What I'm Hearing

From your emails and comments from various professionals, in early April business took a -5% to -10% (ish) turn. Some are hopeful the shift in the Easter Holiday played a role, most of you tell me a different story.

Fortunately, nothing is permanent. Things could get worse, they could get better.

Last week we discussed the impact of increased prices. Would you like to see what your next issue could be?

On Amazon, I maintain a "Hobbies" shopping list ... stuff I'd like to purchase someday. Here's a portion of my shopping list. Do you see prices next to each item?

I've wanted that aune Flamingo DAC/Amp for a half-year! When I click on it, here's what I see.

Currently unavailable!

Many favorites are not available ... the stuff from China simply disappeared. That means containers on ships are going to disappear as well. Which means what if you are driving trucks on I-10 or I-40?

Here's another one a reader sent to me (by the way, notice the "community" link at the top of the page #justsaying).

Have you given any consideration to what happens when you sell 1,000 items ... and you can't sell 350 of them because you can't get access to those items anymore? Or you sell an item that is the composition of thirty-eight parts and you can't get access to seven of the parts anymore?

You're going to make interesting decisions ... some of you might be in a situation where you cannot sell a third of your assortment. You'll probably want to know what impact that has on your business.

Or, everything will turn out just fine. We don't know what will happen.

But we have to plan on two things happening.

1. Prices are likely to increase.
2. Items may not be available, limiting your product assortment, constraining your ability to meet your sales/profit goals.

My guess is you'd rather have answer to those questions, right?

Believe it or not, I have to spend time reading about freight these days. Yeah ... freight.

I mean, read through this guy's timeline (click here). That's some fun stuff. Bookmark freightwaves.com for more details.

Other fun stuff is on the horizon ... some of you are telling me that you are "hunkering down". This is what "hunkering down" looks like.

You probably have many people working through potential challenges.

You probably have statistics folks analyzing how the customer is going to respond, right? I mean, that's what I do for a living. You are undoubtedly crunching every conceivable number right now, correct? You kind of have to be doing this, right?

What are your thoughts? (kevinh@minethatdata.com).  Do you have a different perspective?