At the MegaToys warehouse in Commerce, about 650 workers should already be done filling Valentine’s Day gift baskets with plush toys from China. Instead, only about 55 people are working, filling baskets with candy as they wait for the toys to arrive.

MegaToys’ teddy bears and its other stuffed animals are just some of the countless imported goods caught up in the months-long delays at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. While those delays were frustrating to importers and retailers trying to get products onto store shelves for the year-end holiday shopping rush, the holdups are now affecting product shipments for the next round of holidays – Valentine’s Day and Easter – as well as for big trade shows that businesses count on to drive sales later in the year.

Charlie Wong, chief executive of MegaToys, said his plush items from China are almost two months overdue at his warehouse. That has brought operations almost to a standstill and puts him at risk for missing the very short Valentine’s Day shopping season. Unlike the Christmas shopping season, which lasts for about a month, most Valentine’s Day products are sold over just a few days.

“I do seasonal products and my Valentine season is on the verge of being completely wiped out,” Wong said. “I’m taking a big hit.”

He’s not the only one feeling the affects of port delays, which are the result of a combination of operational problems – including a shortage of trailers used to haul shipping containers away from the docks – and ongoing contract negotiations between shipping companies and the union representing West Coast dockworkers.

The delays mean Pico Rivera furniture designer and manufacturer Aico/Amini Innovation Corp. stands to miss out selling new living, dining and bedroom sets at an upcoming industry show. If Amini’s new line doesn’t make it off the Long Beach docks in time for the show later this month, the company won’t be able to show them off to big furniture retailers that might place big orders.

Similar frustrations are being felt across Southern California as importers, retailers and manufacturers face delays, extra fees and uncertainty over when they’ll receive shipments. That’s causing some executives to consider importing goods through other ports – and moving their operations elsewhere, too.

Those are complicated and costly moves, and ones most companies aren’t likely to follow through on in the short term, but if nothing else the delays give businesses one more reason to leave, said Gary Toebben, chief executive of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

“It will cause businesses to make other decisions as to where they ship their products in and out of, and whether they want to be in California,” he said.

Toys

MegaToys’ product deliveries from the ports began slowing in November. Now, about 60 shipping containers filled with several millions of dollars of the company’s goods are sitting on the docks or ships waiting offshore for space to unload, Wong said.

With no idea when he will be able to send out the baskets, he is resigned to the fact that he has lost most if not all Valentine’s Day sales because he will have to cancel orders.

“Retailers want definite dates,” Wong said. “I don’t want to give them a definite date when I don’t know when I will deliver.”

Valentine’s Day sales account for only about 5 percent to 10 percent of his business, said Wong, who now worries he might also lose out on Easter sales, which make up nearly 40 percent of MegaToys’ revenue. Gift baskets for Easter, another holiday with a short shopping season, need to start shipping by the middle of this month, but he has not received any of the imported toys and other products he needs.

“I will have to liquidate inventory after the holiday season at a much cheaper price and at a loss,” he said.

Furniture

Amini furniture is facing a more immediate deadline. Containers filled with samples of the company’s latest designs have been delayed by more than four weeks, but they should already be on their way to Las Vegas for a trade show that will start Jan. 18.

“We have been truly paralyzed,” said Michael Amini, the company’s chief executive.

The four-day Las Vegas Market, one of four big shows for the international furniture industry, attracts 35,000 to 50,000 furniture store owners and interior designers, Amini said. He and other furniture makers use the shows to sell to furniture stores. His company already rented a 75,000-square-foot showroom there to showcase its newest furniture and most popular current pieces to retailers.

With only his old product lines to show, Amini said he’s worried he won’t be much of a draw this year, which will mean fewer orders.

“Without new goods, you really can’t attract as many customers to your showroom,” he said.

And it gets worse: Just as his new products are delayed, so are older products ordered by customers. Amini said store owners are threatening to cancel those delayed orders and take his furniture off their showroom floors, fearing Amini won’t be able to deliver.

Both Wong and Amini said they have no way to recoup any possible lost sales due to the congestion at the ports, as neither have insurance that covers lost sales due to delivery delays. Amini’s insurance only covers losses due to loss or damage, he said.

“This creates a chain reaction that truly becomes a major problem,” Amini said. “For us to earn that floor space, it’s going to take a year to earn it back. Or we might never get it back.”

Port push

As delays persist, the ports are attempting to reduce congestion and get cargo moving more quickly.

The Port of Long Beach last week opened a 30-acre area at the port to hold empty shipping containers, a move aimed at freeing up more trailers. The port plans to keep that area open until the end of March – its estimate of how long it will take to get through the current backlog of cargo.

Still, for Wong and Amini, the recent delays are just the latest problems with the local ports. They both say they’re fed up with years of lost sales from delays. Wong is now considering moving his basket assembly operation to China so he can ship from there to ports closer to his customers – to Houston for customers in Texas, for instance, or to New Jersey for customers in the Northeast.

That would mean closing several warehouses in the L.A. area and laying off workers, he said.

“I can’t count on the ports here,” Wong said.

Roger Clarke, president of Wilmington freight-forwarder Williams Clarke Company Inc., said several of his customers say they are looking for shipping routes that bypass the West Coast ports. That could mean abandoning warehouses here in favor of ones near other ports.

Setting up a supply chain is an expensive and time-consuming process, which will keep many companies here. But Clarke said that also means companies that do leave won’t be returning.

“Once that cargo leaves L.A., it’s not coming back,” he said.

Spokespeople from both ports said officials understand businesses are frustrated and feeling impacts from the delays.

“We’ve had congestion problems; we’re working as best as we can to fix them,” said Phillip Sanfield, director of media relations for the Port of Los Angeles. “In the months ahead, we intend to meet with customers and earn business back that has either gone somewhere else, or is considering going somewhere else.”