Jo and Amanda – Thank you both very much for your thoughtful replies. I’m now completely on board with partnering with a 3PL. Today, I received word from Flexport that Amazon cancelled a delivery appointment for July 27th and rescheduled for Aug 18th. Flexport said this is happening a lot so watch out everyone!!!! They also said it will be extremely expensive to wait for this delivery slot and strongly advised me to find an alternative solution. wow!
Today I met with 2 3PL companies who are experienced with Amazon FBA and have storage in multiple cities including Oakland and Stockton CA (which is what I need). Seems like the two today would both be a good partner for what I need, but I don’t have pricing as of yet. I’m hoping to get clarity on that tomorrow or Friday. I’ll keep you posted.