The Elf was a lot harder to get on your Shelf this year
CNN
The Elf on the Shelf — a popular elf doll that parents place around their home in the runup to Christmas to "monitor" if the kids are being naughty or nice — has been showing up in many American households in the days after Thanksgiving for more than 15 years now. But this year the elves' journeys to stores and homes has been more complicated.
All kinds of businesses across the globe have been scrambling to try to manage a stalled supply chain that's created a serious backlog of inventory at major ports and a shortage of workers to deliver it. But the problem feels particularly harrowing for companies that make a highly seasonal product with a tight sales window, like The Elf on the Shelf.
The Lumistella Company, the business behind the The Elf on the Shelf storybook and doll brand, makes the elves in China, then -— ideally, at least — gets them to the warehouses for retailers like Walmart, (WMT) Target (TGT) and Amazon (AMZN) weeks in advance of Thanksgiving. Since the product loses its relevancy after Christmas, there's always a ticking clock. Logistics like these are never easy, but this year has brought with it a number of new challenges for the company to work out.