Economic Question For All

[Pikespeak]

If you own a small business or work for one, what are you seeing right now from your customers or what changes have you seen at your company in the last couple months that reflect a changing economic reality? Or have you not seen anything? It would also be interesting to know what industry you operate in as well.

 

[jayhawk]

I work in construction/ranching. Diesel prices are killing us. Also still having A LOT of trouble getting repair parts for equipment and fertilizer for the crops. I think this fall season we will begin to see even harder impacts as the cost of food and necessities continue to go up.

 

[MJB]

I'm in high-end custom homes for the 1%ers.....no change infact more work for the next 3 years is already booked.

Cost is through the roof but they still pay.......more money than brains!

 

[Customweld]

Water and sewer pipelines here. Contract prices are through the roof, some are going as high as 40 percent over engineer estimates.This is in large part due to competing to get a contractor to even look at a project. PVC,HDPE and ductile iron availability has been hit or miss. Every one of those materials has petroleum in them, so costs are up as well.

 

[Pikespeak]

Water and sewer pipelines here. Contract prices are through the roof, some are going as high as 40 percent over engineer estimates.This is in large part due to competing to get a contractor to even look at a project. PVC,HDPE and ductile iron availability has been hit or miss. Every one of those materials has petroleum in them, so costs are up as well.

Interesting, I thought some of the materials supply chains were starting to clear out…was it the same or worse than a few months ago? Thanks for the reply.

 

[JohnnyB]

As a commercial/industrial general contractor I am seeing clients pump the brakes on capital expenditures.

 

[Customweld]

Interesting, I thought some of the materials supply chains were starting to clear out…was it the same or worse than a few months ago? Thanks for the reply.

Some things have eased. Ductile iron fittings have been a chore to track down. PVC is getting a little better . Resin for HDPE is pretty volatile, it doesn’t take much of a ripple from China to affect that market. Price wise,materials are a tad better than a few months ago, but we are really going to start to feel that $120 barrel of oil.

 

[HuntHarder]

Work for a large utility company. Shortages on transformers, wire, snuffers, cabinets, just about everything we need have affected us. We had to start rationing new transformers and pumping the brakes on large communities. It has eased over the last month or so, but we are working insane hours trying to catch back up. The building has not slowed but some of the GC's say the new houses are not being pre-sold as fast as they were a few months ago.

They are still building spec homes knowing there will be buyers. Prices are absolutely thru the roof. Average new home in our area (1700-2200 sq ft.) going for 700k minimum. I used to think I made good money until I realized that EVERYONE is making good money apparently.

 

[woods89]

Residential remodeler here. I have more work than I want and my phone keeps ringing.
Costs are definitely up though and I feel like I'm getting some raised eyebrows when I send quotes back in some cases.

 

[roadrunner]

What we are really seeing is the first hand effect that millions of retiring boomers are having on the economy.

The boomer generation was an extremely large labor pool with each generation being sequentially smaller, so labor is decreasing across the board. Less labor is less output and smaller generations equate to lower consumption of goods and services.

This will be the new normal, not wearing an idiotic mask everytime there is a "flare up".

 

[Elkangle]

I used to think I made good money until I realized that EVERYONE is making good money apparently.

It's not that they are making great money it's that they are more likely to spend a bigger chunk of there income... average income is like a grand a week in 2022...that doesn't do much against 3k in bills a month...then having fuel & food double there just isn't much of the pie left no matter how you slice it

 

[Wolf_trapper]

A report just came out a week ago saying 2/3s of people making 150k or more are living paycheck to paycheck. Insane the amount of people with no financial common sense

 

[Customweld]

It’s going to be interesting in the municipal/ local govt world here in the next couple of years. There was a pile of cash handed out with the ARPA program. Municipalities competing for contractors to get their projects finished before the funds sunset is never a good thing.

 

[mossyoak52]

I'm in high-end custom homes for the 1%ers.....no change infact more work for the next 3 years is already booked.

Cost is through the roof but they still pay.......more money than brains!

Yeah that's why they have the money for high end homes because they have no brains
One in every crowd I guess .it's a tax write off
Hide it from uncle Sam

 

[Afhunter1]

I work in the plastics industry, lawn and garden type stuff. It’s hard to get raw materials but we haven’t had to shut down because of it yet. We seem to be able to just find enough to keep us going. Finding reliable workers has been our biggest problem. Demand is through the roof and we have raised our prices significantly this year and nobody has even batted an eye. Crazy times but I’m not complaining.

 

[chicoredneck]

I work for a logistics company. Demand for shipping products is still very high and we are struggling to keep up with the demands due to the difficulty in finding and keeping labor.

 

[IdahoElk]

Construction here for the rich and while things don't seem to be slowing down supplies and materials are hard to get and very expensive.
I'm bracing and preparing for the crash we all know is coming.

 

[Button]

Still making product. Catalyst is more expensive than ever. Well over $20,000 an ounce.

 

[Pikespeak]

I work in the plastics industry, lawn and garden type stuff. It’s hard to get raw materials but we haven’t had to shut down because of it yet. We seem to be able to just find enough to keep us going. Finding reliable workers has been our biggest problem. Demand is through the roof and we have raised our prices significantly this year and nobody has even batted an eye. Crazy times but I’m not complaining.

Poly furniture?

 

[Pikespeak]

Still making product. Catalyst is more expensive than ever. Well over $20,000 an ounce.

What are you using catalyst for? I had to google what that was