I'd hate to be trying to wire a house these days. Our local big box stores (Lowes/HomeDepot) haven't got enough plastic boxes on the shelf to wire a tiny home. Lot of other gaps on the shelves in other departments, but electrical seems to be hit especially hard in our area.
Drove from Mobile to Jacksonville and back last week on I-10 and it was almost barren of 18-wheelers. The scales were all open and maybe 1 or 2 trucks at each. The rest areas parking was sparsely used and the Truck Stops weren't doing too well either. A friend works at Longhorn Steak House, a corporate chain. Their deliveries are sporadic and so unpredictable now that menu items are often deleted. Saw a sign at a Wendy's yesterday hiring all positions starting at $16 per hour with benefits.Would you like fries with that, Sir?
Hmm I'll see if it's a national shortage because I have a huge collection of mostly new work plastic boxes.
Have a friend that picked up a part time job at Steinmart in the hardware section. He's surprised when women try to pick him up and bring him home to fix something or another???
I am a manufacturers rep for electrical products and it is crazy how much stuff has 20 weeks lead times. Raw material delays have caused many manufacturers to ration supply and cut off all but their best customers. when supply is in, Transport costs are so high that it takes several more weeks to secure the lowest cost transport. my flat beds from houston were $3000 fully loaded pre pandemic, they are now $7000 for the same weight. that kills the margins and is causing huge price increases on top of the the raw material shortages and demand also creating price increases. if its plasic or metal ( and what isnt) its crazy right now...
Shortages used to be uncommon now it is an everyday occurrence. My son needs new 2 car garage door (son ran into it with a golf cart destroyed the door) has to wait until October for a new one and this happened 2 months ago. Fella down the road building a house has to wait 6 months for the windows. Son is having a well drilled talking to the guy --he told me he stocked up on pipe and it was a good move ==pipe shortage
I guess "build back better" doesn't apply to keeping stores stocked. Especially construction materials.
So....what is the actually reason(s) for these shortages? Is it due to the shutdown due to Covid and everything is back ordered so far that it will take a while to catch up? Or, some other reason(s)?
It is a supply chain issue..... vid shut down a lot of outfits, or limited production. Right now we are experiencing a heavy load of new construction projects starting the last few months. Manufactures are slow to resume full production of materials... and the entire chain is lagging due to that. Give it another 6 months, maybe it will balance out with availability. But you are going to pay a lot more for everything.... thanks Dum Dum!!
I was just told yesterday that my HVAC supplier will have an 8% price increase across the board today, and to expect 12% increase in September on new equipment. There is also a coil shortage due to reduced manufacturing.
So glad I replaced my heat pump last year. My cousins AC went out last week the HVAC guy told her he had one in stock designated for a new build that was on hold he could give her. She needed to make a quick decision as it would be gone in a few days and he had a considerable wait for new ones. She took it (been 90 degrees here). It's not just supply but we are in what I would call hyperinflation I bought a gallon of lacquer thinner $20 bucks--the last gallon I bought not long ago $10 bucks prices seem to be doubling on a hell of a lot of stuff. All driven by supply shortages, demand, and transportation costs (Insane gas prices.) And boys and girls who is to blame and the crowd screams BIDUMB!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's the shutdowns. most everything shut down,, no one was working,, nothing was being made. I'm in home building,, and if we can get it ,, its higher ,, wood reached stupid high prices,, but is starting to come back down. A buddy is a diesel mechanic,, and he said getting parts for trucks is getting hard to get ,, his company is telling all of their terminals,, if you normally stock 4 oil filters ,, start stocking 8 . Thanks Democrats,,,
I work a couple days a week selling auto parts. Filter are becoming hard to get. We just bought out the local warehouse of our secondary supplier on one item that is supper common, others are hard to get. I went to buy one for my Saturn for an oil change and only had 2 in the store, again a common number. Being told that Hydraulic fittings are also beginning to short. And the ones we sell are made in the USA. They are saying a shortage of labor.
