LYNDHURST, Ohio — Snow Brothers Appliance in northeast Ohio has been in business since 1922 and Vice President Melissa Kent said it’s never seen a surge of orders quite like this.

What You Need To Know

  • There is a nationwide appliance shortage because of the pandemic

  • Manufacturers cannot keep up with the unprecedented demand

  • It's not just the appliance industry; hardware stores and others are affected too

  • Production for certain models has stopped, backordering some items into next year

“The demand is a little overwhelmingly high right now which we love. It’s definitely not something we would ever complain about, but our staff is overwhelmed,” said Melissa.


With many people working from home and vacations canceled because of the pandemic, some now have the money to upgrade their homes. On the flip side, manufacturing assembly lines have had to adjust to comply with social distancing guidelines, so production cannot keep up.

“A lot of the manufacturers, it's so tough; they're not even able to provide a solid ETA date on some of the products they give you kind of like, we may have it in production around this time and we may be able to ship it too — we don't really know. So, that's the toughest part is not being able to give a transparent answer to the consumer."

President and Owner of Snow Brothers Appliance Bill Kent understands the frustration. He scours the internet daily working to find any product he can.

“And the American public isn't really understanding a lot of times. What do you mean? I can't have it here tomorrow. Amazon can bring it to me tomorrow, but we can't do that right now. And it's so hard and trying to help the customers that don't have a refrigerator. What do you, what do you do? You know? So, we're trying the best that we can,” said Bill Kent.

Consumers grappling with whatever they can get, especially those who aren’t looking to renovate, but to replace broken appliances.

“So typically, this is a big no-no for us. We don't have holes in our display. But with the availability issues, people are taking floor models to get our product in their kitchen sooner,” said Melissa.

Appliance stores everywhere selling hard-to-produce products amid unprecedented demand.

“Across the country, there's an applying shortage and it's not just one brand and it's not just one product category. It's really everything…We work with a lot of contractors and they're saying the same things on lumber, cabinetry, granite hardware for cabinets. So it's not just the appliance industry. I think it's affecting a lot across the board,” said Melissa.

Bill Kent urges his customers to plan ahead while also requesting patience as everyone prepares for the long pandemic winter ahead.

“We belong to a nationwide buying group and we know it's the same way all around the country. And the patience we're asking for is when we give you the information as to when a product might be coming, we're just relaying what our manufacturers are giving you. And that's the best that we have. And sometimes it changes,” said Bill.