“People now have more savings because they travel less, shop less for clothes, and eat less outside, so they have been spending more on their house’s furniture or are remodeling their houses,” says Robert Aboolian, a professor of operations management at California State University San Marcos. What was once for many people little more than a launching pad for the world outside their front doors soon became their only world, and the faults in our homes, which we were once able to more or less ignore, became painful to look at.

But consumers did not stop shopping - at least not for home decor.

The industry-wide slowdown began following the institution of pandemic lockdowns in March 2020, as retailers curbed orders, worried that consumers would stop shopping altogether. “The customer is not happy.” He knows at least three other people who’ve similarly struggled with their West Elm orders, including one who received a couch “with holes in it.” “I spent the last five months, six months thinking about my furniture,” on top of worrying about his busy job, his kid, and everything else going on, he says. He wants to welcome people into his new home, but because it’s been half-empty, he hasn’t felt comfortable showing it to friends and family. He bought a new home for himself and his family last fall, and spent more than $10,000 on several West Elm sectionals, a dining room table, and a bed for his daughter. “West Elm should really go under, to be honest, because it’s a really shitty business,” says Ali, whose last name is being withheld to protect his privacy because he has a public-facing job. But supply chain issues and poor communication from retailers only compounded shoppers’ stress as they were now forced to agonize over a ninth-month delay of a necessary order that cost them thousands of dollars.Īnd no retailer was worse at this than West Elm. While facing the uncertainty and fear of a pandemic alongside other significant life transitions and even traumas, many people I spoke to merely wanted the comfort of a fresh sofa, a new mattress, or a much-needed refrigerator. These problems have left shoppers frustrated and, in some cases, bereft.

Shipping companies and ports grapple with similar obstacles, and prices of pallets and shipping containers are through the roof. Supply chains have stalled as factories enforce social distancing and struggle with sick workers. The issue is complex, fueled by a sudden and unexpected influx of home goods orders as people were confined to their homes with nothing to do but sit for hours on uncomfortable sofas and stare at blank walls in desperate need of adornment. The pandemic has worsened this issue, not only for West Elm but for a legion of furniture retailers. Three years after I wrote my original West Elm story, in which I revealed the company was enraging countless young shoppers by seemingly refusing to deliver anything in a timely manner, the situation does not seem to be much better. “It’s been an existential nightmare, as confounding as Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot”

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