A basic assumption to make is that when ordering online the item shown for sale is in stock ready to be packed and shipped. Well unfortunately in most online stores this is hardly ever the case. For instance my wife ordered a hanging chair (for the garden) on March the 3rd from an Irish online store. It still hasn’t arrived (over 4 months and counting), obviously it was either never in stock or sold to a walk-in customer.
First off let’s get PlayBlue straight. We only show products in stock on the website. We actually do have a warehouse (see pictures) and everything shown on the website is sitting on a shelf ready for you. When you order from PlayBlue it will generally (94%+) get packed the same day, if not the next day. We ship over 95% of orders for next day delivery. But this is not how we started out and has taken time to build up.
The vast majority if not all the other online adult stores in Ireland operate in one of three ways
- Drop Shippers - They hold none or nearly no stock and when an order comes in they pass the order to a wholesaler who packs and ships it. The problem is there is no adult wholesaler in Ireland so your order is coming from either the UK or the EU and will take a while with possible customs implications. Nearly all online stores start out this way and the majority of other Irish adult stores operate this way.
- Best Seller Stockists - Only hold stock on best sellers and when an order comes in if it’s in stock it ships otherwise wait until the stock arrives and ship it then. This is better as a good percentage of orders ship but you could be waiting if you don’t order a best seller, you’ll never know until you order.
- Shop Stock Shippers - This online retailer is really a shop and they are trying to create an online shopping experience from stock held in-store. This is actually how PlayBlue started 10 years ago but the problems are very flaky stock control as customers walk in and buy the products you have already sold to an online customer, so you hit the same problems.
The real problem is you will never know until you order. But there are a few ways to find out. First you should be able to call or chat with an online store during business hours and ask them, Is an item in stock, not just for sale but actually in stock ready to ship today. Any reputable retailer will tell you the truth.
If an online store really holds stock they will usually have a warehouse not just a home address like most of the adult stores in Ireland - Check out the business address.
Just so you know PlayBlue has 3 stores (as of July 2021) and we ship orders from Tallaght and Kilkenny. The majority of orders ship from Tallaght and the stock quantities shown on our website are live stock levels in our Tallaght warehouse.
The Tallaght warehouse is attached to the back and under our Tallaght shop. We have about 700 sq foot of retail space and about 2,000 sq foot warehouse. In Kilkenny we have a much smaller stock room of about 400 sq foot attached to the shop. In this way you can be assured a purchase from PlayBlue follows our motto - Order Today Play Tomorrow!
Oh I should also say we sometimes get competitors coming into the shops with pen and paper comparing prices. Waste of time, all the prices online are the same in store.
So if you don’t want to play the Is it in Stock? Lottery order from PlayBlue.