What are yall seeing?

a reply to: JinMI

Lots of shops are closed. People are mourning for sure over the economy but is anyone actually been to any funerals? I haven't. Lots of folks are moving away from the city while new residents sporting colorful turbans are pouring in to fill the void. I can't wait to be murdered in my sleep, by the way. A lot of climate justice hippies seem very indoctrinated and have begun self identifying as transvaccinated. Sad to see so many frightened, dumb people.

originally posted by: trollz
Pennsylvania here. There's a little Italian place I get a sub at every Monday. I didn't know if they were open yesterday or not so I went today instead. Anyway, they had a sign up on the front of the register area saying something about how they had to increase the price of some of the items due to meat shortages or something along those lines.

I don't disagree that meat prices are going up, I've seen it myself. I think the real problem is they have to pay people more to make those sandwiches.

I remember not so long ago people calling out these minimum wage jobs saying "those are for high school kids, it's not a career". Well I think a lot of those people listened and took advantage of either 1. the free money from unemployment, 2. they got a better job or 3. the minimum wage increase was going to cause inflation.

We all knew this was going to happen if you raise the minimum wage to 15$. Things are going to get more expensive for the consumer. Did anyone really think a restaurant business that runs on the slimest of margins could absorb the payroll, sometimes a 50% increase in payroll?

originally posted by: JinMI
Id like some anecdotes to accompany mine. No need to establish your location, region is fine.

I'm seeing extended shipping times on all my Prime orders.

Subjectively large fluctuations in fuel prices and goods at the fuel stations. Coffee, snacks etc

The few small towns around me are gutted of small business.

The larger chains are having restocking issues if they have product at all.

Most everywhere that is still open is hiring.

In the GA here. Seeing mostly grocery stores having trouble storing produce and sliced meats section. Gas has stayed under $3/gallon. Hiring signs and social media posts everywhere, all the time....business owners asking if I know anyone that will work. My 14 year old is working and making bank because of this....started a schwab account for her to invest, etc.

Market is great for a go-getter....

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Yea, but end of the day...go get what?

A house?
Used car?
New car?
Save for retirement?

If we continue on this course, there won't be anyone producing anything to go get.

Well unless she rises above the middle class.

a reply to: JinMI

Well gas is up to about $3 bucks and some change in the last month or two. From about 2.58ish.

originally posted by: JinMI
a reply to: Vasa Croe

Yea, but end of the day...go get what?

A house?
Used car?
New car?
Save for retirement?

If we continue on this course, there won't be anyone producing anything to go get.

Well unless she rises above the middle class.

Whatever she wants....she is the one working and making money. I only give guidance and advice based on my experience.

She has a car already....so insurance, clothes, going out with friends, etc.....

I just want her to understand nothing is free, and if you work for it you feel better about yourself and make a hell of a lot more than what government would give you.

originally posted by: MDDoxs
a reply to: litterbaux

It has become easier and faster to ship through the panama canal and bring product up in the gulf!

Indeed, BUT...

Provided they can fit, and many of the trans-pacific container ships and bulk carriers are far too large to fit through the Panama Canal. Only ships which meet the "NEOPANAMAX" standard are allowed in, so this places limits on their length, beam and equally importantly draft of the vessel.

So this winds up not making it an option for many container vessels.

I work in aviation, and right now they are pulling 30 and sometimes even 40 year old tin out of the desert, refurbing them and putting them back in the air as freighters. Everything that can fly is in the air flying cargo right now. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen. If anyone ever wants to see what I mean, just open up flight radar at 3am in the morning and look at the traffic; it's like Thanksgiving week level traffic, except it's all FedEx, DHL, UPS and every other freight and logistics company you can imagine.

The passenger terminals may still be less than 100%, but the air freight industries are booming like never before because people just can't move anything.

Rail is all screwed up and so is the trucking industry because assets are all in the wrong locations logistically with no back-haul. It's a frigging nightmare of epic proportions. People just have no idea how much damage has been done by this whole covid madness. People are having to ship freight east to get it going west (eventually), and vice versa. It's just completely insane.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Not only that but I missed a connection and I had to sit in Denver airport for 9 hours. I picked a concourse/boarding area that was empty and just watched planes. I find them fascinating.

After the luggage was taken off there are boxes taken off at the end (first loaded?). It was all amazon packages.

That's pretty damn smart for amazon. They were taken off in one of the luggage carts and left in the middle where the planes taxi to jet bridge. The vehicle that picked them up was unmarked and just whisked away. Over and over again....

There's nothing nefarious here, just good use of the resources available. I was in awe of it.

Alabama checking in.

Amazon delivery times are nuts. 2-day shipping is simply unheard of; most things take a week now.

Fuel prices are stable, hovering just below $3 a gallon. No idea on the snacks, etc... I rarely go into convenience stores.

Plenty of small businesses are gone. Now if you want something, it had better come from Dollar General or Walmart.

Shelves are fairly well stocked, but the problem is that the basics have been replaced by the fancy stuff. Earlier this year we needed a garden hoe... just a simple garden hoe. I wound up having to order one from Amazon! Most of the kids working Walmart didn't know what a garden hoe was! I think they thought it was a hooker who worked in gardens...

But there was no shortage of weird new-fangled "gardening tools" the likes of which I have never seen before and have no idea what benefit they might be. Prices of gardening supplies are way up, too.

Building supplies are getting back to semi-sorta-kinda normal-ish.

Help wanted signs are everywhere. McDonald's is offering pay by the day... day labor! Based on a conversation with a friend who manages fast food, they simply can't get applicants. The ones they do get are either completely unqualified (as in, can't fill out the forms to prove they can work here) or they get hired and then don't bother to show up. Pay is rising for those who will actually show up.

Housing is insane! I know one guy in Huntsville-metro who sold a small house in a rapidly-growing area and moved to a nice quiet suburb. He made out like a bandit. His house had literally tripled in value after 5 years. Word is that the increases in value are coming from outsiders moving in from the blue states, where they expect to pay such outrageous prices for homes. Most houses now are selling for more than asking price (which is already inflated) and disappear from the market within a week. In my area it's not quite as crazy but it's still crazy.

One thing that worries me is that I am seeing a lot of large new homes being built, and a lot of them are situated right in the middle of what used to be fields of crops. That's our food, people. It would be easy to build on one side of a field and use less farmable land, but these people are literally building right in the middle of a corn field. It looks like people are buying the large tracts, putting up a home site where it wastes as much land as possible, and then leasing what little is left back to farmers.

TheRedneck

a reply to: litterbaux

That problem exists everywhere.

My work place which ships childrens clothing all over North America ran out of shipping containers last week...not for long, a few hours, but it was kind of odd looking out into the yard and seeing no trailers sitting waiting to move into the docks.

I can only imagine that it's worse for larger concerns like Amazon, etc...

a reply to: JAGStorm

I did a quick looksie on Indeed, the amount of job opening within 50 miles of me is INSANE

Like The Redneck said above, around here in Alabama, even fast food joints are having trouble finding people. Day labor, at a McDonalds?? To call that alarming would be a colossal understatement.

My employer is having issues with finding enough people, as well. Part of that will be temporarily stopped as we're between peak seasons--back to school is ending, and holiday is still a month or so away... If the holiday peak is anything resembling good, we're looking at some long hours--lots of overtime, which is good--but I'm not as young as I used to be.

People, seemingly, don't want to work. They'd rather sit at home collecting govt. checks. I wonder what happens when that money runs out...??

I eat out a lot. All restaurants are short handed. From Burger King to the Country Clubs.

a reply to: seagull

Here in the Chicago suburbs, Fast Food is now beneath the Hispanic immigrants. They work at upscale restaurants as cooks and waiters. The White Guys are still the managers at the Steak and Seafood houses.

WV, gas close to $3.00. Meat in the last week has gone almost $2.00. I've seen stores with very little to offer. Talked with a friend of mine he said companies cannot produce fast enough to keep shelves stocked. Jobs are plentiful if you want to work.

Stores have signs with odd help wanted statements.

So it goes.....

a reply to: JinMI

The costs of everything is on its way up.... again.

And more tax and National Insurance to pay for the borrowing during these last 2 years... again people will be out of pocket, especislly those who are already finding it hard to survive!

It's all fine and dandy though for rich sports stars, rich movie stars/Directors and rich billionaires!

Almost forgot to mention the banks and there ownwers who will feel nothing because all they have to do is magic up some more cash for themselves and get pay rises whilst they give us near enough 0% on savings. It's all good.

a reply to: JinMI

The neighborhood Subway closed until further notice today... they put a sign on their door citing supply chain challenges as well as severe staffing shortages.

Goods-wise, Carrs (Safeway) was forced to stop making donuts a couple of weeks ago thanks to shortages in some ingredients.

i work in the automotive field. been a nightmare for over a year. all car parts on back order and take months to come in. cant find help in the shop.no one wants to work, all collecting unemployment.. rental cars are in short supply..
a reply to: JinMI

originally posted by: MDDoxs
a reply to: TheMirrorSelf

So my question to you MDDoxs is this, what can the common man expect to see so far as prices go? I will be leaving for the road soon, so I was wondering where you saw gas prices and food prices going.

In the short term for manufactured goods, hopefully none, just longer shipping times. I anticipate that we will overcome these challenges eventually, since expedited deliveries are the new way of doing business. i would not worry.

As it relates to food prices, I also dont anticipate any issues here right now since a significant amount in produced domestically. Though I am not an expert here, I am more familiar with manufactured goods. Gas prices will stay flat in my opinion, the USA is still sustaining a lot itself.

To sum up, I would not expect a major hit to your pocket book in the next 6 months, but beyond that we may have to reevaluate.

Thanks! I'm going off to live the van-life, something I'm both excited about and honestly feel is a wise pragmatic choice in these turbulent times. Your response to me lends some comfort in this otherwise unknown adventure (well, to correct myself, all adventures are unknown or they wouldn't be adventures at all).