Sudden demand hits pool industry like a cannonball

LACONIA — Joanne Price has been in the pool business for more than 50 years, and has been located on Court Street for almost that entire time. This year would have been a watermark for sales, if only she had more pools to sell.

“Business has been great, but you can’t get any of the above ground pools. I have a list of people who want pools,” Price said. Price’s Pools is a family-run operation. Price’s son, Alan, and his son, Morgan, handle the service calls, while Joanne and her daughter-in-law, Julie Price, run the store.

Joanne said she thought she was on track to set a sales record this year for above-ground pools. “I did, until I couldn’t get any,” she said. “Sales have been up, and when they want one, they want one right now.”

As with certain other industries right now, the spike in demand, and the dearth of supply, are both due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related shut-downs.

“I personally feel that it’s because of COVID,” Julie said about the sudden spike in demand for pools. “Nobody can go to the beaches or go on vacation, so their money is going toward a swimming pool… They say, since you can’t go anywhere, we’ll put the beach in the backyard, give the kids something to do.”

Yet, as Joanne explained, the pandemic is also to blame for their lack of supply.

“The manufacturers are shut down in New York, we have some that are manufactured in Canada but can’t come over the border, and I don’t think they can find the soft-sided ones any more,” Joanne said, adding that she hoped to be able to fill new orders by mid-July.

It has also made for some extra headaches during the workday. They have to limit how many customers can come into their store, which is a new challenge, Joanne said.

“They wait their turn, I’ve never seen that. But people are being very patient,” Joanne said.

The Price family isn’t alone in wishing they had more pools to sell. Jeff Huberty, one of the owners of Empire Pools and Spas, with locations in Concord and Manchester, told the Granite State News Collaborative that in his 28 years in the business he has never seen anything like this. “From the minute we open the doors in the morning till we close at night we are mobbed,” he said.

“Memorial Day is usually our busiest weekend of the year,” Huberty said, adding that this year, “The last two weeks we’ve been busier than any other Memorial Day that we’ve had. … Everybody is at home. They don’t know when they are going to be able to go anywhere. And they want a pool.”

Nicole Soterion, sales manager for Empire, told the Collaborative that they’ve sold 140 pools this year, which would normally be their total for the entire year.

Interest in pools is up across the country, according to Sabeena Hickman, president and CEO of the Pool and Hot Tub Alliance, a nationwide trade association. She noted that Google analytics showed that the term “swimming pools” saw a 200% increase in searches during the month of May, bringing it to the third highest search in the retail category in that month. Construction permit data shows strong increases in pool installations in the sunbelt states, such as Florida, Texas and Arizona, an average growth of 35% in those regions.

Hickman said that the PHTA isn’t seeing a broad supply problem, though she noted that COVID shutdowns in certain parts of the country could combine with the increased demand to create temporary shortages in specific markets.

Will this sudden interest in backyard swimming lead to long-term growth in the industry? Julie, at Price’s Pools, wasn’t sure if so many people would continue to want a pool once they have other options. Her mother-in-law saw it differently, though. One of the best advertisements for pools is hearing the splashing and laughing coming from next door, and there will be a lot more of that in local neighborhoods this summer.

“People will think, my neighbor’s having fun with theirs,” Joanne said.