Author: Riley Hansen

They do all sorts of printing, including commercial, though the majority of their business is centered around direct mail marketing, which includes post cards, letters and other types of mail. In an election year, the stakes are even higher for a company focused on direct mail marketing, as they handle many candidates’ and voters’ items.

For Evergreen, the issue started early this year. Getting stock that was usually easy to get, even in small quantities like a few cases, was much harder, and Barzacchini had to start ordering pallets of those same supplies. The stock also came from farther away, which raised the cost for Evergreen. As time has gone on, some of those papers are now completely unavailable.

“I’ve been extraordinarily proactive,” Barzacchini said. He will buy four or five pallets of stock that he knows he needs in order to stockpile for the future—but he has to pay premium. Now, some of

Evergreen’s products are being printed on stock that was not first or second choice, while their prices have gone up as high as 30%.

“Nobody could have anticipated having this type of climate where things are so hard to get and so expensive at the same time,” Barzacchini said.

Robby Mandel, owner of Dlux Printing, has felt the loss, too. “The pricing started going up a year ago,” Mandel said. The paper shortage itself he noticed at the beginning of the year, similar to Evergreen.
Dlux Printing has actual offset printing presses, and they produce mostly magazines, though they also work with books and signs. They are having trouble getting white paper, most of which is produced outside of the United States. “Probably about 70% of our papers are imported,” Mandel said of the paper in the U.S. Brown paper, or paper that does not have to be bleached, can be produced in the U.S. because the EPA requirements are not as strict as for white paper.

Now, Dlux is taking whatever paper they can get, but their prices have gone up alongside the prices Dlux is paying. “It’s a full-time job keeping track of what paper does come in,” Mandel said.
Restaurant owners in Santa Rosa County are having similar issues. “We’ve not experienced a shortage; everything’s just more expensive,” Tamara Fountain, one of the owners of Windjammers, said.

Other restaurants are having a harder time, like Scooter’s Fish House. Co-owner Vernon Diedrich has not only noticed a 35% price increase, but it’s been much harder for him to get to-go boxes, paper towels, napkins and straws.

“It’s been going on since COVID time,” Diedrich said. Scooter’s utilizes six different vendors for products, which is helpful when one vendor runs out of a product.

The restaurant had an issue getting in the paper boats they use to serve food—Scooter’s needed the five-pound size to fit sandwiches and sides. When they could not get access to that size, they switched to three-pound boats and just used multiple, one for a sandwich and one for a side.

“These days you have to be creative,” Diedrich said. “I think right now it’s the perfect storm.” He believes a combination of gas prices and staffing shortages lead to the current predicament. He also added that petroleum is in everything, including Styrofoam.

A local provider to restaurants, Merchants Paper Company, is having trouble, too. “One, it’s harder to get products,” owner Scott Brown said. “Two, it takes a lot longer than it used to.” Merchants used to receive deliveries in seven to ten days, and now that time is as long as 30 days. For the supplier, the biggest issues are cups, trash bags and toilet paper.

“A lot of our manufacturers say they don’t have the manpower,” Brown said. He’s also noticed an issue getting copy paper, mostly the higher end products and unique sizes.

Barzacchini speculated on what the root of the issue is.

“Nobody knows for sure. I believe it’s a culmination of factors.”

He believes the paper industry was in a downward trend before COVID, but that demand is back up now. However, production went down during the pandemic.

“I just don’t believe the industry has been able to keep up or catch up with where the market demands are right now,” he said.

“It’s affected us in a very significant way,” Joe Barzacchini said. Barzacchini is the vice president of Evergreen Printing & Mailing based out of Pensacola.

They do all sorts of printing, including commercial, though the majority of their business is centered around direct mail marketing, which includes post cards, letters and other types of mail. In an election year, the stakes are even higher for a company focused on direct mail marketing, as they handle many candidates’ and voters’ items.

For Evergreen, the issue started early this year. Getting stock that was usually easy to get, even in small quantities like a few cases, was much harder, and Barzacchini had to start ordering pallets of those same supplies. The stock also came from farther away, which raised the cost for Evergreen. As time has gone on, some of those papers are now completely unavailable.

“I’ve been extraordinarily proactive,” Barzacchini said. He will buy four or five pallets of stock that he knows he needs in order to stockpile for the future—but he has to pay premium. Now, some of

Evergreen’s products are being printed on stock that was not first or second choice, while their prices have gone up as high as 30%.

“Nobody could have anticipated having this type of climate where things are so hard to get and so expensive at the same time,” Barzacchini said.

Robby Mandel, owner of Dlux Printing, has felt the loss, too. “The pricing started going up a year ago,” Mandel said. The paper shortage itself he noticed at the beginning of the year, similar to Evergreen.
Dlux Printing has actual offset printing presses, and they produce mostly magazines, though they also work with books and signs. They are having trouble getting white paper, most of which is produced outside of the United States. “Probably about 70% of our papers are imported,” Mandel said of the paper in the U.S. Brown paper, or paper that does not have to be bleached, can be produced in the U.S. because the EPA requirements are not as strict as for white paper.

Now, Dlux is taking whatever paper they can get, but their prices have gone up alongside the prices Dlux is paying. “It’s a full-time job keeping track of what paper does come in,” Mandel said.
Restaurant owners in Santa Rosa County are having similar issues. “We’ve not experienced a shortage; everything’s just more expensive,” Tamara Fountain, one of the owners of Windjammers, said.

Other restaurants are having a harder time, like Scooter’s Fish House. Co-owner Vernon Diedrich has not only noticed a 35% price increase, but it’s been much harder for him to get to-go boxes, paper towels, napkins and straws.

“It’s been going on since COVID time,” Diedrich said. Scooter’s utilizes six different vendors for products, which is helpful when one vendor runs out of a product.

The restaurant had an issue getting in the paper boats they use to serve food—Scooter’s needed the five-pound size to fit sandwiches and sides. When they could not get access to that size, they switched to three-pound boats and just used multiple, one for a sandwich and one for a side.

“These days you have to be creative,” Diedrich said. “I think right now it’s the perfect storm.” He believes a combination of gas prices and staffing shortages lead to the current predicament. He also added that petroleum is in everything, including Styrofoam.

A local provider to restaurants, Merchants Paper Company, is having trouble, too. “One, it’s harder to get products,” owner Scott Brown said. “Two, it takes a lot longer than it used to.” Merchants used to receive deliveries in seven to ten days, and now that time is as long as 30 days. For the supplier, the biggest issues are cups, trash bags and toilet paper.

“A lot of our manufacturers say they don’t have the manpower,” Brown said. He’s also noticed an issue getting copy paper, mostly the higher end products and unique sizes.

Barzacchini speculated on what the root of the issue is.

“Nobody knows for sure. I believe it’s a culmination of factors.”

He believes the paper industry was in a downward trend before COVID, but that demand is back up now. However, production went down during the pandemic.

“I just don’t believe the industry has been able to keep up or catch up with where the market demands are right now,” he said.

Effective now, those 15 years and younger will not be allowed in the theater after 6 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays unless they have an adult of at least 25 with them.

The policy comes after two teenagers were involved in an altercation with a woman, according to the incident report. The report tells a few variations on the same story, but a number of details remain consistent across the accounts.

The two teenagers disrupted the movie, and the manager subsequently asked them to leave. After leaving, the two came back, reportedly to find the female’s phone. The male admitted to calling out explicit names to other patrons, and one woman, a 33-year-old from Pace, stood in the aisle to attempt to block them.

The report states that the teenagers threw popcorn at the woman. When she told them she would not tolerate bullying, the physical altercation began. The male teenager began hitting the Pace woman, and a couple of eyewitness accounts state she hit back at this point. The woman’s boyfriend broke up the group, and the police were called; they found marijuana in the male’s backpack.

No arrests were made at the time, as the SRSO followed up on several eyewitness and first-hand accounts, both from the woman and the teenagers. Ultimately, the 33-year-old decided not to press charges and signed Declination of Intent forms for both of the other parties. The woman signed the forms after she received apologies.

“We’ve had a pretty bad influx in the past year,” Jared Mawling, general manager of The Ridge, said, “with more and more kids — parents dropping off kids.” The teenagers are left unsupervised, Mawling added, and management gets complaints; they try to give warnings before kicking anyone out of the building.

According to Mawling, parents oftentimes do not want to acknowledge that their child is the one causing problems.

The Breeze Cinema in Gulf Breeze, owned by the same company, has instituted the same weekend curfew.

Mawling noted that this rule is not for young parents with small kids, who are still encouraged to bring their children. Rather, it is for the “larger groups of unsupervised teens or preteens,” he said.

“And if anything, the same kids that have issues, if they still wanted to come…if their parents wanted to come…Wonderful. We support that,” Mawling said.