Is there a barbecue stock shortage or am I just too early?

[Mr Happy]

After looking around on and offline for most of the last couple of weeks, it seems like next to no stores have many (if any) barbecues in stock at the moment.

I'm ideally after a Weber E320 Spirit II gas barbecue but they're nowhere to be found. I'm not sure if this is just knock-on replenishment issues from the Suez Canal blockage, but even Weber's own site don't have them in stock, (they do have the S320 but I'm not spending an extra £60 or so just for a stainless hood!, plus Weber's direct pricing is even higher than places like B&Q etc.) and most of the usual online barbecue shops don't have them either.

Seemingly though it's not only Weber kit that's hard to come by, local DIY places (B&Q, Homebase etc.) and garden centres seem to have a very slim selection generally, offering either own brand cheapo stuff that'll probably last a season if you're lucky, or are holding the absolute top end, gourmet stuff with prices deep into 4 figures.

I know I can get a charcoal one relatively easy - I had one last year but gave it away as where I live doesn't lend itself to regular operation of a conventional barbecue.

[Mr Pointy]

There's a shortage of everything. Blame Covid/Brexit/Ever Green, whichever takes your fancy.

[iacabu]

A few places (wowbbq and bbqworld) seem to be expecting delivery mid April. I have to say, prices seem much higher than when I was looking last year.

FWIW I ended up going with a Napoleon Rogue 425 from Costco. It was about £470.

[omniflow]

Not sure where you live, but Hildreths Garden Centre in Prestwood (approx 5 miles north of High Wycombe) have a fair few BBQs in stock any they offer pretty good pricing.

Also, unlike some other places that only sell BBQs, they're open.

[CaptainSlow]

omniflow said:

Not sure where you live, but Hildreths Garden Centre in Prestwood (approx 5 miles north of High Wycombe) have a fair few BBQs in stock any they offer pretty good pricing.

Also, unlike some other places that only sell BBQs, they're open.

Just avoid the locals.

[anonymous-user]

Mr Pointy said:

There's a shortage of everything. Blame Covid/Brexit/Ever Green, whichever takes your fancy.

This.

I’m building a house right now (nearly finished) and almost everything I have had to buy over the last 12 months, has either been delayed, unavailable, and in very short supply.

It got worse towards the end of last year, noticeably worse after Brexit, and now has seemingly got worse again which almost didn’t seem possible.

Even ordering all my kitchen appliances was touch and go, and I think I quite literally got the one of the last batches of NEFF stuff in the UK.

Basic stuff like plasterboard and insulation has been a nightmare as well. Continually phoning round places until I found somewhere that had some stock and snapping it up.

There is no way I would be starting any kind of build project at the moment with the shortages of stuff as they are.

I’ve been told by most of my suppliers that I’ve ‘been lucky’ because the next thing is going to be quite significant price rises on most building products, home appliances, UPVC etc.

Going back to barbecues and garden stuff, I had a similar issue with chimineas. My my mum wanted one for her garden, and it’s taken me 2 months to get the one she wanted due to shortages.

[sherman]

Going by the B&Q I was in at the weekend the BBQ section (was the bird feeder section) was almost built so you might just be a few weeks early.

[MarkJS]

Lord Marylebone said:

Mr Pointy said:

There's a shortage of everything. Blame Covid/Brexit/Ever Green, whichever takes your fancy.

This.

I’m building a house right now (nearly finished) and almost everything I have had to buy over the last 12 months, has either been delayed, unavailable, and in very short supply.

It got worse towards the end of last year, noticeably worse after Brexit, and now has seemingly got worse again which almost didn’t seem possible.

Even ordering all my kitchen appliances was touch and go, and I think I quite literally got the one of the last batches of NEFF stuff in the UK.

Basic stuff like plasterboard and insulation has been a nightmare as well. Continually phoning round places until I found somewhere that had some stock and snapping it up.

There is no way I would be starting any kind of build project at the moment with the shortages of stuff as they are.

I’ve been told by most of my suppliers that I’ve ‘been lucky’ because the next thing is going to be quite significant price rises on most building products, home appliances, UPVC etc.

Going back to barbecues and garden stuff, I had a similar issue with chimineas. My my mum wanted one for her garden, and it’s taken me 2 months to get the one she wanted due to shortages.

Yep. Some good friends own a business that sells wood burning stoves & BBQ’s. There’s a huge shortage of everything (along with massive demand) and this has been the case since last year.

[beambeam1]

Mr Pointy said:

There's a shortage of everything. Blame Covid/Brexit/Ever Green, whichever takes your fancy.

And if it's in stock, expect a covid-tax applied in some places. Prices were gone through the roof last summer!

Just ordered a Campingaz 4-burner for the old man's belated 60th birthday celebrations, out of stock but BBQworld are allowing pre-orders and seem to expect the next batch by early May. Might as well, we had all planned to spend the weekend in a lodge last October celebrating his birthday but each time travel and group size restrictions changed we have had to change the dates. Ultimately, host has refunded us and taking the property off market altogether.

[Mr Happy]

iacabu said:

A few places (wowbbq and bbqworld) seem to be expecting delivery mid April. I have to say, prices seem much higher than when I was looking last year.

FWIW I ended up going with a Napoleon Rogue 425 from Costco. It was about £470.

That one looks decent, I've had a look at the local Costco but the only one they had ended up being sold last week. Not sure if it was a Napoleon, but fingers crossed they'll end up getting some more stuff in before too long.

Costco in general seem to be a bit spartan for a lot of things, example the basic Kirlkand yellow microfibre cloths - usually a staple, they're sold out now pretty much constantly.

I'm graduallly erring towards pre-ordering with bbqworld or wowbbq, just sticks in the throat a bit that the E320 SII costs £725/£741 at those dealers, but is £629 at B&Q. I'll wait and see how the next month pans out for stock availability I guess.

[LeadFarmer]

Mr Happy said:

I'm graduallly erring towards pre-ordering with bbqworld or wowbbq, just sticks in the throat a bit that the E320 SII costs £725/£741 at those dealers, but is £629 at B&Q. I'll wait and see how the next month pans out for stock availability I guess.

Depends if that extra £100 is worth it for the comfort of being fairly sure of securing you the bbq you want. You could wait for BnQ to have stock, then find they don't, or they sell out, and then discover bbqworld have since sold out also. You could pre-order and then cancel at a later date if you find one elsewhere.

[Mr Happy]

LeadFarmer said:

Mr Happy said:

I'm graduallly erring towards pre-ordering with bbqworld or wowbbq, just sticks in the throat a bit that the E320 SII costs £725/£741 at those dealers, but is £629 at B&Q. I'll wait and see how the next month pans out for stock availability I guess.

Depends if that extra £100 is worth it for the comfort of being fairly sure of securing you the bbq you want. You could wait for BnQ to have stock, then find they don't, or they sell out, and then discover bbqworld have since sold out also. You could pre-order and then cancel at a later date if you find one elsewhere.

I'm not "£100 over retail" desperate to get one. If I can't get one this year then c'est la vie - it's not like Weber are going to stop making them anytime soon so I'm not really fussed whether I get one next week or in 3 months.

If the online retailers offered value add packages (such as including the cover in the price etc.) then I'd be more inclined to do that, but whacking a ton on the price just because they can makes me less inclined to buy online.

[Dicky Knee]

Here's one.

10% off first order.

https://stratfordgardencentre.co.uk/shop/product/w...

[ToastMan76]

You are early, our stock is currently between some being on the water, some being produced in the coming month.

Beware - CV19 & Suez has not been kind to BBQs, especially big ones!

[mike74]

Definite shortage of supply of just about everything home/garden/leisure/diy related.

I suppose it's the perfect storm of Brexit/covid disruption of supply chains and increased demand from all the furlough piss takers and business grant/loan abusers with all their free time and free money.

Edited by mike74 on Thursday 8th April 05:24

[hotchy]

Demand must be huge. I managed to grab the aldi kamado. It went on sale 8am and took 2 minutes each time to sell out with a que of 20k people. If all those people are looking for a bbq then you can see why things are sold out everywhere.

Its freezing this week yet iv used it 3 times. Today I'm busy preparing ribs for tomorrow's 6 hour cook. If you won't use a charcoal bbq due to weather, gas will be the same.

[tomsugden]

Surely if it runs on gas it's a grill, not a bbq?

[anonymous-user]

mike74 said:

Definite shortage of supply of just about everything home/garden/leisure/diy related.

I suppose it's the perfect storm of Brexit/covid disruption of supply chains and increased demand from all the furlough piss takers and business grant/loan abusers with all their free time and free money.

Yep. I'm friendly with a few builders who do extensions, renovations, kitchens, new builds etc, and they say things have gone insane over the last 8 months or so. Apparently everyone has money burning a hole in their pocket thanks to £50k bounce back loans, £10k business grants, and in some cases, getting some of their staff to still come into work while on furlough.

Then there are the furloughed people, who are sat at home itching to spend their money on something because they are bored and picking faults with their homes.

Demand for extensions, renovations, new kitchens, new bathrooms, new windows, garden improvements, has exploded. People are constantly looking around for stuff to improve around their home.

Throw in some Brexit/Covid supply chain disruption and you do indeed have the perfect storm of unavailability and higher prices.

[Mr Happy]

Dicky Knee said:

Here's one.

10% off first order.

https://stratfordgardencentre.co.uk/shop/product/w...

Many thanks for looking, I went to order it but they want £85 for palleted delivery, putting it up to £773 including the 10% discount. If it was £15 for regular delivery (as their site suggests for larger items) I'd have been all over it.

[Mr Happy]

In the spirit of more fire = better, Costco are doing this 4+1 burner KitchenAid grill at the moment for less than the Weber e-320 (3+1)

Anyone ever used the KitchenAid grills? Some of the spurious review sites seem to rate them but they're rebadged Chinese Nexgrills, whereas the Webers are made in the USA.

https://www.costco.co.uk/Garden-Sheds-Patio/Barbec...