Economic changes and changes to the local retail landscape will result in increased pricing and decreased availability of some appliance brands. Our top priority remains delivering the products that our Pittsburgh community wants in a timely manner. We're mitigating effects of the economic changes by building a second, larger warehouse so that we can continue to provide the service that our local market has come to expect from us.
Changes to legislation and tariffs have affected the cost of major appliance components. Raw material and labor costs have increased significantly in the last 12 months. To our knowledge, these changes will begin to take effect for us on December 1st, 2018. We are unsure at this time how many brands and products will be affected by this.
In addition to decreased availability on a national level, there have been changes in the retail landscape that shifts the availability of products from the hands of local "retail giants" to the showroom floors of independent appliance retailers. Economists are identifying this time of increased online purchases resulting in the closing of box stores as a "retail apocalypse" for the brick-and-mortars, namely Sears and hhgregg.
At Don's Appliances we take our duty of continuing to bring the most innovative and compelling appliances (plumbing products and mattresses, too!) to our local Pittsburgh community at competitive prices with fast delivery and installation times seriously. In response to these changes Don's has begun building a second, larger warehouse which allows us the real estate to store significantly more product. We are working hard to keep up with our customers' needs to remain "where Pittsburgh shops for appliances!"