Lots of talk on the macro-economic level about falling prices and the risk of deflation. Evidently the office furniture industry hasn't heard the chatter. We are seeing wholesale price increases - both from our large and small vendors.
Our largest domestic vendor (+1BN in revenues) recently implemented a "weighted" 4% price increase (which means some items don't go up at all, and some items go up a lot). This vendor sited increased steel and commodity costs as the primary reason for the increase, and they expect their competitors to follow suit.
A large importer also recently announced a pending price increase (between 0% and 15%), scheduled for September 1. No specifics on what is driving the import increases, but I would wager that increased shipping costs (container and transit costs), along with wage increases in China, and increasing commodity prices, will drive up overall retail costs between 10% to 15% over the next 18 months.
