As a customer what is acceptable to you?

[Vic139]

we all shoot ours selves for buying cheapest now 90% is made in China. I work in an auto parts store and a lot of our vendors are having inventory issues with the computers. At first I thought ok I can see one or two having that issue but now if it is in our system we have figure out if it another store, hub, distribution center or manufacture and who can get it to us the fastest. It does no good when we have to turn a customer away all we can do it order it and tell you when it tells us it will arrive. Sorry for the long story but since the covid thing it has gotten worse. The new administration has not helped matters.

 

[Hay Dude]

When China overthrows Taiwan, what will happen?
A big yawn?
Or, if we stand with Taiwan, will we not be able to get auto parts down at Auto Zone?

 

[teeauu]

So I felt the need to comment on this thread, something I rarely do. We live in a small town in Florida. But we do have an Ace Hardware who gets a lot of my business. But when they don't have what I am looking for I order from Amazon. Driving time to and from a store in the bigger town is close to an hour not including shopping. My time is too valuable for that. I always try to buy American, but when that isn't possible I have to bite the bullet. I do not mind paying more for American made goods at all. And yes, most of our Amazon deliveries are back to being one to two days, with the occasional same day.

 

[jjp8182]

Just in Time morphed into something very fragile. When you disrupt the flow, it creates the vapor lock throughout the process.

Global companies used to operate like a buffet. Food was cooked with the expectation that the same number of people would show up today as yesterday. (You got what you wanted, right then!)

But hey learned that bad ingredients spoil the whole batch. Big batch, big loss. Rain comes and no one shows up. Their cash is always tied up in the prepared food sitting in that $50,000 frig they had to buy. That cash could be used to invest in a lot of other things besides refrigerators, employees at the line, and Sterno food warmers.

They became short-order grills. They won't make it until it's ordered and paid for by the customer. They run it in small batches so the first one in line has to wait until 30 more order the same thing. (Does, "Your item is on backorder sound familiar?)

Next, they stopped keeping the eggs in ham in the frig. Raw products = cash and it was continuously tied up so they pushed back to the supplier to have it on standby making them use their frig and their cash. (You just ordered breakfast and the egg guy just got the call to bring a dozen eggs. (You wait for just a little longer now).

Fast forward 20 years and the small companies who support the big ones have started doing the same thing. Covid hits and the dominoes fall clear back to the raw materials companies.

All that to say that all companies have gotten leaner and the response time for each step has gotten longer. Few are willing to hire more or invest more capital when it may all break down again soon. We all know that it is better to run a tractor or truck every day rather than have it sitting for long stretches and this why, I think, we are all struggling today.

Add in the changes to purchasing trends with more people moving to suburban or rural areas, massive shifts in working environments (office work being done from residences rather than central offices) and now a manufacturer who planned and sized for a certain size customer-base is experiencing a unexpected increase in demand (along with all of their competitors).

So that manufacturer and all their competitors try to increase throughput as much as they can which puts strain on their suppliers (which are often shared across multiple manufacturers in multiple industries)......

Eventually it all goes back to the tool makers, and the companies that mine/harvest raw materials that supply everyone. So given the cultural changes that have occurred in the last couple years I'd suspect it'll be years before thing get fully straightened out (even if all the politics and health restrictions went back to "normal" overnight).

Hopefully I'm wrong, but when a person starts to consider manufacturing lead times (even when resources aren't constrained), and the time it takes for raw materials to be obtained from the ground, processed and manufactured into products for the manufacturers to buy - or turned into the machines manufacturers need to make their own products the times starts adding up fast - even before all the transit times are added.

That of course assumes the labor force with all the required skill sets and manufacturing knowledge are also maintained (the lead times on specialty skill sets is an entirely different consideration ...even if/when the knowledge hasn't been lost).

Though again, hopefully I'm wrong and things get straightend out quicker......

 

[Hamlin6]

I work in an industry that is pummeled by shortages due to what is going on everywhere. The person from whom I'm ordering has little or no control when they get the things I need. In my experience they have been great about communicating to me that the lead time is going to be excessive. In some cases I am buy direct from the manufacturer and still have the issue. The problem there is that even though they are the manufacturer they depend on suppliers also.

Amazon has an advantage in that they and their resellers can buy in huge bulk when it's available and store it in warehouses. Unfortunately when they do this it often cuts out the local brick and mortar. For me, when I can, I'd rather give my $$ to the local guy. That's not to say I don't buy from Amazon because I do. But I try to do so when what I need isn't carried locally. I'm of the age that I remember small town businesses situated all around the town square. Those are largely gone now and I wish it weren't so.

 

[K5lwq]

I would refund your money and wish you well as a business owner. Comparing a reseller that only sells stock items lead times to a manufacturer who may experience issues out of their control makes zero sense to me. They are in no way equal. Good luck with your purchase.

 

[arto98607]

Amazon Prime seems to be a crock to me, nothing I've ordered using it comes any faster and stuff still takes over a month to get. I canceled my Prime for these reasons.

I say Amazon has made a lot of false expectations and the free shipping party can't last forever. Eventually sellers will stop wanting to get raped by Amazon over shipping and push back.

The reality is shipping costs money. If you don't want to see the shipping charges buy local and support your local businesses if you want to see stuff carried in inventory. Stop buying made in China crap and break the supply chain BS. If you choose to buy Amazon and Wallymart you are part of the problem.

You are talking about poor Amazon service in Canada eh?
It's not like that here in US based my experience.

However the sad thing about huge companies like these is that they are causing lot of smaller shops to close, which eventually means loss of middle class entrepreneurs.

I am afraid that may be part of much bigger long term plan...

 

[Hay Dude]

So I felt the need to comment on this thread, something I rarely do. We live in a small town in Florida. But we do have an Ace Hardware who gets a lot of my business. But when they don't have what I am looking for I order from Amazon. Driving time to and from a store in the bigger town is close to an hour not including shopping. My time is too valuable for that. I always try to buy American, but when that isn't possible I have to bite the bullet. I do not mind paying more for American made goods at all. And yes, most of our Amazon deliveries are back to being one to two days, with the occasional same day.

There’s so little “Made in America” products to buy. Such a sad state of affairs. We give up production of almost everything to a country that is a menace to the rest of the world. From pandemics to poison dog food and toothpaste to communism and hostile actions towards other countries.
All to get rid of manufacturing pollution…..
And then it all ends up in the atmosphere and oceans after being produced by a much worse polluter anyway. Only an idiot could accept such brain dead stupidity
Go ahead an tax the corporations all you want. They are all moving off shore, so there won’t be much left to tax. Taxing corporations is just passed directly to the consumer. Such a stupid strategy.

We could do so much better.
We could still be a great country, but we literally chose not to. We desperately need smart, effective leadership.

 

[TMGT]

When China overthrows Taiwan, what will happen?
A big yawn?
Or, if we stand with Taiwan, will we not be able to get auto parts down at Auto Zone?

Considering a large amount of machinery casting is done in Taiwan I think we would be pretty screwed on that front.

 

[IndyJay]

There’s so little “Made in America” products to buy. Such a sad state of affairs. We give up production of almost everything to a country that is a menace to the rest of the world. From pandemics to poison dog food and toothpaste to communism and hostile actions towards other countries.
All to get rid of manufacturing pollution…..
And then it all ends up in the atmosphere and oceans after being produced by a much worse polluter anyway. Only an idiot could accept such brain dead stupidity
Go ahead an tax the corporations all you want. They are all moving off shore, so there won’t be much left to tax. Taxing corporations is just passed directly to the consumer. Such a stupid strategy.

We could do so much better.
We could still be a great country, but we literally chose not to. We desperately need smart, effective leadership.

I have noticed a trend in the past several years where they are leaving country of origin off of the packaging and especially the web page descriptions of the items. I try to buy American made or from local owned businesses where possible. Even when possible, it's not always practical. I bought my $3,800 brush hog from a different dealer when my local guy quoted the same cutter at $1,000 higher. I will deal locally when possible but I'm not going to be stupid about it. I agree that we need better leadership but we also need the American people to wake up and start making smarter choices and decisions for the long term.