Apparently, whatever online or offline store you go to, you can expect to wait a number of weeks to actually TAKE POSSESSION of an altar boy surplice or cassock.
Why is this?
You'd think that the factories would get the message and crank up production.
I ordered 2 altar boy surplices on Easter Monday, and they took 5 weeks to get here.
Recently I ordered two altar boy cassocks, and they are expected to take 4-6 weeks. Scratch the "4 weeks" -- it's already been that long.
And this isn't unusual -- before I decided on this particular online store, I went to many others. Some were more expensive, some charged more for shipping, etc. And many admitted on their websites that everything was backordered. The place I ended up going with did not admit that everything was out of stock -- but it's still backordered just the same. You get a nice "bad news" e-mail right after you place your order.
Meanwhile, someone local (in Houston) tried to go to an OFFLINE store, and they didn't have any altar boy cassocks of any size in stock.
What's going on? A resurgence of the Tridentine Mass? More Novus Ordo parishes using traditional garb for their altar servers?
It certainly has me wondering. I hadn't heard of any cotton shortages. It's just not usual for Capitalism to fail us like this. I mean, there is money to be made here, obviously! And no one wants that money? What?