The big bunting shortage
ROYAL wedding fans are facing a bunting shortage as retailers sell out due to popular demand.
Party Pieces, the website set up and run by the Duchess of Cambridge’s parents, has sold out of red, white and blue bunting sets ahead of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding tomorrow.
John Lewis’s website has also sold out of its £6.99 “Ginger Ray Royal Wedding Royalty Union Jack Bunting”. Last night, a spokesman said that although stocks had run out at Johnlewis.com, there was still some bunting left in stores.
Millions of households are expected to celebrate the wedding with barbecues and street parties, with bunting a must-have decoration.
Most popular – and therefore the quickest-selling – is Union flag-themed bunting. Some retailers are also selling decorative bunting featuring photos of the couple’s faces.
Ahead of the Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding in 2011, there was mayhem in stores as shoppers pulled bunting off supermarket displays and fought with each other over the product. Party hosts hoping for a last-minute bunting delivery from Amazon were last night horrified to discover they were too late, as delivery dates extended to Monday next week, even for Amazon Prime customers.
In the absence of bunting, revellers who are keen to impress guests with other patriotic items, such as napkins and tablewear, are also finding that shops are running out. Lakeland has sold out of its £2.99 Union flag napkins and Party Pieces has exhausted its supply of square Union flag plates.
Shoppers across the country are taking to Twitter to complain that supermarkets have run out of traditional decorations with branches of Tesco, Waitrose and Paperchase all reporting being sold out.
One angry Waitrose shopper posted on social media: “What a poor show. Popped into my local, expecting to find some royal wedding-themed stock, red white and blue cakes, napkins, bunting etc. NADA. Oh dear.”
When it came to royal weddingthemed party food, shoppers were also disappointed to find it was selling out fast. Last night, M&S had no remaining stocks of its highly sought-after £6 traditional royal wedding biscuit tin.
‘What a poor show. Popped into my local expecting to find royal weddingthemed stock. NADA’