How are y’all doing with the supply chain these days?

22 Replies

Kind of moody and overly dramatic, don’t you think? But it was the only horizontal image I could find that I figured I’d be allowed to use.

This is an update to my July post on the supply chain problem. Then, I was celebrating the fact that my shoes I had waited for for months had finally come.

Now, this issue is fresh in my mind because I’m waiting for my new iPhone. It’s supposed to arrive today.

My “old” phone is an iPhone 8 that I got on my birthday in 2018, during the campaign. In fact, I think James and Mandy were the first people I spoke to on it, sitting in the parking lot in front of the Verizon store. I remember thinking there was something wrong with it because I wasn’t hearing as clearly as usual. That’s because I didn’t have the center of the phone over my ear, because I was used to the narrower iPhone 5. It was fine.

But not any more. Among other problems, the camera has been acting up. Sometimes, when I touch the virtual shutter release button, the camera app shuts down, and no image is recorded. Which is bad. We grandfathers have to have a fully functioning camera at all times. And I also frequently use the camera for work.

But HARK — the UPS man was just here, and the phone has arrived!

So I’ll get back to you later, beyond making my point: Which is that when I went to Verizon on Oct. 12, they told me I’d have to wait until possibly Oct. 29.

Oh, sure, if I’d wanted to spend almost two Gs on an iPhone 13 — for which they had displays all over the store — I’d have probably been OK. But since I’m a sensible guy who thinks the most insane thing Apple has ever done was get rid of the home button, I was getting an SE 2020. So I had to wait.

But apparently the chain wasn’t quite as stressed as they thought, since it just arrived.

So y’all go away and let me play with my new toy. In the meantime, how’s the supply chain acting for y’all now, beyond driving up prices and such?…

22 thoughts on “How are y’all doing with the supply chain these days?”

  1. Norm Ivey

    Maybe it’s the types of things I buy, but I’ve seen almost no delay in receiving my purchases. I placed three separate orders today, and the latest delivery is scheduled to be Monday. Most things will arrive tomorrow.

    The last purchase that took more than a few days to arrive was a couple of Halloween welcome mats for my bride and a plastic toothbrush travel case for me. The mats took about a week and a half and the toothbrush case was ordered about a week ago, arriving today. That’s hardly what I would call a delay because I can remember way back in the 20th century when ordering something by mail order would mean waiting 3 to 4 weeks.

    We both got new laptop computers this summer. Mine took about 3 weeks to arrive; hers about a week and a half.

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  2. Bryan Caskey

    Most of the day-to-day things that I buy are shipping fine. However, some of the larger-ticket items are delayed. My wife ordered a couch in April and it’s still not here.

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      1. Brad Warthen Post author

        That’s pretty weird. You tell me inflation is America’s greatest concern, and I’ll tell you that obviously America doesn’t have any real problems. So good for America.

        But if you tell me it’s tied with COVID, then I know America has lost its mind…

        But then, we’ve been getting a lot of signals indicating that, ever since 2016…

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        1. bud

          Indeed inflation is not really a big problem – yet. Take gasoline. It has been much higher in the past. It may, repeat may get worse. Conservatives love to obsess over inflation. But I suspect what’s going on now is a fear that wages are their biggest concern. Heaven forbid businesses should pay a living wage that cuts into profits. A 5% inflation rate is no cause for panic. But it is worth keeping an eye on.

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  5. Brad Warthen Post author

    By the way, I haven’t really started playing with the new toy. I opened the box, and immediately had questions, especially about the weird new charging cable.

    So I made an appointment at Verizon for tomorrow, partly to ask questions, but also to get them to put a plastic protector thingy on the screen, because I never trust myself to do that without creating bubbles.

    Anyway, if anyone wants to have a geeky discussion about iPhones, let me start it off.

    Here are the reasons I chose the SE 2020, and never considered even for a moment getting one of the other current models:

    1. It costs about a third or fourth as much as the others, and apparently has excellent, advanced, hardware and software — much better than my 8 when it was new. The first SE, released I think in 2016, was awesome. My wife has one, and it’s still performing well. I WANTED a second-generation SE back in 2018, and kept avidly following all the rumors out there that it was about to come out. Then, by the first of October, it became clear that this wasn’t going to happen, and even clearer that my battered 5 wasn’t going to make it through the rest of the campaign, so I got the 8. Then, in 2020, they finally released the new SE…
    2. It has a home button. No other iPhone has one. In other words, they charge you a freaking fortune for phones lacking basic equipment. My mother has a 10, and I’m always having to help her with it, and every time, I have to figure out again the new roundabout procedure for doing some simple thing that would be MUCH easier with a home button. Which is very irritating.
    3. It’s a normal size. Or at least, a size that I have come to accept as normal over the past three years. Not as sensibly compact as the 5, but still acceptable. I’m one of those geeks who carries his phone on a clip-on belt holster — for the simple reason that it’s way easier to grab there than in a pocket, and more comfortable to carry. And I could not care LESS that there are idiots who think it’s uncool.

    Anyway, if you disagree with the choice, I’d love to hear the reasons. I haven’t heard a good one yet. A 13 might have some feature or other this lacks, but I haven’t heard of any feature on any phone that outweighs even one of the reasons I favor the SE.

    What really gets me about the higher-priced models is that they tout two major things that I see as drawbacks — the bigger screen (why would a phone need a bigger screen? I mean, get an iPad), and the supposedly advanced lack of a home button…

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    1. Barry

      My dad has the SE. works well for him.

      I have a work IPhone that I use personally. I have an 8. I also like the home button.

      One of my kids has the 8, and I just got another one a 12. My wife also recent got the 12.

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  7. Barry

    No issues with any products or services currently.

    Last issue I had was in early 2020 And a 4 month delay in a watercraft purchase.

    And of course toilet paper supply issues in April 2020.

    Just this past week I asked a restaurant owner if he was having problems with supply chain issues and he said he actually had more problems early summer last year that he had currently.

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  8. bud

    Here’s an interesting view on the supply chain. Basically Nguyen is saying we just don’t need to buy so much stuff. I strongly agree. We’re facing an existential threat from global warming which is driven by over population and exacerbated by extreme consumerism. We’ve become a society of consumption taken to an obscene level. Do people really need a new I-phone every 2 years? Or perhaps another pair of shoes is unnecessary. Its gotten so bad that people are renting huge mini warehouses just to keep all the stuff they don’t have room for in their 2000 square foot house. Of course this would cut into the profits of Amazon. But really, this purchase addiction does seem ridiculous.

    https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22725031/buying-less-supply-chain-holiday-shopping

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      1. Brad Warthen Post author

        Hey, I know that dude!

        Oh, wait — maybe I don’t:

        Do you remember the monopoly man and his monocle, Curious George and his tail, and the famous quote from Star Wars “Luke, I am your father”? Well, I hate to break it to you, but you’re remembering all these things wrong. You and millions of other people. Curious George never had a tail, the monopoly man doesn’t have a monocle, and the quote is just “No, I am your father”. The voice of Darth Vader even recalls saying “Luke, I your father”, and how it was such a powerful line. So exactly what is happening? This phenomenon is known as The Mandela Effect. It refers to when a large number of people share a false memory.

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    3. Barry

      My wife asked me over this past weekend when was the last time I bought an article of clothing. She knew my prior habit was to go to Kohls or Belk or some such place about once every couple of months to get something. Well, I had to think about it.

      Then I remembered I had bought a t-shirt at WalMart about a week ago for $7. Before that, It would have to be 2019. I didn’t buy any such items in 2020. I rarely went anywhere. I haven’t needed any such thing this year so far.

      I’ve stayed away from church for 16 months and counting so no new nicer clothes either.

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  9. Bryan Caskey

    The parties are in the standard polarization we’ve come to expect. Republicans aren’t going to like him more, and Democrats aren’t going to like him less.

    But look at this slide with independents. He’s lost more than 20 points in four months. That’s not a good thing. Biden needs to govern as a moderate and figure out solutions to the problems that most independents see as priorities: rising prices, the supply chain problems, and COVID-19.

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    3. Barry

      Pew research shows more conservatives identify as independents than liberals.

      Independents simply don’t like the label of a party. They are less likely to advocate publicly for a political position, put up yard signs, etc..

      “Independents tend not to look all that different from partisans,” said Samara Klar, a political scientist at the University of Arizona and co-author of the book “Independent Politics.” “But they do tend to be more averse to identifying themselves as a partisan when there is a negative stigma associated with partisanship.

      With all that said, it’s obvious Biden’s main problem is his own party and 2 particular senators. Without a big “Win” to point to, 2 senators from his own party are hurting him.

      Inflation was always going to be a problem no matter who won the election as numerous economic and financial experts said months before the election.

      Hopefully, COVID will come under better control moving into early 2022 and Biden’s numbers will improve.

      A Grinnell College National Poll released Wednesday showed that in a Biden-Trump repeat, they’d essentially be tied. That’s pretty good news for Biden since the news has been so negative from his own party recently.

      Of course the bad news for Biden (and the country) is that a man who is facing serious legal problems, and who has released some very goofy and outright disgusting statements that would sink every other political campaign is still seen as the Messiah by Republicans.

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