Check Call: The Halloween supply chain

In this edition: Breaking down how scary freight makes its way to consumers, and the Savannah port rises to the top.

Mary O'Connell

1 month ago

people gathered around a desk of computers. Check Call news and analysis for 3pls and brokers

This is it: the last week to use the CheckCallF324 promo code for a discount to the Future of Freight Festival! The deal ends on Halloween. Sadly, come Nov. 1 there will be no treats as tickets are full price for all. If you’ve been on the fence about going, let this be your sign to click this link to join all of the cool kids in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Nov. 19-21. Don’t let the spoookky good deal get away.

It’s the most spooktacular time of the year: Halloween is this Thursday. Last-minute costumes are in short supply at stores, but there doesn’t seem to be a candy shortage this year as just about every store has something for you – even if the candy is getting swapped for red and green Christmas varieties. It’s too soon for that kind of nonsense; let Halloween have its moment.

Speaking of Halloween having its moment, there is one constant every Halloween season and that is the magic of Spirit Halloween. The company’s ability to take a storefront that’s barely been unoccupied and flip it into a spook-lover’s paradise is fascinating. It’s hard to find out how the company is able to move so quickly in getting inventory where it needs to be and seemingly have a storefront pop up overnight. There are some insights courtesy of a 1-800-PACK-RAT case study on the Halloween giant.

1-800-PACK-RAT is most commonly known to consumers as a junk-hauling or storage service. It drops off a container, customers fill it, and the company holds on to it and delivers it where customers need it. Turns out that is just about the right model for trying to open 1,100 stores at basically the same time across the country.

According to the case study, “The two companies’ IT departments worked together to create custom software that monitors container movement. This improved communications between the two companies and increased the overall efficiency of managing this large project by cutting down on manual data entry. In 2017, over 4,500 portable storage containers were used to deliver Halloween inventory and fixtures nationwide.”

This year consumers are expected to spend at record levels for Halloween – roughly $12.2 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. A sizable jump given that last year they were expected to spend only $10.6 billion.

Spirit is the undisputed home of costumes and decorations, although the viral 12-foot skeleton from Home Depot is giving Spirit a run for its money. The top two categories consumers are less than willing to cut back on are decorations and costumes: Only 24% of consumers plan to reuse old costumes this year. More are looking to trade down to cheaper candy. RIP to the full-size candy bars.

Halloween-related freight may be a thing of the past, but that lull between Halloween and retail’s peak season might be a thing of the past, too, this year as retailers continue to pull loads forward and capitalize on the short shopping season between Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2024.

Market Check.This week’s SONAR market goes down to South Texas where everything doesn’t appear to be bigger. Outbound tender volumes in Houston have reached some stability with little deviation week over week as volumes are changing less than 1%. That stability however, cannot be applied to outbound tender rejections, which have risen 344 basis points w/w to come in at 3.44%.

Normally, such a sharp uptick in rejections can be a cause for concern, indicating there is instability in the market. However, the jump peaking at 3.44% isn’t quite the dramatic swing to shoot spot rates up. For that, we’d need to see rejections crest at 7% if not higher.

Who’s with whom? The Port of Savannah missed the slowdown memo. Following the East and Gulf Coast port worker strike, some thought ports on the East Coast would see a reduction in twenty-foot equivalent unit volumes. Turns out that wasn’t the case everywhere.

The Georgia Ports Authority marine terminals handled 450,700 TEUs, a 12% increase year over year. More specifically, the Port of Savannah’s container volumes totaled more than 1.4 million TEUs.

FreightWaves’ Stuart Chirls wrote: “Growth of the inland rail yards was boosted by the Port of Savannah’s Mason Mega Rail Terminal, which saw a one-day record of 2,169 containers moved on Oct. 4. The inland terminal at Appalachian Regional Port handled 3,000 containers in September, an increase of 11%, for a record quarter of more than 10,000 containers.”