KALAMAZOO, MI – Eric Pellegrini, 37, of Portage, had to remove 60 feet of snow piled three feet high from a sidewalk that ran along the back edge of his property or risk paying a potential fine from the city of Portage.
Lacking a snow shovel to clear the snow after the one he had broke, Pellegrini visited many major retailers in Kalamazoo and Portage and still wasn’t able to get his hands on a replacement.
“All the major retailers are out of them,” Pellegrini said. “Target, Meijer, Walmart, Home Depot; they were out, and they were quick to say they ‘We’re out.'”
With major retailers turning customers away because of a lack of inventory, residents in situations similar to Pellegrini’s can take comfort in the fact that local hardware stores are pursuing other avenues in order to keep shovels, snowblowers and other types of snow and ice removal equipment in stock.
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Attempting to strike a balance between how much of a product to order versus how much you will actually sell is something that local hardware stores have been dealing with all winter, said Phil Ippel, co-owner of L. Hoekstra True Value in Kalamazoo.
“Because of the last few winters not being that stressful on the system, buyers at retail went easy, and they didn’t produce as many at the factory level,” Ippel said. “We’re completely out of snow throwers. We’ve been able to get shovels, we’ve got a nice selection of shovels and pushers.”
Already looking ahead to next winter, Ippel said that meetings with distributors to determine how many products to orders for next year’s snow season will start happening soon. Banking on a strong preseason in the fall, Ippel says that he will probably buy more product than he has in past years.
“People usually think about the past winter; that will impact how we buy,” he said. “You have the basis of the past winter to kind of start things off. Usually we look at our past numbers and try to project from there. The hardware industry kind of thrives on the extremes.”
Brad Rowgo has been the assistant manager at Gale’s True Value in Kalamazoo for 10 years and says that smaller stores have a better chance of keeping items in stock.
“Your local hardware store has a better advantage over your big box stores because we can go out there and venture and try to find things,” Rowgo said. “You’re rolling the dice when it involves Mother Nature.”
Toro Company territory manager Don Behringer has been with Toro for 21 years and said that this year’s winter was quite a phenomenon. The shortage of snow blowers in stores at this stage in the winter can be attributed to the fact that manufacturers have begun construction of mowers getting ready for spring.
“If you look nationally, not just in Michigan, every market that resides in a snow market all got snow simultaneously, so you can’t really brace for that when the two previous years were very soft,” Behringer said. “The supply chain runs out at some point. Anything geared toward the winter months is in short supply.
Looking ahead to next year, Behringer said that orders for snow blowers will start coming in over the course of the next few weeks.
“We start shipping them to dealers in August and September,” he said. “Manufacturing is all based on percentage sold. The availability of product next season should be very strong.”
Date: February 17, 2014