EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Even though Christmas is a few months away, with shortages and delays related to the pandemic, a Borderland shop owner is suggesting people start Christmas shopping sooner, rather than later.

David Lincoln, owner of Lincoln’s Mini Mall – a shop located at the Outlet Shops of El Paso – says he tried to order ahead of time for the holidays, but is experiencing delays.

“From China to my door were still waiting on products we ordered in January,” said Lincoln.

Lincoln says getting shipments from overseas used to take between two and three months. Additionally, he’s now seeing delays getting the inventory to El Paso once the products are in the country.

“We’ve had issues even now getting products from let’s say in California from one of my warehouses to here that would take 4 days before, sometimes I don’t see it for a couple of weeks,” said Lincoln.

Anticipating prices to rise as the holiday months near due to shipping costs for new inventory that arrives.

“The prices have gone skyrocket on the transportation. We’ve tried to hold our prices down as much as we can but we have to make a profit or we can’t do business,” said Lincoln.

Victoria Enriquez tells KTSM 9 News she’s trying to plan ahead to ensure she gets her son the gift he wants.

“He really wants one of these motorized cars,” Enriquez shared as she browsed toys at Lincoln’s Mini Mall on Friday.

“His birthday is two days after Christmas and we know that there’s a shortage right now trying to order gifts and not only for Christmas but for his birthday too so we started looking into it several months ahead of time,” Enriquez added.

El Pasoan Sergio Mendez bought two motorized cars for children his family on Friday but planning to come back for a third before the holidays.

“I mean I see that coming with the shortage so yeah definitely plan ahead, get another one,” said Mendez.

Lincoln sums up the situation this way: “If this is the car you like and you came in today and your thinking I’m going to get one of those for my son or my daughter at Christmas and you’re going to come in on December 3 and you think you’re ahead of the game you’re probably going to be behind the game.”

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