So, it's the time when all of the stores are supposed to go in the "black" for the year and the screaming deals are everywhere right? 

Well, not so fast.

In organics, most companies have been well into the "black" all year.  In fact, their "black" period occurred on July 1, 2007 when the U.S. Government began enforcing the new mattress flame retardant regulation. 

To put it mildly, combine this with the holidays and all of the organic manufacturers have far more business than they can handle.  In fact Natura, a Canadian manufacturer of organic and natural mattresses and bedding products, has just purchased a much larger manufacturing facility to accomodate their business.  This is 4 months away at this point and they are now 3 to 4 weeks behind in shipping any orders that come in. 

Talk to anyone that manufactures these products and they will tell you that just keeping up with the daily influx of orders is a major chore.  This means that retailers are doing a brisk business - all at regular prices and, in many cases, pre-selling items that are already on order.  It's the latter practice that is creating such a huge backlog for organic bedding products that we are looking at January or even farther for some to catch up.

The other problem is raw materials.  With both Natura and Vivetique (the Natural Bedroom) both coming out with washable wool products this past year, the demand has far outpaced the supply of the washable wool raw materials.  Both companies can hardly make these items fast enough when the wool reaches their doors and they are hard pressed then to fill all the open orders they have for these products.

The fact is, it's hard to order more raw materials at this point.  The only thing that can be done is try to expand the supply network and tell your other suppliers to plan more acreage or get more sheep so they can give you more next season.  It's not something you can really work overtime to fix when it comes to lack of cotton, wool or natural latex!

This being said, there is just no incentive out there for dealers to lower prices.  In fact, it's just the opposite.  Prices are increasing to drive down demand, but it's been clear that the last round of increases from all the majors (except Vivetique) was not enough to slow down the demand.

So don't look for big discounts before Christmas from any organic or natural bedding retailer.  They just aren't out there unless it's for odd stock items they want to get rid of.  Most are too busy trying to fill orders for items they don't have.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas everyone!