Warm and damp.\u00a0 Maybe the rain holds off another day, maybe not but it would be nice if it did.\u00a0\u00a0 Yesterday ended up being quite nice, with a bunch of sun, but a bunch of clouds.\u00a0 Mostly sunny, but a lot of activity in the sky.\u00a0\u00a0 No rain on me though.<\/p>\n
Didn’t quite get done what I’d hoped.\u00a0\u00a0 Not a big surprise to anyone here, I think, at this point….<\/p>\n
I did get the AC diagnosed and fixed.\u00a0\u00a0 Saved a service call and some money there.\u00a0\u00a0 Knowing how stuff works, and then looking for what changed is a valuable skill.\u00a0 About $150 valuable to me yesterday.\u00a0 Thank you for the reminders to check the overflow pan and the float valve.\u00a0\u00a0 My old system had that disconnected and flooded the bathroom, so it’s not something I’d have thought to check immediately.\u00a0\u00a0 Turned out to be a disconnected wire nut on the control line to the condenser unit.\u00a0 Easily fixed.<\/p>\n
I then left the house to mail my ebay sale, and do pickups.\u00a0\u00a0 Since we’ll be at the BOL all next week for Spring Break, I had to get all my pickups done, even the one that normally has up to two weeks leeway.\u00a0\u00a0 And because one of the sellers is near the Sugar Land Habitat reStore, I hit that for a quick look ’round before heading back to my neighborhood.<\/p>\n
With some time left, I went to Costco.\u00a0 Which was interesting on a number of levels.<\/p>\n
Firstly, several of the things I buy all the time were out of stock.\u00a0\u00a0 Ham slices for sandwiches were completely AWOL.\u00a0\u00a0 Smoked almonds too.\u00a0\u00a0 There were a couple other things as well.\u00a0\u00a0 I mentioned last night that they had a cheaper cut of beef in the cooler than I’ve seen there before.\u00a0 And there were some more changes to the store.\u00a0\u00a0 The perimeter aisle had been filled with just a few really bulky items.\u00a0 Armchairs.\u00a0\u00a0 Alternating with the boxed armchairs to create a “look” which filled the racks, but didn’t quite mask the fact that they used to be full with a dozen different articles and now had only a few of one.<\/p>\n
There were a couple of other places where they expanded one item to cover for a lack of others.\u00a0\u00a0 They took about half the computer\/phone\/apple area away and just left it empty.\u00a0 No jewelry case right there either.\u00a0 Took out half an aisle of pallet rack in the same area too.\u00a0\u00a0 I’d guess the TV display had fewer choices than I’ve ever seen as well, maybe even one whole aisle less.<\/p>\n
The wine selection has changed quite a bit.\u00a0\u00a0 I’d say that about 3\/4 of the display area was wines less than $12 a bottle, and there were pallets of wine in the $7-9 range too.\u00a0\u00a0 They have definitely shifted downmarket for wine in their stocking mix.<\/p>\n
There were a few more choices for rice than my last visit, but they are at least 40-50% higher priced than 2 years ago.\u00a0 That’s a big jump.<\/p>\n
Some prices have been stable though.\u00a0 Lamb from Down Under is about the same.\u00a0 Maple syrup from Canada might even be a dollar cheaper than it was.\u00a0\u00a0 And smoked salmon is close to the same at $1\/oz.\u00a0\u00a0 Now that spiral sliced ham is back in stock, it’s actually cheaper (counting inflation) than it was a couple of years ago.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Chicken drums were 1$\/pound again too.\u00a0\u00a0 That might be people slaughtering early to sell before they get bird flu and have to be destroyed, pushing down the value.<\/p>\n
All in all, Costco appears to be reducing SKU count (maybe involuntarily), has gaps in supply for long time staples, has moved product mix down market, offering new and more plentiful cheaper choices and seems to be making changes that DON’T point to a return to prosperity and an expanding economy.<\/p>\n
Or I could be reading more into it than is there, but I think what I’m seeing is real.<\/p>\n
Stack it up, if only to get through temporary supply issues.<\/p>\n
nick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Warm and damp.\u00a0 Maybe the rain holds off another day, maybe not but it would be nice if it did.\u00a0\u00a0 Yesterday ended up being quite nice, with a bunch of sun, but a bunch of clouds.\u00a0 Mostly sunny, but a lot of activity in the sky.\u00a0\u00a0 No rain on me though.<\/p>\n
Didn’t quite get done what I’d hoped.\u00a0\u00a0 Not a big surprise to anyone here, I think, at this point….<\/p>\n
I did get the AC diagnosed and fixed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n