Brexit and Covid Update

So Covid has not been fun for anyone , having massive affects on Lives accross the world but also having a huge effect on the way business such as ourselves works . I wont lie , we had worried pre christmas and pre Brexit that we would be closing down TheStoreRoom , this was due to fears of Brexit and the uncertaintity that knowing nothing until literally the day before it happened was going to have huge consequences for us and our trade with the Uk . We use primarily two companies based in the EU but they ship everything through the uk to Ireland and this was were things would get tricky for most business's 

So Brexit firstly , so far we have had additional delays to begin with as a new system is put in place , weve seen a 7/8 day turn around up to 9/10 days which isnt too bad and could have been a lot worse . We have received in our first orders which was a major relief . The bottom line is going to be bad for some of the other business operating out there pre brexit as its now a requirment to purchase from these companies to have a registered Vat and EORI number . This in turn may be actually good for small legitimate business here as there may be a small amount of less competition . So far we can live with the new Brexit but we do expect prices to rise this year for several factors which brings us to our second topic - Covid from a business point of view

Covid has brought with it a huge surge in demand globably for online goods , with China and Indonesia effectively shutting down for 2 months last march / april the machine stopped . Ships stopped sailing or having full loads leaving , The supply chain Broke . This left us with what will continue to be a bad situation for the foreseable future , Demand was too high for the supply , the suppliers cannot get Containers made to carry the goods as there is a huge demand for them and a low supply as the factories try to catch up . Prices for the shipping of containers from these countries have now Tripled in price from on average 3/4000 euros for a container to over 10,000 euros each . This undoubtately will have the knock on effect of two things this year , increases in costs will leave business no choice but to pass on costs and delays and lack of stock are going to be a lot more noticeable - with less stock prices will also rise. 

As a business which started to try and bring Ethical - sustainable and recycled products to Ireland at Fair prices in comparison to some other of the big companies , we will continue to do our very best to keep stock available and our prices as fair and low as we can . Regarding stock we do advise especially with larger furniture and interiors , if something comes back into stock , the general rule is it will be available for ordering from 1-5 days after being made available again especially the popular ranges . Our business works on a on demand system , you order , we order - where as the big companies can order in bulk when things return they snap up stock which leaves us mere days to arrange our small piece of the stock pie.

We hope to continue our business during 2021 and thank you all for being our customers and friends , your custom makes a difference and keeps us going 

Frank & Joanne - TheStoreRoom.ie