keep getting undercut

[GoldDigger]

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 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.
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.

 

[kwired]

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.
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.

Exactly, the larger chain has no idea what local demands are in some cases.

I have one supplier that was purchased by a larger out of state company. This has been 3 or 4 years ago now, but that first year the local store always started stocking up on pump panels about January for the upcoming irrigation installs that happen every spring around here. Those panels generally need to be installed and working by early May at the latest. Well HQ saw how many panels were on order and told them they did not need to stock that many panels, so the order was cancelled. Guess how many guys were really P.O."d when they were still waiting for panels to ship from manufacturer early May? Apparently management at the local store knew a little about the way things work in the area.

 

[hbiss]

Just to add to the original topic and my last post- a good friend of mine asked me today about the size of conduit he needed for a 200A service mast as he's printing out all kinds of spec sheets on Square D panels and meter pans. Now, this guy has two houses, two boats and a significant investment portfolio as well as being a business owner. What happened was the service on his Jersey Shore property was torn down by Sandy and he's looking to replace it. He wants to purchase all the material then find an EC to install it. This is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. He can well afford to pay the full boat but he'll shop around and buy whatever he thinks he needs at cost online then find some hungry EC who will go along with the deal for only labor and probably get screwed anyway.


Maybe we should require financial statements or the last years tax return like banks do before giving people prices. That way we can weed out the greedy from the needy.


-Hal

 

[lakeview100]

Commercial Electrical Contracting

Commercial Electrical Contracting

The market for Commercial jobs does not compensate for contingencies or risk involved. In order to be awarded a job, the price has to be "at or below cost" with no contingencies, no profit. I was talking to a GC that was awarding the MEP subcontracts for an approx. $120,000 job, and his low bid is for $97,000. I would need to meet the low bid to get the work.

Maybe I can get a few change orders totaling $40,000? Is that how the game needs to be played? Go in with a bid at cost, and take them to Change Order City? You can't get the job with a fair number.

I am a company owner, and haven't been around that long (4 years). During better economic times is work available at better pricing? Or am I being overly optimistic about making any money doing Commercial EC work?

 

[hbiss]

That's about right. My wife works for a GC that does mainly public work. The only way to bid a job is to get prices from subs and cut them by 15-20% and don't add any profit for yourself. If you win the job you beat up the subs for that 15-20% saying if you want to work we have the job. Your only hope is change orders and they screw around with paying those.

-Hal

 

[Fulthrotl]

The market for Commercial jobs does not compensate for contingencies or risk involved. In order to be awarded a job, the price has to be "at or below cost" with no contingencies, no profit. I was talking to a GC that was awarding the MEP subcontracts for an approx. $120,000 job, and his low bid is for $97,000. I would need to meet the low bid to get the work.

Maybe I can get a few change orders totaling $40,000? Is that how the game needs to be played? Go in with a bid at cost, and take them to Change Order City? You can't get the job with a fair number.

I am a company owner, and haven't been around that long (4 years). During better economic times is work available at better pricing? Or am I being overly optimistic about making any money doing Commercial EC work?

back up to late '80's.

i was working for a very large EC (4th largest nationwide at the time) who was doing almost all
of that on TI in so calif. back then..... they were bidding it flat, and making their money on
extras.

it was good enough to maintain a 70' yacht in baja and newport beach.
they still have the boat.... i think the plan still is working.

doing 7 stories of highrise TI, the extras, in dollar value, amounted to another floor for them.
that was pretty typical.

now, there is no shortage of electrical engineers downsized and spewing out
drawings with minimal input, and maximum "cut and paste" errors.

so, extras still look good. someone has to get paid for paying attention to the work.
it might as well be the EC. the job i just finished started at $53k, and broke $100K.

extras still look good, going forward.