as supplies run low

[solarbird]

I’ve been checking hardware stores the last couple of weeks, mostly because there are things I need, but a little because I’m watching their stocks fall.

Smaller hardware stores are having a harder time covering the stock gap than larger ones. That makes obvious sense; they have less to begin with, so the duplications and outright gaps are more clearly visible. Hand tools in particular are getting pretty thin on the ground at this point; screwdriver bit replacements – well, lots of particular varieties are no longer available. Stuff like that. It’s been a multi-week process, not all-at-once – though it will probably look that way in retrospect.

Today, though, I had a somewhat more pointed experience.

Yesterday, Home Depot had 34 of a particular China-made mini circular saw available. It’s inexpensive because it’s corded; it’s from WEN, who make very basic but generally adequate enough kit for people on a budget. A chonkier Ryobi, perhaps. And last night, they had 34 of these saws available for store pickup or delivery.

This morning, when I woke up, they had 17.

An hour later, they had 15.

I was going to buy this with credit union rewards points, but it seems that was going to take too long. So I shelled out the cash, buying it immediately instead. It’s not a big deal for me, we’re still within our current tight budget this month.

So now they have 14.

Maybe that big drop was a one-off, a fluke – an organic surge, rather than someone grabbing a set for their employees while they could. Maybe Home Depot’s remaining 14 are enough that they’ll still have 10 in another month.

Or maybe it was scalpers. I don’t know how quickly these things sell, as a rule.

But that… that was a surprise.

Most people won’t notice stock thinning, I don’t think. Not quickly. I don’t have a reason for that other than recent experience shows that most people don’t notice a single goddamn thing until it punches them, personally, in the face. They to go get a thing, and it won’t be there, and then they notice.

A lot more people are probably pretty close to that moment of noticing.

They’ll notice it even more when their Medicare gets its $350 billion dollar cut.

It’ll be a moment of awareness, a moment of panic. It won’t last long – the fascist noise machine will do everything it can to patch it over – but it’ll be there.

Are you ready to take advantage of that? Particularly with your Trumpy relatives?

Maybe you should be.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

Comments

[armiphlage]

Today our (non-US) factory's US-based supplier of a specific US-made tool told us that their product was being discontinued. Some of the parts of the tool are made in Italy, and so are probably uneconomical for a US company to acquire any more.

We had already made the decision to stop buying those tools anyway, partially because our government imposed 25% tariffs on US-made hand tools in response to US tariffs, and partially because our manufacturing operators refuse to use tools marked "Made in USA". We're now buying an equivalent tool from Vietnam. Same quality, lower price, no reason to change back even if the US stops threatening to invade us.

[armiphlage]

Anyway, I meant to say before digressing, US tool manufacturers will have issues fulfilling orders too, since a lot of tool steel and specialty steel is made outside the US, and steel is particularly affected by Trump tariffs.

[solarbird]

our manufacturing operators refuse to use tools marked "Made in USA"

interesting

I would like to reference this elsewhere - anonymously, I won't name/link you. Unless you object, of course.

[armiphlage]

Feel free.

[armiphlage]

Here's the website of a US-based manufacturer of specialty electronic hand tools, $300 - $400 USD each. Not the manufacturer I was mentioning in other comments, but I selected it because you can see in the photos that the tool steel heads are stamped "Italy". At the time I am making this comment, they only have a handful of tools left in stock.

https://www.excelta.com/cutters/clinch-500-108-us

[armiphlage]

I looked through some records - one tool from that US-based company currently priced at $293.07/EA, and out of stock, cost $133 in 2024. Looks like they raised the price before they sold out.