Throughout this pandemic, several things have gone through periodic shortages. We all read about or experienced the toilet paper shortage. I reported in a previous blog that bike stores didn’t have many low or mid priced bikes. I still don’t know whether this is because everyone who had too much time on their hands bought one or if the shutdown of Chinese factories meant that many weren’t produced.
The latest thing to be in short supply is affordable jigsaw puzzles. I am sure that if I went to a games store or a retailer that sold puzzles for the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, I could probably find a good supply. What I mean is that there are no puzzles to be found at any of the dollar stores I frequent.
I am pretty sure the reason is that people have taken up the hobby. My evidence is anecdotal at best, but I have heard that more people are having family game nights and doing jigsaw puzzles. Maybe they have gone through everything on their streaming services and are now left with nothing else to do. If news were the only option, I’d opt for something other than TV.
On my last visit to the dollar store, I found two puzzles–and I don’t mean multiple copies of two puzzles. I mean two puzzles. I took the one that spoke to me most and brought it to my girlfriend’s place. I didn’t know if it would be a hit or not, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. It wasn’t an easy puzzle. The colours were pretty hard and the pieces had some wild shapes. However the satisfaction level was quite high. Best of all, watching her face light up as she put the last few pieces down was fantastic. It was truly a Perfect Moment.
I am not sure if we will do another one, but I suspect that we will.
Great news on the puzzle
That’s a Christmas puzzle. We always got out a puzzle of Mr Mole proposing to thumbelina every December. (My birthday is December 1st so Christmas – decorations etc – started with December.) I usually took us almost to Christmas to finish it , with the kids adding a piece or two whenever they came in after shcool or other activity.
The other time we played games or did jigsaws was on holiday, which was usually a caravan or, later, a hired cottage or Landmark Trust place (https://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/search-and-book/holiday-ideas/dogfriendly/) that didn’t have TV. As adults, my kids are still keen to play card games or board games when they get together and add to a jigsaw if I have one going.
The short supply of low/mid-priced bikes was caused by people all of suddenly taking an interest in cycling; however, the shutdown of those factories means shops won’t be getting their usual stock the next time they place a purchase order. Where I work, there are several models that definitely won’t be making a comeback next year!
I’m not a jigsaw puzzle person, but Liberty Puzzles makes gorgeous puzzles!
That’s a lovely picture, definitely one I would buy. I was lucky to buy one puzzle shortly before lockdown – I usually buy them in shops rather than online and I wouldn’t have been able to buy any when the shops shut. We don’t have any puzzles in our British equivalent of dollar stores (Poundland) so I found that the cheapest way to buy them is looking on ebay for puzzles someone had bought but never even finished.