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Posted: 5/2/2024 2:53:13 PM EST
[#1]
I try hard to have people not call me for work, but it happens. Anyhow I have no idea on what is going on with Residential stuff, but I will say that supplier sales guys who almost never answer my emails have been calling me to see if I need anything now. We are a Industrial/Oilfield Electrical contractor.
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Posted: 5/2/2024 2:54:51 PM EST
[#2]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I’m conflicted. One one hand I cannot fathom how people have the income they appear to have. On the other hand I’ve been to both Orlando and Las Vegas in the last 3 months and everything is packed. We have a great household income and we just can understand how people are able to spend so much. We go down to Nashville twice a year for the last few years and broadway is busier than ever, every single time. Heading back down in a month or so and we expect it to be no different than the last time at the end of last year. |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 3:00:44 PM EST
[#3]
Quoted: It started when we noticed the service calls for repair were slowing down... we went from being booked out 1-2 weeks to a few days and now we cannot fill a full day full of service calls. I usually run about 8 calls a day, today I only have 4. The calls for "my icemaker isn't working", "I need general maintenance", "my refrigerator is making a weird noise" are not existent. We are only getting the emergency no refrigeration calls. We ALMOST went out of business back then. Not gonna lie... this is scaring the shit out of us. The phones are silent. Talked to my competitors and they too are saying the same thing. Their phones are too quiet. FJB  People spent a lot of time at home during Covid. Many folks replaced appliances with new models when they got their stimulus checks. Stands to reason a 3-4 year old appliance shouldn’t need much service yet. |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 3:01:28 PM EST
[#4]
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Posted: 5/2/2024 3:02:04 PM EST
[#5]
Still building like crazy around here.
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Posted: 5/2/2024 3:02:43 PM EST
[#6]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Someone smart sunk a whole shipboard of Samsung fridges in the Pacific????  Hopefully they landed with the doors open to make good homes for the fishes. About all they are good for. |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 3:06:54 PM EST
[#7]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I'm conflicted. One one hand I cannot fathom how people have the income they appear to have. On the other hand I've been to both Orlando and Las Vegas in the last 3 months and everything is packed. We have a great household income and we just can understand how people are able to spend so much. I know we've been burning through a low six figure income pretty quick lately. Higher food costs and increased insurance costs are the most obvious increases we've felt. |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 3:07:52 PM EST
[#8]
Everyone around here is so busy they aren't even taking new clients. And everyone seems to have money.
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Posted: 5/2/2024 3:15:24 PM EST
[#9]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Bingo, service repair is pricing itself out of the market. This.... The repair guys are just too expensive vs the cost of buying new. I can have a 8 or 9 year old machine that you fix for 300-400$ or i can buy a new machine for 600 to 700... I'm paying the extra amount and getting new and not dealing with waiting for the service guy to show up and over charge me. These guys did this to themselves. |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 3:16:42 PM EST
[#10]
Quoted: It started when we noticed the service calls for repair were slowing down... we went from being booked out 1-2 weeks to a few days and now we cannot fill a full day full of service calls. I usually run about 8 calls a day, today I only have 4. The calls for "my icemaker isn't working", "I need general maintenance", "my refrigerator is making a weird noise" are not existent. We are only getting the emergency no refrigeration calls. We ALMOST went out of business back then. Not gonna lie... this is scaring the shit out of us. The phones are silent. Talked to my competitors and they too are saying the same thing. Their phones are too quiet. FJB Are you sure technology isn't have a significant effect? More and more people are learning everyday they can go to Google, reddit, Facebook, ticktock, etc and quickly learn how to fix the simplest things. Out hot water heater died, that used to be a $200 call minimum without parts, now it's googled showed me how to install the new replacement board for $115 and 20 minutes of my time Plasma TV blew, $400 to have a guy come out and fix it, these days I can watch YouTube and replace that one bad capacitor for $5 or install the new board for $100. Gone is the day of needing a library for info and a phone bookto call a guy to overcharge you to fix it. Last month I watched a step by step YouTube video on how to tear my S22 ultra apart and replace the screen. I also thing side jobs are becoming more prevalent. Everyone calls a buddy or family friend to do plumbing or electric work instead of calling the company and get over half off. I know Biden is having an effect, but after the free money ran out people are being forced to be more frugal. |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 3:20:09 PM EST
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Nah, some workers just can't afford to work for certain wages. Yep. Restaurant in town is looking for an assistant manager. $16/hr. LOL. Can work at Culver’s for $17 starting wage. |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 3:26:35 PM EST
[#12]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I would be sympathetic to the handyman if he had not quoted the price. Handyman is self employed so its a different story probably? |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 3:30:21 PM EST
[#13]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Yep. Restaurant in town is looking for an assistant manager. $16/hr. LOL. Can work at Culver’s for $17 starting wage. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Nah, some workers just can't afford to work for certain wages. Yep. Restaurant in town is looking for an assistant manager. $16/hr. LOL. Can work at Culver’s for $17 starting wage. My kid is flagging TikTok videos 40 hours a week for $21 an hour. He recently got promoted to gaming chat moderator. What a weird time to be alive. |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 3:31:24 PM EST
[#14]
We just got rid of our whole entire second shift. That being said it wasn’t a long term thing anyways. Things are slow.
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Posted: 5/2/2024 3:32:41 PM EST
[#15]
My Dad is a barber and he says a lot of his customers are going without a haircut for weeks longer than they used to.
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Posted: 5/2/2024 3:34:47 PM EST
[#16]
its slow everywhere.
Here in Vegas the business im in... were this time last year we were at 1.6M this year we are just under 500K just to give you an idea of how things are. Every person i talk to thats in charge of their business i ask if they're slow they are all feeling the bidenomics. |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 3:40:54 PM EST
[#17]
Feast or famine
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Posted: 5/2/2024 4:24:51 PM EST
[#18]
Quote HistoryQuoted: When the service bill is 50% of replacement, it just isn’t worth it. Yup. I replaced a dishwasher last year. Multi meter told me which switches and pump on the old one needed replacement. Total for the parts, around $350 plus several weeks wait to get them. Repair quote, $450. New dishwasher installed with five year warranty, $600. I hate to treating what should be capital equipment as disposable, but that's the game now. |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 4:56:12 PM EST
[#19]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Yep. Restaurant in town is looking for an assistant manager. $16/hr. LOL. Can work at Culver’s for $17 starting wage. Restaurants and stores around me just dropped their starting wages down to $16 an hour from the previous $18 to $19. Could be they are getting ready for the influx of High School kids looking for summer jobs. Or business is slowing down and there are more people competing for nonskilled jobs. |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 6:45:19 PM EST
[#20]
@jaqufrost $350-$400 range
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Posted: 5/2/2024 6:51:09 PM EST
[#21]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Under democratic leadership we lose everything. Plenty of people who bought new houses and cars in 2020 won't be keeping them. Same thought here. We live in a rural community and it hit here before the urban communities in 07 and we were slower coming out. It began here about late Fall. |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 6:59:47 PM EST
[#22]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Thank goodness... Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Someone smart sunk a whole shipboard of Samsung fridges in the Pacific???? Thank goodness... Sure wish I knew then what I know now. I’m on my third Samsung ice maker and just yesterday did the YouTube hack to keep the coil from freezing up which ends up causing the internal fan sound like a machine gun. Fingers crossed. |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 7:02:04 PM EST
[#23]
Quote HistoryQuoted: When the service bill is 50% of replacement, it just isn’t worth it. This. Might as well just buy something new and save some time. |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 7:12:07 PM EST
[#24]
Quoted: It started when we noticed the service calls for repair were slowing down... we went from being booked out 1-2 weeks to a few days and now we cannot fill a full day full of service calls. I usually run about 8 calls a day, today I only have 4. The calls for "my icemaker isn't working", "I need general maintenance", "my refrigerator is making a weird noise" are not existent. We are only getting the emergency no refrigeration calls. We ALMOST went out of business back then. Not gonna lie... this is scaring the shit out of us. The phones are silent. Talked to my competitors and they too are saying the same thing. Their phones are too quiet. FJB You should of been around in 1979 and 1980. 2008 and 2009 were amateur hour compared to the Jimmy Carter years. kwg |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 7:15:37 PM EST
[#25]
Quote HistoryQuoted: @jaqufrost $350-$400 range |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 7:26:16 PM EST
[#26]
Quote HistoryQuoted: So ya'll fixed all the stuff that was broken? Another thing that I find interesting is that it never used to be that businesses were busy every single day I remember back in the day when i was growing up in the boat dealership and working in one, this was prior to Katrina. You got slow during the winter. So while it was slow, you rebuilt engines, lower units, and power heads, you then cleaned and organizes the shop and did repairs to the shop and deferred maintenance. We don't fix anything for anyone outside the company. We make components. When companies are making things or building high tech plants for things such as CPUs we are busy. My job is to keep the assembly line working. I design, fabricate and maintain the production equipment. |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 7:37:43 PM EST
[#27]
Sadly correct. The home foreclosures of 2008n will be back.
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Posted: 5/2/2024 7:38:52 PM EST
[#28]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Sadly correct. The home foreclosures of 2008n will be back. How's that gonna happen when the big investment firms own most of the homes? |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 7:40:33 PM EST
[#29]
2024 Q1 new construction permits in NE FL are 3,279.
‘23 was 2,384 ‘22 was 4,226 ‘21 was 3,759 ‘20 was 2,625 ‘19 was 2,535 And the numbers go down from there steadily to the low of 644 in 2011. We have a long way to go to get the ecomomy of the Great Recession. |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 7:41:19 PM EST
[#30]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Dems have no business experience at least at the under 500 people range. Complete idiots they are. Wut |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 7:48:27 PM EST
[#31]
Quote HistoryQuoted: What's a great household income? I know we've been burning through a low six figure income pretty quick lately. Higher food costs and increased insurance costs are the most obvious increases we've felt. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: I'm conflicted. One one hand I cannot fathom how people have the income they appear to have. On the other hand I've been to both Orlando and Las Vegas in the last 3 months and everything is packed. We have a great household income and we just can understand how people are able to spend so much. I know we've been burning through a low six figure income pretty quick lately. Higher food costs and increased insurance costs are the most obvious increases we've felt. It's almost like people haven't been paying attention to what income ranges ave been benefiting for the last 20-40 years. |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 8:39:36 PM EST
[#32]
Quote HistoryQuoted: My HVAC guy is so busy he can't even call me back or return a text. My plumber is the same. I hope he can get the job done by the end of the month. |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 8:49:45 PM EST
[#33]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Nixon is the one that removed the gold standard. FDR just forced folks to turn in their gold for paper money. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: FFDR doomed us to this path when he Unconstitutionally removed us from the gold standard... Nixon is the one that removed the gold standard. FDR just forced folks to turn in their gold for paper money. FFDR did it...Nixon made it Formal... |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 9:25:13 PM EST
[#34]
Profit at the mine I work for is down 79% year over year, and 21% drop in overall production year over year.
Economy is doing great! |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 9:28:11 PM EST
[#35]
I have heard rumors the local Goodwills have not met their goals for a few months now and resellers aren't moving as much on ebay etc. It has to be getting bad when you ain't got enough money for a Goodwill shirt or used set of kitchen ware.
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Posted: 5/2/2024 9:35:33 PM EST
[#36]
For one thing it’s an election year and when there is a chance for a change people sit on their ass with a wait and see attitude.
We had a 6-8 week dead span that just turned up. We cleaned up everything. We have dug a heck of a hole. But people are just holding back. Everything is expensive. |
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Posted: 5/3/2024 3:57:19 AM EST
[#37]
Quote HistoryQuoted: The fed chairman wants to see about 6% unemployment in hopes that it will stop the inflation. It won't. This is still the beginning. |
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Posted: 5/3/2024 4:13:58 AM EST
[#38]
Quote HistoryQuoted: maybe they are buying new stuff and not repairing old I just hope that people will continue to buy shit boxes. You Se Habla amigo? |
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Posted: 5/3/2024 4:37:33 AM EST
[#39]
Restaurants that we go to on Saturday used to have a wait list at 645pm. Not anymore. Plenty of seating.
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Posted: 5/3/2024 4:44:59 AM EST
[#40]
2023 made 2008 feel like a day at the beach. Usual annual sales is 2.2 million. 2023 was 1.6 million. Had to borrow six figures to keep the doors open but then things got crazy again in the fall so much that I had to go back out to run machines for the first time since 2008. Customers said they were staying stupid busy as far ahead as they could project into 2025 and even had meetings with them to see how much we were able to grow with them. Well, we've had guys standing around twiddling their thumbs again now for 7 weeks. Started getting work in again about 2 weeks ago and once again now slammed with it but running out of cash, again. Sitting here in my office at 4:30 in the morning getting ready to write a personal check to pay for the property taxes and I haven't even paid myself in 6 weeks.
Machining has always been up and down but I don't remember it being anywhere near as bad as the last 15 months. |
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Posted: 5/3/2024 5:05:07 AM EST
[#41]
Quoted: Deja Vu... Starting to feel like 2007-2008 again. 
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Posted: 5/3/2024 5:20:33 AM EST
[#42]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Dentist here. Dallas area. All my buddies are saying the same thing (that I'm noticing as well). The husband of one of my receptionists is a tile-layer for all the new apartments/houses. The guy recently went 3 weeks without a single job. I’m a dentist in SE TN. Production was down 15-20% 1st quarter. What’s even more telling is that my supply rep is down the same amount, so it’s obviously widespread. The recession is here, but most people won’t find out about it until after the election. |
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Posted: 5/3/2024 5:37:03 AM EST
[#43]
Republicans are not going to fix this mess. It's beyond fixing.
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Posted: 5/3/2024 5:50:48 AM EST
[#44]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Or like me and watch YouTube and fix my own stuff. local buddy let's me buy parts on his account. So far I can rebuild washers and refrigerators. Dishwasher too, but wife wanted a new one. This is me. I repair everything possible, and if I don't know how, someone else that does has made a video explaining it step by step. Some might say that is a waste when they could just go work more hours to pay for it and in some cases that is certainly true. Not sure about others but I'm not giving up my old Maytag classics without a fight. Our society is now in decline to the point where people are too lazy to do it themselves, too stupid to do it anyway, and don't have the money to pay for the service because they spent their inflated monopoly money on shiny Chinese plastic shit. Easier to just buy a new one and take on more debt, they deserve it ya know and the Joneses all have one so we should too. |
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Posted: 5/3/2024 5:57:20 AM EST
[#45]
Quoted: It started when we noticed the service calls for repair were slowing down... we went from being booked out 1-2 weeks to a few days and now we cannot fill a full day full of service calls. I usually run about 8 calls a day, today I only have 4. The calls for "my icemaker isn't working", "I need general maintenance", "my refrigerator is making a weird noise" are not existent. We are only getting the emergency no refrigeration calls. We ALMOST went out of business back then. Not gonna lie... this is scaring the shit out of us. The phones are silent. Talked to my competitors and they too are saying the same thing. Their phones are too quiet. FJB You can't get stuff fixed on credit but you can always get a big box CC and buy new at 21% interest. Guess what people are doing? |
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Posted: 5/3/2024 6:04:55 AM EST
[#46]
I provide third party electrical estimates for contractors all over the country. I'm busy as hell. The contractors are sending me more things to bid but are asking me to find cost savings. They are also asking me to lower labor rates, overhead, and profit. It's getting very conpetitive.
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Posted: 5/3/2024 6:13:50 AM EST
[#47]
Quote HistoryQuoted: My kid is flagging TikTok videos 40 hours a week for $21 an hour. He recently got promoted to gaming chat moderator. What a weird time to be alive. My son would love that. |
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Posted: 5/3/2024 6:43:36 AM EST
[#48]
The service contractors who say they are busy and out a year need to keep in mind that the construction side slows we start doing the glorified janitor work too, so the service side starts to get flooded with construction guys. Customers will always jump now instead of waiting, and sometimes pay a bit of premium.
Around here housing has slowed a lot. We have pockets of busy spots where people really want to move to, but it’s a certain range of customer that’s really buying. Million plus seems to be steady but $400-600 is tanking. If the markets start to tank I expect the million plus customers to back off. |
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Posted: 5/3/2024 6:48:41 AM EST
[#49]
Quote HistoryQuoted: 2023 made 2008 feel like a day at the beach. Usual annual sales is 2.2 million. 2023 was 1.6 million. Had to borrow six figures to keep the doors open but then things got crazy again in the fall so much that I had to go back out to run machines for the first time since 2008. Customers said they were staying stupid busy as far ahead as they could project into 2025 and even had meetings with them to see how much we were able to grow with them. Well, we've had guys standing around twiddling their thumbs again now for 7 weeks. Started getting work in again about 2 weeks ago and once again now slammed with it but running out of cash, again. Sitting here in my office at 4:30 in the morning getting ready to write a personal check to pay for the property taxes and I haven't even paid myself in 6 weeks. Machining has always been up and down but I don't remember it being anywhere near as bad as the last 15 months. I haven't taken a day off in 3...maybe 4 weeks now. It's starting to effect my outlook and pleasant demeanor. We were slow, then things spiked and it seems every machine I needed to do the work decided to have issues all at once. I'm so tired of fixing things. I just told my wife I was looking forward to working this weekend so I could actually get parts made. Still slow over all but as least there is cash flow. |
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Posted: 5/3/2024 6:58:34 AM EST
[#50]
If I can't afford food, why fix the fridge?
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