afford fewer of them. gary grant founder of the entertainer chain of toy shops has been speaking to aaron heslehurst for talking business weekly. aaron asked him if supply chain issues mean some toys simply won t be available. in some cases the answer is yes. we are less than two weeks until christmas and the last six months from a shipping perspective has been a rollercoaster. obtaining containers in the mid summer was difficult. at one stage, mid to late september is, we were 300 containers behind on shipping. those containers have now been shipped and the majority of them are now in the uk but some of those containers will not clear customs and come out the ports before christmas eve. so there will inevitably be some items that we could sell if only we could get them. we also know that the cost of getting a container has gone up something like ten fold.
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but we re not expecting any more delays than those we have been talking about for the last few weeks. been talking about for the last few weeks- few weeks. gary, you are in charue few weeks. gary, you are in charge of few weeks. gary, you are in charge of the few weeks. gary, you are in charge of the dream - few weeks. gary, you are in charge of the dream toy - few weeks. gary, you are in i charge of the dream toy group but looking at the toys that are hot for christmas but we also know you was the founder of the entertainer, the toy shop chain. you have 190 shops across the uk. how have you navigated covid and lockdown and the fact that your shops were shot for quite a long period of time? representing to sho -s period of time? representing toy shops up period of time? representing toy shops up and period of time? representing toy shops up and down i period of time? representing toy shops up and down the i toy shops up and down the country, your high streets have had a torrid
it has been a tough time, no getting away from that and we need to now stay open all the way through to christmas eve. we were on the verge of a closing for all of november this week last year and many shops were closed for christmas because of covid so please, use your local high streets, use your local high streets, use your local high streets, use your local shops and in particular use your local toy shops. particular use your local toy shos, , ., , , particular use your local toy shos. , , shops. presumably you were runnina shops. presumably you were running online shops. presumably you were running online throughout i shops. presumably you were i running online throughout and you had a good online presence anyway prior to the pandemic and if any retail was going to survive it had to be online significantly. is that what kept you going to a great degree? kept you going to a great decree? ., , kept you going to a great decree? . ., , degree? online was certainly very helpful deg