Business in the middle of disaster
A few years back, my brother-in-law had a job where he sold some kind of product related to aluminum siding. He lives in Florida. When all the hurricanes hit Florida, he would win all the sales contests. Seriously. There would be so much damage and his products were used to repair homes. He made a ton of money. His peers in other states began to refer to him as Hurricane Joe.
Just earlier this week I was talking to a company in Chicago that mentioned they were starting to see some large inquiries for their products out of the gulf coast area. I think we can all agree that watching the oil spilling all through the gulf makes us sick to our stomach. The wildlife, the beaches, the poor families who lost loved ones. Nothing good coming from this disaster. But still, the cleanup and repairs are going to require some kinds of products that we all sell.
So, that is my question. Is anybody seeing additional business due to this unfortunate event? I feel a little sick even asking the question, but it is a legitimate fact that someone is going to have to supply some kind of parts and, oddly enough, some company is going to benefit from selling these products. Anyone out there shipping more stuff down to that area?
Just earlier this week I was talking to a company in Chicago that mentioned they were starting to see some large inquiries for their products out of the gulf coast area. I think we can all agree that watching the oil spilling all through the gulf makes us sick to our stomach. The wildlife, the beaches, the poor families who lost loved ones. Nothing good coming from this disaster. But still, the cleanup and repairs are going to require some kinds of products that we all sell.
So, that is my question. Is anybody seeing additional business due to this unfortunate event? I feel a little sick even asking the question, but it is a legitimate fact that someone is going to have to supply some kind of parts and, oddly enough, some company is going to benefit from selling these products. Anyone out there shipping more stuff down to that area?
I have heard there is a large demand for various types of drop forged hardware and even on TV you see cable ties being used in many applications.
Reply to this
God bless everyone who has been hurt by this disaster, and also all those who can do honest business helping to make things right again, and providing the materials and products for that very necessary task.
But it's like the old example of breaking windows to provide jobs for glass installers. Does this help? Yes, it gives glass workers an immediate something to do and a few bucks, but the effort does nothing to advance productivity. In the end productive work is what pushes things along and grows economies. Like the glass example, the oil spill situation is "make work" in one way of looking at it.
Its also too bad because we so badly need to be using gulf oil to save ourselves and this disaster will make that so much harder. It is a major setback in many ways.
Especially now that the EPA has been granted super-bureaucracy status, the fallout from this will bring us big trouble. There will soon be drilling going on, but I'm sorry to say that it will be us, not the oil fields, on the receiving end.
The one small consolation is that the incident is proving to another group of people the serious incompetence of our current president. Even the ass-kissing news people can't hide this president's buffoonery and baseless arrogance, which is in the process of inflicting harm on our country a thousand times worse than the oil spill he's currently mismanaging.
Terri S.
Reply to this
I will choose to stay out of the political discussions on this site, but you folks feel free to have at it. Still, I can not help but feel awful for the oil rig workers who have been pulled off the other rigs while this is sorted out. If the other rigs need to be inspected...get it done and let those people get back to work. Clean energy would be just dandy of we had enough of it. We don't, so we just cannot stop drilling. I cannot even imagine what will happen to all the areas of the country that produce coal for our nation's energy needs. If they really do stop using coal there are going to be a lot of cities and states where we will be able to just post the sign, "Closed - Out of Business".
Reply to this
TS - Your blog is yours, but your readers can try to avoid politics at their own peril. That won't be an option for very long.
If the incompetence noted above was the worst of it, things would be different. As you point out, there are few real choices regarding our energy supply. The current view seems to favor curbing development, expansion and even existence.
(Or maybe we can call Cardinal and see how the orders for windmill parts are coming in. Yeah, maybe we're overlooking the obvious and there's no cause for concern.)
But now that even the hopelessly unrealistic government finance offices acknowledge debt overtaking GDP in 24 to 36 months, the writing is truly on the wall. Anyone reading this who doesn't realize the significance of this soon will learn it first hand. You can bet your wing nuts on that my friend!
I'm not attempting to commandeer the discussion, but this is all very fastener-related if you ask me, and if ever there was a time be get political, it's NOW.
Terri S.
Reply to this
It is good to be passionate. You go!
Reply to this
Terri S, I agree 100% with every word you wrote! Actually, my mouth is still hanging open because it's been difficult for me to find anyone willing to be as honest and outspoken as you are about our current political situation. Thank you so much for your candor.
Twenty some odd years ago, starting out in this business as a sales person, I was told to avoid talking to customers about religion and (most importantly) politics. Thank goodness everything has changed, but people are still reluctant to say what they really think. Why is that?? We live in America, the land of free thinkers, right? I suspect a lot of people are afraid because of what we see going on in our government and the media. However, we're also known as the land of the brave.....everyone needs to step up.
I'm not proud of this, but in the past I stayed so far away from politics that I even stopped voting. Maybe a lot of us did, but not any more! I'm registered, involved, and praying it's not too late to put our country back on track.
Some of my customers say their part of the wind turbine business is way down. Add that to the fact there is no off shore drilling going on for who knows how long, and it really should make you wonder. A lot of Americas problems have been a long time in the making, not just this administration, however; we need answers to our questions now, and I'm not hearing anything from them that makes sense.
In answer to TS's original question, my son is in the chemical business and his plant is running all shifts, busier than ever. They are all still heartbroken over this tragedy to the coast and volunteer their days off to help in the clean up effort.
Thanks again Terri for the dose of reality....we need it!
Susan
Reply to this
hey terry do you need a job...refreshing attitude... our president is not issuing any new off shore drilling without it how would 6-8 dollar per gallon of gas effect our industry not counting how it would paralyze low to middle class family
Reply to this