seypat

Items are coming in in my industry. The biggest selling item in the industry went on b/o on 3/10/21 when it was $32.84/box. It became available this month at $66.00/box. That's the way it is. So, when you encounter those kinds of price hikes out there, suck it up. There isn't any gouging going on.

jackb

Bike are available if you are willing to travel. I live in Montana while my son lived in Houston. We both wanted to buy a Trek CheckPoint SL. Nothing available in Montana or in nearby states. Several were available in Houston, so when I went down to visit, we both bought one and he drove them up a few weeks ago.

So what are all the people doing who kept the supply chain going before covid? Are they not working? How are they earning money? it's a strange situation, to say the least.

prj71

Retirement, unemployment money, stimulus check and child tax credit payments.

https://www.usnews.com/news/economy/...g-the-pandemic

philbob57

According to news reports, etc., employers are crying for more staff. Unemployment is low, wages are rising, but inflation is rising faster, for a number of reasons. People are working, but we're under extraordinary stress - covid, political polarization, interconnected supply chains that are more easily disrupted than theorists and practitioners expected, the mental health struggles that are consequences of the isolation caused by the pandemic, Russia's war....

t2p

lean inventory mgmt is undergoing scrutiny (?)

some companies might begin to or accelerate integration (?)

some are not surprised at the disruptions - considering the outsourcing of a significant majority of parts and labor from a communist country

philbob57

Communist country? Is that supposed to scare us? Have you looked at labor relations, productivity, margins that come from doing business in China?

Outsourcing has risks. There are many assumptions in outsourcing that are just plain invalid. But capitalists all over the world are rolling in cash because they outsourced to China.

t2p

and they are currently paying the price

it was never a good idea to outsource to that degree to China

PDKL45

And at this point they're communist in name only really, in terms of economics. Politics is a different matter, but the point stands. Still, outsourcing to the degree that the world did pre-covid has been shown to have obvious flaws, no matter what the political system of the outsourced-to country is.

I think 3D printing and a whole lot of other nascent technologies, including machine learning etc., offer a viable solution, though. I personally can't wait to have some weird Dr. Seuss-assed bike, designed by an algorithm, printed down the road from me and looking like a Jeff Jones fever dream.