Blog

To our Valued Community,

With the social and economic uncertainty driven by COVID-19, the hospitality, events and food service industries are facing unprecedented challenges. In just weeks, we have transitioned from strong industries to suddenly experiencing significant reductions in all operations and in many cases total shutdown of businesses.

Similar to other companies in our industries, National Event Supply has been working through various provincial government mandates as they put restrictions on business operations to eliminate the spread of COVID-19. Unfortunately, due to the most recent Ontario provincial mandate, National Event Supply, along with other non-essential businesses, must shut down operations from March 24^th at 11:59PM ET for 14 days.

If you have placed an order online, by phone or by email, we will process the order as soon as we are allowed to reopen for business. Should you have any questions, we are as close as an email: info@nationaleventsupply.com.

As COVID-19 continues to spread across the country, we urge you to practice self-isolation and social distancing. The last thing we want to do is overwhelm our healthcare providers and hospitals. We need our healthcare family to remain healthy, to ensure they are available when we need them most.

We would be remiss if we didn't thank all of the people continuing to keep us healthy and ensure we have all essentials. Thank you to grocery store clerks. Thank you to truck drivers. Thank you to medical professionals. Thank you to restaurant workers. Thank you to generous neighbours. Thank you to warehouse workers. Thank you to farmers. Thank you to janitors, garbage people and other sanitation works. 

We look forward to getting back to regular business hours soon and will keep you updated as the situation evolves. We thank you for your support and hope you and your families stay safe and healthy.

With Love,

The Team from National Event Supply

Our industry, like a large majority of the economy, relies on the trucking industry to transport goods across the country from port to warehouse to our fantastic customers.

Up until recently, our company enjoyed the luxury of fairly reliable shipping timeframes. We could call in orders for same day pick up or, if we had passed the time cut off for the day, arrange for a pick up the next day. If we were shipping from Toronto to Montreal or St. Catharine’s, we knew how long it would take for shipments to get to their destinations.

Things have changed. The economy is booming. As you’d expect, with a booming economy , the shipping industry as a whole is booming. Unfortunately, the shipping industry is unable to keep up with the increased demand. They are experiencing a shortage of drivers – which is becoming costly for the trucking industry, consumer goods industry and the Canadian economy as a whole.

An article I found back in April of 2013 was already talking about a shortage. This article references Understanding the Truck Driver Supply and Demand Gap and Implications for the Canadian Economy; a report funded by the Canadian Trucking Alliance. This report “estimates that the gap between the supply of drivers and the demand for them could soar as high as 33,000 by 2020.”

This report also states that the younger generations, ages 15-24, have had less interest in driving trucks within the past decade – so there have been less entrants able to fill the shoes of retiring drivers.

What we’ve been seeing over the past 6 months is less reliability in our trucking carriers. In the past we were confident that if we called a shipping company before cut-off they would pick up our orders that afternoon. Now, we are experiencing situations where a carrier is so busy that they can’t pick up until the next day. Or they arrive at our warehouse with a truck that doesn’t have enough space to pick up all of our orders.

Carrier pick-ups are not the only issue. We are also having difficulties on the delivery side of things. We’ve had instances where we’ve shipped skids to customers and then find out that they’ve been sitting in the depot warehouse for a week or TWO. With one of our shipping partners, things were being slowed down even further because their drivers were able to pick and choose which skids they take.

We wrote this post as a way to bring more transparency into the back-end of our business. Our goal is to make purchasing from us as painless as possible. Unfortunately, until the shipping industry is able to resolve their capacity shortage, shipping will be an issue that will need to be closely monitored. To that end, we are calling for pick-ups as early as possible in the day to increase the chances of a pick-up that day. What can you do? Order your product as soon as you know you need it and order early if finances allow it. This way you can hopefully build in enough lead time to ensure your product is delivered before you need it.

We are slowly working on filling in our glassware lines so that we have a complete restaurant glass set to offer. Because of this, we have brought in more cocktail glasses, rocks glasses and wine glasses for restaurants and party rental companies. See the new glasses available below:

Copa 10oz Highball Glass

• Dishwasher safe
• Rolled Rim
• Machine made for Quality and Consistency
• Made in China
• Volume: 10oz
• Total Height: 5 5/8"
• Diameter at Mouth: 2 1/2"
• Case Quantity: 48
• Inner Pack Quantity: 6

For more information including pricing please visit the Copa 10oz Highball Glass product page.

Copa 10oz Old Fashioned Glass

• Dishwasher safe
• Rolled Rim
• Machine made for Quality and Consistency
• Made in China
• Volume: 10oz
• Total Height: 3 5/8"
• Diameter at Mouth: 3 1/8"
• Case Quantity: 48
• Inner Pack Quantity: 6

For more information including pricing please visit the Copa 10oz Old Fashioned Glass product page.

Copa 15oz Stemless Wine Glass

• Dishwasher Safe
• Machine made for quality and consistency
• Made of glass
• Volume: 15oz
• Total Height: 4 3/8"
• Diameter at Mouth: 2 5/8"
• Case Quantity: 48
• Inner Pack Quantity: 6

For more information including pricing please visit the Copa 15oz Stemless wine glass product page.

Also, because we have numerous winery and vineyard clients, we’ve extended our crystal stemware inventory to include a tasting glass. This allows for just the right pour of white, red or ice wine during tastings.

Serenity 7oz Crystal Wine Tasting Glass

• Lead-free Crystal
• Dishwasher safe for easy use and cleaning in a high-volume commercial environment
• Smooth polished rims
• Pulled stems for comfort
• Machine Made for Quality and Consistency
• Volume: 7oz
• Total Height: 6 1/4"
• Diameter at Mouth: 1 7/8"
• Height of Bowl: 4 1/8"
• Length of Stem: 2 3/8"
• Case Quantity: 72
• Inner Pack Quantity: 6

For more information including pricing please visit the Serenity 7oz wine tasting glass product page.

There are a number of different pop up festival tents on the market for party rental companies, golf courses, community centres and the like where durable pop up tents are not only a must, but a necessity. Today’s blog post will examine two kinds of pop up tents that look very similar but have some different properties worth expanding on – Steel Frame Pop Up Tents vs Aluminium Frame Pop Up Tents. This post will give an unbiased look at the specifications of the two so that a company can choose what best meets their needs. Read on to learn more:

Steel Frame Pop Up Tents:

• 30mm square steel legs with 1mm thickness
• Nylon joints/connectors with quick release pull pins
• 22mm x 10mm x 1mm crossbars
• Heavy duty quality materials throughout
• 5 position adjustable height settings
• Easy setup and breakdown (in minutes - best with 2 people)
• 300 gsm waterproof canopy - available in White, Black, Royal Blue and Red
• Heavy duty oxford carry bag
• 2-year material and manufacturing defect warranty on Steel frame - weather damage is not covered under warranty
• 6-month material and manufacturing defect warranty on 300 gsm canopy - weather damage is not covered under warranty

Aluminium Frame Pop Up Tents:

• 50mm Aluminium Hexagonal legs with 2mm thickness
• Cast alloy joints with quick release pull pins
• Reinforced aluminium cross bars
• Heavy duty quality materials throughout
• 5 position adjustable height settings
• Easy setup and breakdown (in minutes - best with 2 people)
• 450 gsm waterproof canopy - Available in White, Black, Royal Blue and Red
• Heavy duty oxford wheeled carry bag
• 2-year material and manufacturing defect warranty on Aluminum frame - weather damage is not covered under warranty
• 6-month material and manufacturing defect warranty on 450 gsm canopy - weather damage is not covered under warranty

The most noticeable difference between the 2 pop up tents is the thickness and shape of the frame itself. Steel frame pop up tents are 30mm square / 1.18 in square hollow frames with a 1mm thickness of the metal. Aluminium frames are 50mm hexagon / 1.9 in hexagon hollow frames with a 2mm thickness. The steel joints are nylon while the aluminium joints are cast alloy. Nylon joints will eventually break down. Aluminium pop up tents are more expensive than steel pop up tents due to the higher quality of the metal, higher thickness of the metal, tent fabric and joints. As far as the metal properties themselves – Aluminium is a more expensive raw material, tends to be corrosion resistant, more susceptible to denting / scratching / dinging and is a lighter metal. Steel is a cheaper raw material, stronger and more durable and also much heavier – 2.5x denser than aluminium. Both tents come with carry bags, 2 year material and manufacturing defect warranties on the frames, 6 month material and manufacturing defect warranties on the canopies, are easy to set up and have adjustable height settings. Whether you choose the steel pop up festival tent or the aluminium pop up festival tent depends on what best fits your business needs – which is why we stock both!

We’re moving into a new product line that we have never stocked previously. Pop up Festival tents are a staple to party rental companies, farmers markets, restaurants, hotels and even golf courses. They’re a great addition to a company’s inventory and provide shelter from the glaring sun and rain when the event must go on! Bring comfort to your outdoor gatherings with pop up festival tents from National Event Supply.

We have two types of 10ft x 10ft Pop Up Festival Tents available – currently shipping to our location with an estimated receiving date of beginning of June 2018. Please find below more information on the two tent types we are going to be stocking in our Mississauga, Ontario warehouse.

10ft x 10ft Steel Frame Pop Up Tent

• Steel frame with connectors, carry bag and tent top / canopy
• Nylon joints/connectors with quick release pull pins
• Heavy duty quality materials throughout
• 5 position adjustable height settings
• 300 gsm waterproof canopy - available in White, Black, Royal Blue, and Red
• Heavy duty oxford carry bag

For additional information including warranty and pricing, visit the 10ft x 10ft steel frame pop up festival tent product page.

10ft x 10ft Aluminium Frame Pop Up Tent

• Aluminium frame with connectors, carry bag and tent top/canopy
• Aluminium Hexagonal legs
• Cast alloy joints with quick release pull pins
• Heavy duty quality materials throughout
• 450 gsm waterproof canopy - Available in White, Black, Royal Blue and Red
• Heavy duty oxford wheeled carry bag

For additional information including warranty and pricing, visit the 10ft x 10ft aluminium frame pop up festival tent product page.

We’re so excited to have these temporary pop up shelters available for our customer base in time for the summer weather.