I learned sumtin' today.

[Shane_B.]

Never ask questions when you are talking to the worlds foremost authority on musical instruments. You know ... the ones that work at music stores but don't actually play any instrument or sing. 

Stopped at a guitar store today. Same one by my house I talk about. Great store. 

Stopped in to ask about ordering a left handed Fender Acoustisonic since they are "the largest Fender dealer in a 150 mile radius.". Considering it's mostly farm land here, well, moving on ...

Before she fully asked her manager how long it would take to get one he blurted out nobody is making or shipping anything. Best you can hope for is April 2022. Haven't been able to get anything since the pandemic started.

After 19 years of marriage (23 total together) you would think I would have learned by now (Shane you *****ing moron) to shut the ***** up and say thank you and quietly go in my truck and die a little more inside quietly by myself. But noooooooo. Not me.

I said to her but I can get them online. They keep going out of stock and then back in stock again. I wonder where they are getting them. I immediately got called a liar. BP bounced to 200/100. 

I nicely replied that I didn't want to order them online and I wasn't trying to beat them up on price or anything. I wanted to play it before buying and wanted to get it from them.

She checked Sweetwater, GC, Sam Ash. None to be had and she called me out. I told her I know they don't have them but there are 3 people 2 of which are dealers on Amazon selling them. Pound pound pound on the keyboard. "I can't find any on amazon. I have no idea what you are talking about. Our manager is not a liar and if you want one pre order it.". 

Me, did you search for lefty?. Her, yes. Me, may I look ive been monitoring them for months now. Her, see nothing comes up. Me, please scroll to the top again where your search results start. Oh look ... right at the top, where your search results start. The very first thing that came up in your search is a left handed acoustisonic ... Her, well these people aren't a dealer. I doubt they have them they are trying to scam people. Me, but they sell them on ebay too. 55000 sales 99.5 % positive feedback. Plus there are 2 actual dealers selling them besides them if you click on more buying options. I can have one here by wednesday pay no tax and no shipping but I want to buy from you a local business and dealer. I don't even mind paying tax. Her, you'll have to preorder it and we don't know if you'll ever get it because they stopped making them.

As I said after 23 years I should have know better than to prove her wrong and question the #1 Fender dealer in a 150 mile corn field radius.

I swear to God. At this point I just want to take my guitars amp and daw and burn them on my brush pile out back.

Remember when it used to be fun going to the music store? It was like going to see family. You didn't get called a liar. Nobody said you had no idea what you are talking about. Nobody cocked off to you. I walked out of my mom and pop place many times with thousands of dollars of equipment to test at a job to see if we wanted to buy it. They didn't even blink an eye. Man are those days gone. I am so sick and tired of cocky people and it seems to have gotten worse since the pandemic. People are almost unbearable to deal with.

Had to vent. Sorry for the long read.

[RobertWS]

 

32 minutes ago, Shane_B. said:

 I am so sick and tired of cocky people and it seems to have gotten worse since the pandemic. People are almost unbearable to deal with.

It's not because of the pandemic, it is a side effect of growing old!

[paulo]

TOP TIP: Save valuable time by taking an instant dislike to whoever you meet.

Edited August 3, 2021 by paulo

[InstrEd]

Well Shane I can tell you didn't learn how to use proper grammer   ?

But tis tokay as I never did learny it miself 

[InstrEd]

3 hours ago, paulo said:

TOP TIP: Save valuable time by taking an instant dislike to whoever you meet.

Now let us not go to extremes hear 

[Shane_B.]

5 minutes ago, InstrEd said:

Well Shane I can tell you didn't learn how to use proper grammer   ?

But tis tokay as I never did learny it miself 

I got tired of tapping through so many menu's on my cell to get to what I needed so I got lazy.

[InstrEd]

12 minutes ago, Shane_B. said:

I got tired of tapping through so many menu's on my cell to get to what I needed so I got lazy.

I wouldn't even attempt to type that much on my cell phone.  A Man gots to know his limits ? 

[Shane_B.]

3 hours ago, paulo said:

TOP TIP: Save valuable time by taking an instant dislike to whoever you meet.

That's funny. Reminds me if a joke book a buddy if mine from school and I were going to write called The Power Of Negative Thinking. ?

What got me scrunched about this was I was standing there telling her I wanted to buy it from them. I didn't care that I had to wait or that I would pay more through them. I was immediately hit with being called a liar. And I don't think it's that far out there to wonder why some dealers can get gear while others can't. I even said to her that I wonder if the ones online were counterfeit like the made in Japan stuff. I immediately got slapped with "We're the biggest dealer. You don't know what your talking about. You're lying.". I think that would piss anyone off regardless of age.

She's normally really nice. Maybe something else going on that day triggered her and I got the brunt of it.

[Shane_B.]

6 minutes ago, InstrEd said:

I wouldn't even attempt to type that much on my cell phone.  A Man gots to know his limits ? 

It's all I gots. I drag my finger on the touch screen to draw the words out. Makes it easier. Then I spend more time spell checking than if I would have just tapped each letter out. ? So it's 6 one way bakers dozen the other.

[paulo]

19 hours ago, Shane_B. said:

She's normally really nice. Maybe something else going on that day triggered her and I got the brunt of it.

Could it have been that you were wearing your new t-shirt....?

 

[Shane_B.]

I popped in to see my neighbor last night. He owns his own business selling and installing IT stuff and maintaining it and deals with businesses and individuals all the time.

We talked for almost 5 hours and this subject came up. I asked him about this and told him about a lot of other stuff that's non-music related that I've been bombarded with lately that I can't talk about here. He said absolutely people have changed. He told me a whole string of stories similar to this one I told here and more. He said absolutely things have gotten far worse than he's ever seen in the last year. People are at a boiling point.

Made me feel better to hear it from someone else and know I'm not the only one experiencing this. This wasn't the only run in I've been blindsided by lately.

Anyway I've pretty much given up on that guitar. I'll just stick with the few junk guitars I have that have served me well over the years. It ain't like I'm planning on putting out Dark Side Of The Moon II anytime soon so I'm good. ?

[bitflipper]

One of the ways local mom 'n pop retailers get screwed is by sweetheart deals between manufacturers and big retailers.

Years ago I went to order a synth through my local chain, paid for it and waited. And waited. I went in and asked what the holdup was. They called Yamaha and let me listen in. The message on the phone: "If you are calling from Guitar Center, press 1. All others, please hold." Basically, GC and others like it get first dibs on everything. Small dealers often don't get products directly from the manufacturer, but through a middleman wholesaler, whose deals with manufacturers work the same way.

Another way small retailers get screwed: being forced to buy things like guitars in bundles so they have to take mostly slow-moving products and just one or two of the big sellers. And they can't just re-order the top sellers, only another bundle.

It's the same reason there are fewer independent drug stores, automotive supply stores or lumber yards left. 

I realize this probably isn't why you can't get your guitar. But it's definitely a supply chain issue. The pandemic has revealed many weaknesses in the global supply chain, for many, many products. Like new cars. Who'd have ever thought we'd run out of new cars?

[paulo]

1 hour ago, bitflipper said:

But it's definitely a supply chain issue.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/suez-canal-ever-given-updates_uk_61092efae4b0552883e54c18

There's also a video doing the rounds (I forget where now) that shows how many containers, including empty ones that are needed elsewhere to be loaded with goods that have no containers available because they are sitting empty in the wrong place due partly to long delays in US west coast unloading because of a lack of dock workers to handle them due to ...how to put it in forum censor friendly terms....... let's say the incompetence of those with power...... which then led to to shipping companies pulling certain voyages because they were no longer economically viable, which in turn led to chaos in terms of where things were.

[bitflipper]

I saw that video. It was an eye-opener. The scope of international shortages is quite surprising.

The container issue, at least here on the west coast of the US, seems to be because China is no longer taking our garbage. That's what used to fill the containers that returned after delivering Chinese goods, so they sit unused in US ports. Nobody's going to pay to send them back empty.

This may be the video you were thinking of...

 

[paulo]

38 minutes ago, bitflipper said:

This may be the video you were thinking of...

Yep, that's the one.

[craigb]

There's definitely been a shortage of logical and intelligent thinking out here on the Left Coast of the U.S.!

[bitflipper]

Nah, that's always been the case. Nothing new there. What's changed is the dearth of humor and the ability to see it.

It's up to folks like you (and me) to help keep humor alive. Like Steven Wright said "I think they should attach pies to the front of trains. That way, if a train runs into something it's at least a little bit funny".

Someday, we may look back fondly at the times when guitars were hard to come by and food wasn't.

[Shane_B.]

1 hour ago, bitflipper said:

Someday, we may look back fondly at the times when guitars were hard to come by and food wasn't.

Food was hard to come by here. Not starvation level but it was a real eye opener. There was even rationing beyond the toilet paper which I will never get if I live to be 1,000. We buy the large packs at Sams. We bought one long before the shut down and it lasted long after. I remember seeing pickup trucks with their beds loaded with it.

Suddenly me wanting to keep up my mothers tradition of canning food didn't seem all that crazy to my younger wife.

There was plenty of booze though. They will even deliver your booze for you now because of the shut down. Weed dispensaries the size of mini malls are popping up here all over. 3 within 20 minutes and they are opening an enormous warehouse the size of a large walmart that grows it indoors. So everyone will be all set for the next round coming ... oh I'd say around mid Oct. 2024.

[paulo]

8 hours ago, Shane_B. said:

toilet paper which I will never get if I live to be 1,000.

You never get toilet paper? Eeeuuuwww.

Seriously though, WRT people stockpiling, it's not rocket science.....if government's make it their business to spread unnecessary panic then people will unnecessarily panic with the knock on effect that when due to said unnecessary panic supplies start to run short, now even those who weren't panicking start to think that they maybe need to  buy extra to insulate themselves from the actions of those running around like headless chickens and buying everything in sight. I'm only surprised that it wasn't worse. 

During the first lockdown I went to the supermarket to get some beer. The shelves were full and further stock was alongside awaiting shelf room in those wheeled metal cages they have. The supermarket had a promo on where 1 pack was £12 or two for £16. Given that there was plenty there, what would you do? As I walked out of the store carrying my two packs a woman shouted at me..........."do you think you've CENSORED got enough there?"  I gave her my best smile and said..."Not really, but I couldn't carry any more." No point in typing what she shouted as I walked away because it would all be asterisks.

 

[paulo]

Further to above, the mainstream media here scored an own goal recently here by showing a picture of a supermarket with loads of empty shelves supposedly taken that day in London, thus confirming their recent dire prediction that there would soon be food shortages. However, the more attentive among us - sadly not as many as you'd hope - didn't fail to notice that while it had been 85 degrees with cloudless skies in London all week, the people in the supermarket were wearing coats, hats and gloves.