- Location
- Placerville, CA, USA
- Occupation
- Retired PV System Designer
A local supplier who has been in business in the area for awhile will know what he needs to stock for local demand. And is willing to process a special order.Most of my suppliers have been bought by bigger companies in recent years, and IMO their service has gone downhill. There have been some good changes but the lost services still more than offsets what good has come. Lots of items seem to no longer be in stock whenever you need them that generally was in stock a few years ago. Why do they call themselves a supplier if they have nothing to supply most of the time? I wanted 6 wraparound fixtures about 10 days ago, did not have a single one in stock and wasn't going to have them for about 10 days. I could have gone to big box or ordered online and had them in a couple days at most.
I can understand this happening once in a while, but seems to happen all the time anymore.
A chain will typically set the base stocking levels the same all across the country, and also try to keep the absolute minimum levels to reduce inventory costs. And special orders have to go through a national warehouse somewhere.
It makes a difference.