A shortage of giant holiday yard
decorations, particularly at Home Depot, is frustrating consumers and resulting in a vigorous resale market.
“The store released a catalog earlier this year with its
giant yard decorations that Yahoo
Life reports have developed a cult following,” according to The Street.
Almost immediately, the catalog sold out of some of the big decorations by early afternoon the day of launch, Fast Company reported.
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“Customers have not been quiet about the missing decorations.
In fact, a Home Depot Halloween and Christmas Facebook Group with over 165,800 members has been abuzz with discussions about
where the items are and why they can’t be found in stores across the country,” according to The Street.
Some have speculated that tariffs are to blame for the
absence of the giant decor, as some of the larger decorations are imported from Chinese companies that may not be able to move the items affordably into the United States.
“[The shortage] also spawned a gray market of Santas, reindeer and 7-foot candy canes -- some marked up more than seven times the original price,” according to The Wall Street Journal. “As time runs out, some are preparing to make compromises: When a Facebook user in late November
sought help finding a Santa in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, someone alerted them to a place asking $250 for a Santa missing a leg and the base. The seller, a liquidator in Connecticut, said
they’d go as low as $200. Amputee Santa hasn’t sold.”
Home Depot employees have addressed the shortage of these items in online forums, including in one Reddit post where a worker said he had been getting multiple weekly calls about a large
decoration featuring Santa in a sleigh being pulled by reindeer.