US Retailers Scramble to Stock Shelves as Children Head Back to School
LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK—At Stationery and Toy World, a family-owned shop in New York’s Upper West Side, manager Gary Rowe is having difficulty getting all the pens and folders he ordered for the important back-to-school season.
His usual vendors have low stocks of Pilot’s erasable FriXion pens and Paper Mate Flair marker pens— and prices are high on stationery and other in-demand school supplies.
And Rowe is not alone, retailers are navigating a storm of challenges—higher production costs, cargo delays from China and other Asian countries, and sky-high shipping rates—as they gear up for the industry’s second-biggest selling season.