At the ass end of the supply chain...

Seriously bad news, apparently not an isolated incident, and just a little slice of the American dream in 2012...

Pretty much anytime we go to a store down here in the Caribbean there is a shortage of one sort or another... Sometimes it's the brand of cat litter our cats Buffy and Willow prefer, sometimes a food product we like or something needful like toilet paper. It's a normal part of being near the tail end of the supply chain...

Anyone who has been on the wrong end of a supply chain tends to pick up the habit of stocking up on stuff that is needful. For instance, the last time we were at the local NAPA store they only had three spark plugs that fit our generator and as it was the only source on island for said spark plugs we bought them all. More than likely the situation of no spark plugs of that size will continue till after summer when the store makes their end of hurricane season  order.

Of course, when a store makes an order for something they are out of it won't make it down here till all manner of things fall into place (and it's best to remember that just about all cargo containers tend to transit the Bermuda triangle on their way from the mainland)... Which means, if you happen to need a spark plug for your Honeywell 2000i, it could well be 2013 before it shows up on island.

So, when you see something you need or want, the standard operating procedure is to buy it when you see it... I've lost track of the number of times I've seen something at a store and unable to make a decision whether to buy it or not went back to the boat and then decided to get it the next day only to find that it was no longer available.

That's in the USVI which is near the ass end of the supply chain but not the ass end of the line so it's better here than a smaller island further down...

Just saying...

Listening to Sons of Bill

So it goes...