DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) – With the summer heat coming and a limited number of ways to keep cool because of COVID-19 closures, people across central Illinois are bringing a solution to their own backyard.
Pool sales are skyrocketing this summer and stores are struggling to keep them in stock.
"Everybody is buying a pool,” Chloe Byers, an employee at Rural King, said. “I have multiple people call me every single day asking if I have pools."
With families stuck at home and many summer camps canceled amid the COVID-19 pandemic and beaches and community pools closed, more people are buying backyard pools.
The Pool and Hot Tub Alliance, a trade group to promote the aquatics lifestyle, said so far this spring, the 25 biggest pool builders have had more inquiries than last year, with some of then reporting four times the number of inquiries.
"It is awesome,” Forsyth resident Greg Lindemulder said. Lindemulder and his wife installed their own backyard pool two years ago and he is glad that he did.
Our neighbors are trying to put in a pool, and they have talked to some people and they are not going to be able to until next September,” he said.
Byers said no matter how much product her store orders, she cannot keep any sort of aquatic product in stock.
“It is everything,” she said. “Everything is going, even down to our sprinklers."
Byers said if a person wants to buy an above ground pool this summer, they're going to have to wait until the end of June or start of July.
