Visitors will notice fewer floor lamps in the Sharper Vision Store than in the past.
For over 50 years, the Council has operated a store stocked with adaptive products to help empower people who are blind or low vision to live with dignity and independence. As a nonprofit, we keep our profit margins significantly lower than most other retailers to ensure that you are getting the best prices on the best products. But the ongoing volatility of global supply chains is putting strain on the store, affecting nearly every item we sell. Rising costs and disappearing products put stress on both our customers and the Council. We are doing everything we can to make the Sharper Vision Store the best choice for adaptive products, but these are challenging times.
The cost of nearly every product in the Sharper Vision Store has increased dramatically over the past year. Many of the products in our store are made overseas, and it is costing more to produce them as well as to ship them to the U.S. We would like to stock more U.S.-made products, but often there are simply no comparable products being produced in the US to replace those items.
Additionally, many manufacturers are making hard decisions about which items to produce or ship to the US. This means that some products we have carried for years are no longer available for us to purchase and keep in stock. We test every item we intend to sell in the Sharper Vision Store to ensure that it is well- suited for the needs of people with vision loss. When a product we have been stocking is no longer available, we have to spend a significant amount of time researching and testing new products to replace them. Sometimes, there simply is no proper alternative for an item that has disappeared, leaving that need unmet. For example, many lamps and lighting instruments that were once readily available are now either no longer available in the U.S. or are no longer being manufactured.
We understand that it’s frustrating when an item you need is unavailable or more expensive than expected. We are doing everything possible to find the best adaptive products on the market and make them available to our customers at reasonable prices. As our inventory shifts, we will continue to search for products that are affordable and accessible to sell in the Sharper Vision Store. You can find the most up-to-date information on what we have available at Store.WCBlind.org/Store.