Spring in New Hampshire. We’re in that time of year when people are spring cleaning and sprucing up their yards and gardens for the season ahead.

Maybe they realize they need a new lawnmower, so they head to a trusty neighborhood store like Tyler’s Small Engine in Antrim or Coll’s Garden Center & Florist of Jaffrey – and what they’re looking for isn’t there, with no guarantee when items will arrive.

The problems we recently reported on at Tyler’s or Coll’s are just the latest sign of the disruption supply-chain issues cause..

For more than a year, we’ve been writing about issues created by supply chain delays. Last fall, Microspec in Peterborough was waiting six to eight weeks for raw materials that used to arrive in a week or two. The company had stockpiled raw materials as a hedge against supply issues, but getting new ones posed a problem.

Supply shortages hit many, if not all, businesses, including our restaurants. Peterborough Pizza Barn couldn’t even get the same chicken tenders it had been ordering for 20 years. At Shattuck Golf Course and Dublin Tap, golf balls that owner Doni Ash ordered in January 2021 were supposed to come in April, but didn’t arrive until August. Ash also lost about $3 per order of chicken wings because the substitute he received cost nearly as much per wing, but he kept prices the same.

What these and other supply-chain issues show is that the availability of things we expect to always be there actually relies on a series of interconnected actions – all the required materials being in place, workers to assemble parts, delivery vehicles being at the ready with drivers to helm them. If any of those break down, everything can fall apart. That means orders like the one Coll’s booked at the end of last year for arrival in March might not arrive.

It has to be incredibly frustrating, especially since the problems likely aren’t their fault. Ordering ahead is important – and in some cases has been the only way to keep any inventory – but no amount of advance planning can make a product arrive when it’s not available.

So let’s all try to remember that our local businesses are doing the best they can.