Retailers face a two-pronged dilemma of massive demand and slacking supply as the holiday shopping season looms over the industry. Disruptions in supply lines and the steep demand of so many Americans stuck at home has created a peculiar situation as the busiest shopping season of the year approaches.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, it wasn't unusual to experience many items being out of stock, delivery dates being much further off, and shrugged shoulders in response to questions of when items will be back in stock. The pandemic produced a two-fold problem of massive demand, caused by many Americans being stuck at home taking to new hobbies or taking on projects such as home renovations, and crippled supply, caused by factory closures and production slowdowns.

Unsurprisingly, as cases surge in the United States once again, that conundrum is set to spill over into the holiday shopping season. Anything from appliances and kitchen goods to consumer tech and toys is expected to be in short supply as Black Friday inches closer.

"We always advise parents to shop early if there is a must-have toy on their kids wish list. [There] definitely seems to have been an elevated demand ... over the last few months," said Adrienne Appell of The Toy Association.

Production has been hampered both by factory closures for workers' safety and by protective measures to protect them once factories reopen.

"The impact on our manufacturing facilities is that we're sometimes not able to operate at maximum capacity," said Gary Power, Vice President and General Manager of Whirlpool Canada (WHR  ). "They're just more premium products and they're more complex so it means it takes a longer time to manufacture. When we have a surge in demand, it just physically takes longer to catch up."

On the logistics side, getting items to stores and into warehouses for online retailers is difficult given the amount of strain on delivery infrastructure due to high demand. The sudden surge in online shopping amid store closures is mostly to blame; many transportation firms simply weren't prepared.

"All the delivery trucks are out and they are busy, you may not have heard of it but there's sort of a shortage going on right now. They're having a capacity crunch, not enough drivers, not enough trucks not enough warehouses right now, because of all the things the pandemic has done. We've started shopping online more and more and no one anticipated it," says Kirsten Newbold-Knipp of Convey, a company that assists retailers with deliveries.