Anyone having trouble buying stuff?

I do believe it was the generation before mine. I was born in 57. When I was in my 20s they were already closing shop classes and selling the hardware. By the time I was in my 40s I was surprised when I heard about a still running program.

Not everyone is college material. But the powers that be didn't recognize that.
We need skilled labor. And believe it or not, we need unskilled labor. Who's going to do the dirty jobs? Garbage, sewers in suburbs and cities, man power to mow, clean up after large disasters. People willing to learn a craft like concrete , roofing, painting, demolition.

Machinists to prototype ideas, woodworkers to build here, rather than off shore. With CNC in machining, we need people to load material for jobs, start them, recognize when they need intervention... But in the future that maybe all robotic. it's headed that way because of the lack of help, and reliability of people showing up for the job. Some of that is the current generation ... they expect to be treated like kings/queens and give little back... Some can be laid at the feet of owners/managers who are absolute A holes. I will lay a lot at the younger generation, I have watched too many do so little and think they have done so much... I watch in horror sometimes. I had a team of gen x ers we had a go live, it wasn't going well, a lot of their programs were failing and needed repair. we were supposed to do a shutdown and put new code in place, and restart... not one of them brought their laptops home or were prepared to work the night. I was shocked. I was used to working all the way through the night on go lives like that. The next day the manager through a Fit that the work wasn't done.

So there is enough blame to go around to everyone, including me, and my generation. While none of us intentionally did this, we watched it with apathy while it happened. We say what can one person do. I have a friend that has never voted... Ever. his theory is his vote doesn't matter...

The most important thing is to take the voting serious.
The next is to really understand the candidates... (that's still impossible) I can't help... Our biggest problem is the lies that the candidates tell about themselves and the lies they tell and others about the other candidate. Almost every one of them has a motive for why they want office. Yes it's power... but they have a problem and they are most concerned about that one thing, that's what gets most of them to run.. it's not for you or me... its for their problem. After that, it's for the $$$$$$ once they find out what a cash cow and power is...

We have to be more interested, and less apathetic. We can't let candidates that are out for ME... ME... ME to dominate... we need to get people who get the real problem that we see. We need someone with common sense. Not necessarily a business sense. And certainly not a politician.

edit: btw my local HS still has a woodworking shop program.. no metal, no other shop class. I was shocked when I moved here and saw they still had it.
 
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In most cases I have the opposite trouble...too easy to sit down, play guitar, surf around and get stuff with PayPal. :)

Except: Last week I wanted to get a Keysight 34461A multimeter. Keysight's website offers free two day delivery. Great, called them, they said new orders have a 22 week lead time! But they said they should be available in distribution. Called Newark. No, out of stock but we expect more in mid-April. Called Allied. Out of stock. Called Keysight, they checked and said Allied shows 25 in stock and Newark has 12. Called Allied back, got somebody competent and bought it. So I'm not sure what the message in this is, maybe it's don't give up easily.
 
davidpbest said:
I’ve been waiting on an R8 shell mill arbor for 6 months. Sure glad I don’t need to buy a car at this time.
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David, I just retired from the car business.
I am so fortunate to be getting out of the business now.
We usually had 100+ units for sale. We have had less than 20 for months.
The saving grace is supply and demand.
People are happy to pay MSRP where usually we would work off invoice.
The used car market is so over inflated it's silly. If you bought a new car two years ago, you could probably sell it for more than you paid for it.
Unheard of.
Don't get me started on the electric vehicle craze.

I just went to the hardware store, bought my usual drip system repair stuff. The bill was $82. That is highway robbery!!
This fixed income has me watching every penny.

Can't find stuff, it's too expensive if you do.
 
Winegrower said:
In most cases I have the opposite trouble...too easy to sit down, play guitar, surf around and get stuff with PayPal. :)

Except: Last week I wanted to get a Keysight 34461A multimeter. Keysight's website offers free two day delivery. Great, called them, they said new orders have a 22 week lead time! But they said they should be available in distribution. Called Newark. No, out of stock but we expect more in mid-April. Called Allied. Out of stock. Called Keysight, they checked and said Allied shows 25 in stock and Newark has 12. Called Allied back, got somebody competent and bought it. So I'm not sure what the message in this is, maybe it's don't give up easily.
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holy smokes that's a high end meter. I would hate to blow that one.
 
Janderso said:
David, I just retired from the car business.
I am so fortunate to be getting out of the business now.
We usually had 100+ units for sale. We have had less than 20 for months.
The saving grace is supply and demand.
People are happy to pay MSRP where usually we would work off invoice.
The used car market is so over inflated it's silly. If you bought a new car two years ago, you could probably sell it for more than you paid for it.
Unheard of.
Don't get me started on the electric vehicle craze.

I just went to the hardware store, bought my usual drip system repair stuff. The bill was $82. That is highway robbery!!
This fixed income has me watching every penny.

Can't find stuff, it's too expensive if you do.
Click to expand...
I took my Lexus in for service last week. I paid $46K for it 4 years ago, and they were all over me to accept $40k for it in trade since it has only 10K miles. But I’d have to wait up to a year for a new model. This dealership typically has 300 new cars on the lot, but last week only had six. I saw an ad for a new Honda CR-V SUV at a dealer in Beverly Hills where they were asking and additional $40K extra dealer markup for “instant” delivery. Things are indeed quite crazy.
 
We have had problems getting raw materials (aluminum & stainless) for over a year, now when we can get it, it is 3x what we were paying in 2020. I just ordered about $4800 in control panel parts for a project and had to do some re-design on the fly because all of the back ordered parts. I found some roughly equivalent parts on Digikey and was able to substitute, but not exactly what I wanted. And my local Micky D's was out of Filet-O-Fish today. :(
 
JimDawson said:
We have had problems getting raw materials (aluminum & stainless) for over a year, now when we can get it, it is 3x what we were paying in 2020. I just ordered about $4800 in control panel parts for a project and had to do some re-design on the fly because all of the back ordered parts. I found some roughly equivalent parts on Digikey and was able to substitute, but not exactly what I wanted. And my local Micky D's was out of Filet-O-Fish today. :(
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out of the fish... well imagine if they were out of hamburgers
 
I have been trying to buy a 48" finger brake from Grizzly forever. I ordered it in December 2020. I would check with them every few months and they would not have an expected ship date. Finally in November 2021 they contacted me and said that model had been discontinued by the (Chinese) factory and they would not be getting any. Okay so I order the next model up. It is out of stock currently with an expected ship date March 2022. I guess we will see. I feel sorry for these businesses that can't get inventory to sell. Not sure how they are keeping their doors open.
 
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