I wonder what sorta condition Cold Steel's Supply Chain is in right now?

[Solomonson]

I wonder what sorta condition Cold Steel's Supply Chain is in right now? A number of online sellers such as MidwayUSA show certain models (from both CS and other manufacturers) as being "overdue" and that back-ordering is approved.

Did the distributor channel seem stripped before CS announced their sale on 12/03? It takes what, just under 30 days to get a container over the water from Taiwan to Long Beach or LA?

I'm curious if (at least) one more "CS pure" shipment is due? Looking on GMSO/CS's website, they seem to be raising prices a bit?

 

[Barry the Bear]

I would imagine right now alot of supply chains are having issues with the virus. Cold Steel has always had trouble keeping popular models in stock, in fact that ok ne of the reasons they sold to GSM was the hope that their more vast resources would help to keep more items in stock for their customer base.

 

[hso]

Midway

They're not a volume seller for CS. Check Knife Center and Blade HQ since they deal in larger quantities. If you call a distributor like Blue Ridge they may actually chat with you about it (they're in the SE and tend to be pretty friendly).

You can also go to the CS forum or Blade Forums to look for discussions where someone involved in distribution may be involved in the discussion.

 

[Speedo66]

We're also a few days from Christmas, lots of items are out of stock in all industries.

 

[Solomonson]

I would imagine right now alot of supply chains are having issues with the virus. Cold Steel has always had trouble keeping popular models in stock, in fact that ok ne of the reasons they sold to GSM was the hope that their more vast resources would help to keep more items in stock for their customer base.

I was really wondering about that. Thanks. For its size, CS had a lot of SKUs to juggle...

 

[Solomonson]

We're also a few days from Christmas, lots of items are out of stock in all industries.

Was that common for knives, pre-pandemic, pre-CS sale?

 

[hso]

Was that common for knives, pre-pandemic, pre-CS sale?

Not too much surprise to find SKUs out of stock this close to Christmas.

 

[CapnMac]

Actually, best bet for finding CS stuff would be to find one of the smaller/lower volume vendors (unless they are drop shippers) as such places are more likely to have inventory on hand.

 

[rust collector]

I had 3 Cold Steel items on a Midway order, and all were expected to be in stock shortly after the new year. None were for gifts, there was no hurry and the price made it worth the wait. I suspect that interest ticked up when the sale to SGM was announced, and in this economy I would be reluctant to stock items very deep.