Wild Birds Unlimited

WI LD B I RDS UNL IMI TED Pacific Northwest, that are struggling with that right now,” Pickett says. “Staffing is an issue. Raw materials acquisition is an issue. But our client base has been kinder than most in the face of these challenges and our world-class Product Department is working closely with them to figure it out and ease the pain.” The other piece of the supply chain equation is that the price of raw materials has shot up, and quite significantly in some cases. “You try to figure out how to absorb those price increases but, often times, there’s just no way to avoid them,” Dean shares. “The price of lumber is a perfect example. Cedar is used to build birdhouses. Realistically, a nesting box shouldn’t cost more today than it did yesterday. But if the supplier can’t get to the manufacturer, who can’t get to the lumber to make the product to where it becomes scarce, prices go up. And that all kind of trickles down to the customer, unfortunately.”