Coronavirus Thread

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LibertyTurns

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I’m a distributor as well; I’m fortunate enough to service the manufacturers that are all exempt from this whole “shutdown”. I wish you guys the best to get through.
I’m starting to see the leading edge of supply chain disruptions from Tier 3 suppliers.

Mexico leads the pack here.
 

Milwaukee

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We are a wholesales distributor of paper, packaging, food service disposables, janitorial supplies & chemicals, etc. We are located in Savannah and serve SE Georgia & South Carolina up to Charleston. Our customer base is heavy in the hospitality sector (restaurants, bars, hotels), local/state governments, schools (local & colleges), janitorial cleaning companies, some industrial sector.

It sounds like you and your customers fall into the exempt manufacturing zone. Maybe I’m missing something. That doesn’t seem like your customers or end users would be affected. I’m curious as to why you guys are downscaling. I’m not disagreeing with you, but it seems weird as to the distributors in my area (Midwest) are not even slowing. Either way I’m sorry for your current slow, scary times we are in on the sales front.
 

LibertyTurns

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Elaborate please. I’m genuinely interested.
Mexico has shutdown non-essential activities until 4/30. One example is hose material is made near Mexico City. The pipeline has in it what it has in it, after that everyone waits until they open back up 4/30. If you’re sourcing anything out of Mexico, time to duck. We’ve got other less pressing issues, but 3rd week of April we start teetering from a multi-axis threat. I just started to throttle operations to make what we got last.
 

jwsavhGT

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It sounds like you and your customers fall into the exempt manufacturing zone. Maybe I’m missing something. That doesn’t seem like your customers or end users would be affected. I’m curious as to why you guys are downscaling. I’m not disagreeing with you, but it seems weird as to the distributors in my area (Midwest) are not even slowing. Either way I’m sorry for your current slow, scary times we are in on the sales front.
We are considered an essential supplier because of a slice of our customer base. That being said, tourism/hospitality is a big part of our business and that sector has been hard hit from Charleston down to the Florida line because of the local/state mandates. Restaurants are takeout or delivery only. Bars/nightclubs have been closed. Tour companies have been closed. Schools/colleges are closed (home schooling doesn't require toilet paper, paper towels, etc). Local businesses that are considered essential have moved to teleworking so no need for janitorial services to clean offices. Customers that consist of multiple restaurant groups have decided that they need to close all groups (why they didn't remain open for takeout or delivery is beyond me because I know they are capable of doing that). We're having a problem with daily NSF checks that we more than likely won't be able to collect. We have customers that are requesting to pay in 90 days (as opposed to 30 days) or else. On top of all this, our vendors are now pushing for payment before invoices are even due. One vendor in California (new to us) required us to wire $7000 to them before we could even place an order for N95 masks.
My gut tells me that there will be additional cuts in the next couple of weeks. Our lawyer advised to go ahead & make deep cuts now because "death by a thousand cuts is extremely bad on employee morale". Unfortunately, the owners didn't have the guts to make all cuts needed now so...
 

LibertyTurns

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Our lawyer advised to go ahead & make deep cuts now because "death by a thousand cuts is extremely bad on employee morale". Unfortunately, the owners didn't have the guts to make all cuts needed now so...
A common leadership failure type, trying to protect employees when what needs to be done is protect the few you can actually protect if that’s even an option. Hard spot to be in. There’s a difference between incompetence & dealing with circumstances outside your control. Many don’t get it. The reality is everyone knows it’s coming. They know it’s not the leadership’s fault. Prolonging the obvious despite appearances of being humane is actually inhumane.
 

MWBATL

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Sweden has almost the same number of cases as us per capita. The book is yet to be fully written on this virus.

Since you guys mentioned it, I went and looked it up. They are indeed still open for business. Very few restrictions, but they are relying on an intelligent and conscientious population to self-quarantine if they feel symptoms. I am not sure that is enough based on everything else we have been told. There is an article in today's WSJ about their different approach. Apparently they are trying the "herd immunity" approach:
Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s chief epidemiologist and architect of the policy, says the approach, much like the original British one, is to let the virus spread as slow as possible while sheltering the elderly and the vulnerable until much of the population becomes naturally immune or a vaccine becomes available.

One can do anything with data and numbers, as we all know, here is Sweden's tack:
It is too early to assess whether Sweden’s approach will have a benign or catastrophic outcome, but so far, the virus hasn’t spread widely there. Sweden, with 10 million inhabitants, had 4,028 confirmed infections and 146 deaths by Monday, according to a tally compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Austria, a similarly-sized European country with about 8.8 million people that is under lockdown, had 9,200 cases and 108 deaths.

The article draws no conclusions, other than saying this will be interesting to watch. They did point out that Sweden's society had a much lower level of generational interaction than, say, Italy's. (Apparently, Swedish kids don't go visit their parents very often, at all.)

I have no idea how it will turn out, but I am glad to see someone trying a different approach. For better or ill, we will all learn from it.
 

GT_EE78

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What has me concerned is the manufacturing industry: who’s calling the shots as far as what’s “essential”?
no worries, Our awesome president took care of that, wish i hadda link but its out there somewhere, Stay Safe
upload_2020-3-31_21-30-47.jpeg
 

jwsavhGT

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What has me concerned is the manufacturing industry: who’s calling the shots as far as what’s “essential”?
This is part of a letter we received from one of our customers:

The healthcare/public health industry, food and agriculture industry, and the communications industry have all been designated as “critical infrastructure segments” under presidential policy, Department of Homeland Security emergency readiness programs, and state/local restrictions. xxxx plays an essential role in these critical infrastructure segments as a key component supplier to these segments. Without the production and distribution of our products to these critical infrastructure segments, we risk shortages across the United States and Canada, especially with sudden increased consumer and retail demand due to the current COVID-19 pandemic that would result in significant hardships. It is the policy of the United States government that these critical industries continue to function with minimal disruption in the event of an emergency. Furthermore, the President of the United States instructed employees of critical infrastructure industries to continue to perform their normal job functions during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a supplier to xxxx your company is also part of the critical infrastructure for these critical infrastructure segments, at least in relation to the product or service provided to xxxx, and should be considered an essential business.
 

LibertyTurns

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What has me concerned is the manufacturing industry: who’s calling the shots as far as what’s “essential”?
Well, I can tell you having over 1k potential voters ups your “essential potential” as does I suppose actually making essential stuff. Wouldn’t know about that 2nd one.
 

GT_EE78

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Dr. Deborah Birx: Incomplete Chinese Data Misled Experts on Seriousness of Coronavirus
She acknowledged frankly that when she saw early data from China reporting only 50,000 cases of the virus among the 20 million people in Wuhan, China, and the 80 million in Hubei province, she felt that the threat was similar to that of SARS, which had 8,098 cases globally and 774 deaths.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/...misled-experts-on-seriousness-of-coronavirus/

 
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