Why the Asian guitar importers are having a hard time

[Gergo]

We know that Rondo's inventory is pretty much decimated right now, but I've heard that Guitar Fetish is also in real trouble because of a very low inventory. Gibson is losing a lot of money on their Epiphone line because the dealers are running into delays restocking. Same goes for Schecter dealers. Small or companies like All In One and IYV are having problems as well


https://www.freightwaves.com/news/flexp ... ng-tsunami

[Partscaster]

Well, well, well then,..."used guitars for sale" is king, for now.

[tonebender]

Fudge ripple, wouldn't you know I have no imports to sell. I always miss out on the market opportunities.

[andrewsrea]

The lockdown boredom and the free government money created unprecedented demand. Covid caused supply and logistics problems (travel bans caused tighter port processes). The perfect storm for the guitar market and a parallel story in the housing market and home repair. Crazy times!

[LightWingStudios]

In Chaos There Is Opportunity. Bring the manufacturing BACK to the U.S.

[Mossman]

It's not just import guitars... American guitars too. And just about everything else... There are shortages in manufacturing across all industries.

[thepezident]

My area has shortages of chicken wings....

[mickey]

My area has shortages of chicken wings....

You eat Asian chicken wings???

[Chocol8]

There is a nation wide chicken shortage, and prices are rising rapidly if you can even find wings.

[uwmcscott]

There is a nation wide chicken shortage, and prices are rising rapidly if you can even find wings.

I have been making an attempt to purchase locally sourced meat for a host of reasons for a while now. With chicken the difference between the mass produced stuff you find in the grocery store and locally raised is probably the most stark of all. Farm raised/free range chicken is a completely different color and flavor than the watery/pale commercial stuff.

Having said that I think we've avoided this particular "shortage" at least temporarily in the midwest as there are so many poultry farms. They are nasty, nasty places that you'd likely never eat chicken from the store again if you visited

[Gergo]

In Chaos There Is Opportunity. Bring the manufacturing BACK to the U.S.

That's easy to say, but the problem with that in some instances is that fewer units would be sold due to higher prices caused by higher labor cost.

Americans like cheap stuff, and lot's of it.

Will people pay $900 for that American made Epiphone Les Paul as opposed to $550 for the same guitar that had been made in China?

[uwmcscott]

Will people pay $900 for that American made Epiphone Les Paul as opposed to $550 for the same guitar that had been made in China?

Right now I would say the answer is yes for sure based on the supply issues. And even after this all settles, I would personally pay more for an American made version of anything that comes from overseas if the quality and specs were identical.

Having said that, I very rarely buy new guitars anyway so I'm probably not the best person to ask

[LightWingStudios]

In Chaos There Is Opportunity. Bring the manufacturing BACK to the U.S.

That's easy to say, but the problem with that in some instances is that fewer units would be sold due to higher prices caused by higher labor cost.

Americans like cheap stuff, and lot's of it.

Will people pay $900 for that American made Epiphone Les Paul as opposed to $550 for the same guitar that had been made in China?

If the U.S. hit the Chinese/Asian exporters with a tax equal to the difference I believe they would. OR the U.S. should give companies some sort of incentives to bring that manufacturing back here. They got plenty of them to send their factories and American Jobs over there to begin with.

[andrewsrea]

On the chicken wings comments - amen. I've been told it has been Covid-19 related, from changes in production for employee and consumer safety, plus a reduction in wing production due to reduced restaurant / bar demand, when they were closed.

My wife is gluten free due to allergies which damage her thyroid gland. The only pre-prepared hot wings she could eat were the big bags of Tyson wings (not the anytizers which have wheat) and we'd have them at least once every other week. Now, we are lucky to snag a bag every 10 weeks and that last us two servings. And the quality is not good - very scrawny, scrappy wings.

We are hoping for a return to normal on the wing front!

[Chocol8]

There are two big drivers to the chicken shortage. A surge in demand as chicken has been a popular takeout item, especially wings, and labor shortages at the processing plants because low wage workers can get the same or more from unemployment and don't want to return to work. Processing chicken is such a shit job, I don't blame them, but when the plants start paying bigger wages to get people to show up, the retail prices are going to reflect that and we are going to have to get used to paying more.

[uwmcscott]

There are two big drivers to the chicken shortage. A surge in demand as chicken has been a popular takeout item, especially wings, and labor shortages at the processing plants because low wage workers can get the same or more from unemployment and don't want to return to work. Processing chicken is such a shit job, I don't blame them, but when the plants start paying bigger wages to get people to show up, the retail prices are going to reflect that and we are going to have to get used to paying more.

It's a complicated issue. It's not just about the unemployment though, a large percentage of labor in these types of environments are immigrant workers who are not eligible for unemployment or stimulus funds. There is a large Turkey processing facility not too far north of where I live and the vast majority of the workers there are immigrant (Somali) workers. They literally never shut down, even during the height of the pandemic. The health department went in and found a ridiculuously high prevalence of COVID infection, and many people working with active and serious symptoms. Even then in didn't shut down. Bottom line is that even with all the negatives, they are all still making enough money to be considered wealthy back home - so it's to their benefit to keep working, even now. It's pretty strange to see - the factory is located in the middle of nowhere in northern wisconsin, and the tiny little town has somali restaurants and grocery stores downdown and not really much else.