the bottom line is that stores are running out of many different types of products because things just aren’t moving from place “A” to place “B” as quickly as they had in the past. Many experts say that the depressed supply chain could cause issues when it comes to people getting what they want during the Christmas season.
Delivery Problems?
On Black Friday last week, I decided to go on Amazon.com just to check out what the special deals were for the shopping holiday. It seemed as if just about everything they offer was “on sale for a discounted price.”
But when it came to actually purchasing an item, the bad news set in. Many of the items I was looking at purchasing had delivery times that were weeks or even over a month out.
I then realized that even if I had wanted to shop for Christmas gifts online during the famous shopping holiday, it probably wouldn’t have worked out. Many of the “special sales” items they offered had shipping times between Dec. 19 and 29 meaning that they could not guarantee your goods would arrive before Christmas Day.
However, there is one easy solution that everyone should consider. Recently as I was browsing social media, I noticed a post that said something to the gist of “shop local because you are not paying for a CEO’s third home. Instead, you are paying for a 12-year-old’s baseball jersey.”
The post was highlighting the fact that if you shop local, the money stays within the community in one way or the other. If you shop on Amazon or even bigger box stores that are in malls or Walmart, the money you are spending goes to other pockets and bank accounts and the community never sees any of it.
I have seen other posts that tell people to shop local and then you don’t have to worry about supply chain issues. And this, my friends, is entirely true. Local stores already have many gift items in stock for the holiday season so you won’t have to worry about things getting shipped.
Buying hand crafted items made by local artisans is another way you can’t go wrong when shopping for the holidays. You may have to switch things up, and you might not necessarily be able to find exactly what you had in mind as a gift.
But I personally think that people do enjoy a variety sometimes and it is hard to go wrong with handcrafted pieces of art or other items. And luckily, in Woodland Park, Cripple Creek, Divide, Florissant, Green Mountain Falls, and all across the Pikes Peak Region, there are many retail stores that offer gifts of all kind. We often pride ourselves on unique store outlets.
At the Brazenhead Marketplace on Highway 24 on the west side of Woodland Park, you can find many different items from various local suppliers. At the Reserve Our Gallery on the intersection of West and Highway 24, the pieces of many local artists are on display and up for purchase.
Check out some of the amazing NFL merchandise at Creations Everlasting in Cripple Creek and unique paintings at the Painted Bear in Green Mountain Falls.
The county actually has so many different types of cool stores that items from antiques, clothes, and gifts that there are just too many to name here.
Therefore, instead of taking the risk and ordering exactly what you had in mind online, try opening your mind to purchasing unique gifts from local artisans. You never know, people could enjoy the gift you buy them locally better than what you were going to order them online anyways.
If anything, it sure beats biting your nails and worrying whether or not your gifts are going to arrive in the last few days before the big holiday. And remember, pretty much every store in the area offers gift certificates, too in case you are not exactly sure what to buy.
