Lew, Wire quotes here are by the week right now on quantity. We buy our wire in 1000' reels and onesey twosey so it doesnt really affect us but thats what the supply house has been telling us for months.
Prior to that it was daily pricing but wire has settled down a bit.
I just noticed that a 24 roll pack is now 20 rolls and at the same price.
On the outside of an older package: "6 mega rolls = 24 regular rolls". - or
1 to 4 These "mega" rolls are 400 sheets. Since when was a regular roll 100 sheets?They are dirtbags. Evil and corrupt. They are worse than what the stuff wipes off.
Yea... and wtf happened to 'no tax' on 'things we need'? Like no tax on food, kids' shoes, etc.? They don't think things like TP, menstrual pads and bars of soap and tooth paste are 'things we need'?
Instead, they tax things we DO need.. like gasoline and scotch!
Whatever happened to a hand mower?
Mowed an 80 x 150 yard with a hand mower for years.
By today's view, it would be considered "green" friendly, back then it was just exercise.
Lew
That the same as "Dunkin Donuts"?
Lew
Wow... I think I have had all the coffee I should have on this rainy day.. Fidgety fingers fired off that shot before I could type DITTO.
*knees knocking**clickety click*
*teeth chattering*Robert
Duncan Donuts sells more coffee than anyone else in the US.
Surprising but true.
The best coffee doesn't come from any particular company though. It comes by region. If you buy a straight cup of Sumatra from Starbucks (no flavored corn syrup, frothed milk, etc) then odds are it's essentially the same as Sumatra from say Java City or the Publix down the street. Companies who roast their own beans don't make much of a difference either. A medium roasted Sidamo will taste about the same no matter who does the roasting. Also, Starbucks, Duncan, Brothers, etc. all buy their coffee from the same markets.
Most starbucks coffee is made from crappy (cheapest in the current market) beans that are dark roasted for a strong flavor. Then it's labeled as their "expresso" brand. Once it's brewed with a bunch of cream, corn syrup and artificial sweeteners then the flavor of the coffee itself is lost. If you buy bags of their expresso beans you'll find the taste varies from bag to bag. It's all really dark so the difference is harder to detect but it's there.
If you haven't tasted different coffees from around the world then it's hard to understand what a good cup of coffee really is!!
The last time I bought coffee there were about twenty brands of pre-ground coffee in cans on the shelf. Not one of them was a one pound can, o reven an whole number of pounds like 2 or 3, excepting only a chickory-coffee blend.
Check out the labels on vitamins sometime. Some brands sell 500 mg tablets in a bottle labeled 1000 mg, and in the fine print they say to take two. IMHO, that's outright fraud.
Do you ever check their arithmetic? Sometimes the unit pricing is wildly off, like catfood at $50.00/oz.
And some cats still would turn their nose up at it and then go lick their butts.
We were lucky enough to buy a corner lot. While I could certainly mow it with a push mower, I'd rather spend the additional time cutting black walnut on my table saw.... (You didn't think I'd get back on topic, did you?)
Jeff
Here is another one that gets me. I was in the grocery store a while back and decided that I would buy some Pringles (don't ask me why). They had two-packs on the shelf and I figured that they MUST be a deal. When I actually looked at the pricing, it was 10 cents CHEAPER to buy two single tubes than the two-pack. I saw that on other things in the store too. Not always, but enough to know you have to check.
Wayne
Blue and Orange Borg directly across the street from each other about 3 mi west with a green about a mile further down the same road. Big B about 4 mi east. Fortunately, Rockler is about 25 miles away with a HF right next door to it, and Woodcraft is about 35 miles away down a different highway. UNfortunately, my favorite True Value was forced out of business by the city. Ace is about 12mi. Only places to buy good hardwood are 25mi, 35 mi, and 50 miles away with the two closer places being very small with minimal selection, and the last one is a MacBeath's in the Peoples Republic of Bezerkely.
Kind of raises the question of how good tasting does the food really have to be?
SNIP
I understand what you are saying to some extent. But on the other hand, the rule of the land has been "caveat emptor" in all dealings since I can remember. I don't buy anything for a job without checking out everything along the way as I make my order up. For example, I have two roofs with all the goodies to install in the next couple of weeks.
I called my shingle vendor when bidding them, and found that not only did we have a price increases in December, February and March, but we are face with another from the manufacturer in April. I have dealt with these guys for literally 15 years, and none of us has ever seen the kind of profiteering going on right now.
But do they call me and say, "hey Robert, we are not going to carry the Elk High Point Ridge vent, we are going to another that is more expensive." Do they call me when their fuel surcharge goes up? No. Does my local paint dealer call me when paint goes up? No. Do they me and every other of their thousand contractors in their list of clients when they modify or change their delivery charge? No.
I look at it this way. It is my money going out on a job. Period. It is my responsibility to make sure it is protected; most likely I won't get anything more than a sigh from my clients when I tell them prices went up from the time I bid and the signed to the time work starts. So I do the best I can, knowing I might take a little in the shorts. But the point being, I do my homework up front and try not to take anything for granted.
I understand your burning and obvious hatred of HD. I do. Most of the time they are of little or no use to me as a contractor. But they have a job to do as well, and none of us really know if their marketing department didn't find in their research that all of these people in the TV inspired home improvement wave didn't need the 250', but would be fine with 200'. I don't know. I really don't care.
I think repackaging is part of marketing, and no retailer will shy away from a chance to make more money. Being a contractor has made me a better shopper everywhere, as I use the same techniques for personal purchases that I do for my business. The first rule of course, is not to take anything for granted when gathering prices.
In the face of the onslaught of hard competition from the big boxes, my local hardware stores and lumber yards started playing stink finger LONG before the big boxes. I thought that "my boys" down at the local lumberyard would have lower costs on things because the didn't have the overhead, didn't have to pay any of the employees health insurance unless they were full time, and they didn't have an advertising budget. Wrong.
I even paid more to them when I knew I was paying too much since I wanted to keep the money local, and I did get a little bit better service from them. But when I started paying waaay too much to them, how could I justify it. So that they could keep their margins up to the levels they had when they were the only game in town, they started selling smaller boxes of nails, off brands of different staple items like caulk and sealers, and a lot of different off shore stuff began to sneak into the tool corral.
And if something breaks at HD, you take it back, and you are taken care of. If it breaks that local lumberyard, they don't want to RTV it, so they can make it a little harder. The manager of the hardware store used to tell me, "awww come on... it's just Chinese crap and you knew it when you bought it. How long did you think it would last?"
Now I am careful and suspicious with all of my purchases. I ask what size a product is, I ask what amount is in the package, and I ask for any price increases that might be in effect soon.
Just a few thoughts. Like I said, I understand what you are saying, but there isn't a damn thing we can do about all of this but to be aware of more and more aggressive marketing to get our dollars. So indeed, it is up to all of us to be savvy consumers on point all the time. A screwing will happen from time to time no matter what we do. But if a box is marked in plain view, I don't know other than telling someone how much wire is in a box (in writing) they purchase what a retailer can do.
The surprise sure isn't pleasant, though.
Just my 0.02.
Robert
Sigh...
Me neither.
Robert
How much wood do you get cut with the 10 minutes you saved?
Lew
You'll be lucky if there is only one (1) price increase in April.
After all , shingles are mostly asphalt as in oil based.
Lew
This could start a whole new marketing concept in the pet food industry.
"NEW AND IMPROVED! - TASTES LIKE ASS!"
Tom Watson tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet
That's what they are saying.
Actually, it is smaller part of the composition of a standard laminated fiberglass shingle than one might think:
Even when they factor in the transportation costs, the .40 a gallon raise per gallon of fuel doesn't translate in direct proportion to the price we are seeing at the vendor.
And average truck brings in 190 or so squares of roofing. If they go up on their prices about 20% in 4 months, that means an increase of pricing to my supplier of a little over $1000. Owens Corning already charges (and adjusts to fuel pricing - per load!) of $175, to defray fuel costs from Houston/Temple. That will buy them their entire fuel to the vendor, there and back.
Nawww... there is some monkey shines going on. That $1000 went in part to cover the 25% cost of material in a shingle, but where did the other 75% go with all fuel charges covered? And BTW, I also pay my vendor to deliver and roof load as well as a fuel charge.
But again, who can stop it? I just call for prices, and then put a 15 day start clause in my short contracts to make sure I can be covered on the costs.
Robert
Actually most of the oil pumped here in California is considered asphalt grade and goes directly into asphalt based products.
All the major roofing products guys are here.
We do business with most of them.
As far as glass is concerned, energy costs have a major impact on the final cost.
There may be something else, but oil not only as a feed stock, but also as an energy source have a major impact.
Lew
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