Yes. Very common. Having delivery dates pushed back once and more is not unusual. You can wait, and wait..... These hobby destructive limited runs are no fun at all.
On a related note... NOT having pre-orders sends a message to manufacturers that there is a lack of interest. Unfortunately we have to rely on others who don't have a finite time horizon planned to do the pre- ordering. It's the wrong message being assumed by them manufacturers which is delaying future releases. There needs to be a better way to get the message to manufacturers that we want their products... but don't want to pre-order.
Disinterest? I doubt it. Manufacturers never needed such a litmus test before. All they needed was a desirable product, readily available to the masses. Until this style was enacted by the manufacturers, why for uncounted centuries were we doing OK? First it was JIT inventories, which if there is a slight hiccup in the chain, caused/causes huge problems. Now we end users are forced to guarantee manufacturers a profit, before they will even consider moving ahead. Really??????? As far as I am concerned, the only thing saving us these days has been the coming of 3D. Reality is that limited runs also guarantee limited profit and limited growth potential, if any. I'm fascinated by the lack of vision, by everyone, as to the harm this does to our hobby's growth, through higher pricing, (which keeps people away), and struggling to get what we desire for our varied empires, (which keeps people away), which discourages and causes folks to quit and look elsewhere. I have been at this hobby for nearing seventy years. I am well past the point where I saw a tipping point swiftly coming to my participation in the more commonly manufactured (just over fifty years of N) scale. I have already cut way, way back on my accumulation. I almost never buy anything now, and know of others the same, (big benefit for those manufacturers and retailers, huh), these days. I have another avenue (HOn30) which is becoming much more fun to pursue, and even though on the obscure side, it is actually much easier to do so. And in many ways, even less costly. Hmmmmmmmm..... Imagine life if the clothing stores adopted this idiotic philosophy. Or our grocery stores... Don't say it will never happen. Those of us who have been around a while, and are actually observant, know what can and does happen.
What puzzles me too is that there are dozens of N Scale locomotives and pieces of rolling stock that were last made years ago and remain in demand. The engineering is done, the molds are on the shelf, paint and artwork is complete, buyers await and yet we get nothing. Why would anyone run a business this way?
Yeah, I really don't get this pre-order model. When I first got into MRR I was quite perplexed with this pre-order scenario. I know of NO industry where pre-order is the norm. Yeah, some people pre-order cars but that's because of the odd ball configuration they want. And I don't see that as pre-oirdering. I mean, I don't see people going into Best Buy to preorder a TV and then be told "We'll call you when XXX makes it. It may take 6-12 months." In the past I've been told this model exists so that manufacturers don't make too many of an item and it sits on the shelves. Well, sorry, but do your market research!!!! Don't use us consumers to do the market research for YOU! That's YOUR job. This also creates consumer debt in an indirect way. I've heard of people getting their pre-orders all in one month from different manufacturers, some even forgot they pre-ordered since it was so long ago. Hello Mr. Credit Card! I have never pre-ordered anything and never will. To me, and this is my opinion, pre-ordering for what should be normally produced items makes no sense at all. I'll buy it when it shows up on the shelves.
Funny. We had this same conversation about 8 years ago and I was told by some that I was a dinosaur because I refuse to 'pre-order''. Which was my exact point made back then...lol. When you pre order you have to give them a credit card # which they keep on file. When the product is finally made...your CC gets hammered. A lot of people are like me. We live week to week....pay check to paycheck. When an unexpected charge shows up something else has to give. No thank you. I will chance I have the funds on hand when it hits the hobby store or etailers and buy it then. JMO..again.
It may be starting to happen, at least a little. Yesterday afternoon I went to the grocery store (major store, not a mom and pop) and for the umpteenth time recently their meat dept. was largely bare. They once again didn't have the ground turkey we like to get. As I was standing there dejected and sighing, another lady walked up and did the same. I then saw a meat dept guy walk by and asked him about it and he said there won't be any until their next delivery. As I walked away fairly miffed, the lady was getting into him a little more and he said something like "you people really need to call the week before, so we know how much to order". Really??? Everyone who wants ground turkey needs to call the week before? I then went to checkout where the guy asked the obligatory "did you find everything OK"? I grumbled about the ground turkey and he said that it gets put out for the week early on Mondays and is typically all gone by late the same morning (I was there in the early afternoon).
I work in a large grocery warehouse. The supply chain is wrecked, and has been since March-April of 2020. Part of the problem is, (and TOO MANY people don't comprehend this), when we were 'locked down', some of the players went out of business. You cannot idle a business, and expect them to pay their bills. There are fewer suppliers of cereal boxes, food cans, etc, than there were beforehand. You can't package Corn El Flakos in thin air. Demand for those boxes is higher than ever, and there are not enough boxes being made, nor new facilities being built to manufacture them. There have also been some "fires" which have damaged a few warehouses, and manufacturing plants- another story for another day. With more bodies than ever on the planet, poultry producers folded up. Some beef suppliers as well- which means there is less to go around. You can order all the ground turkey you want for the store stock, but if it is not coming out of the supply chain, your store simply will not get enough, or even none at all. (Demand vs supply also causes inflation, BTW...) Etc, etc, etc. The situation has recovered, somewhat. But now we have avian flu ("bird flu") going around, and millions of chickens and turkeys have already been destroyed, with unknown further numbers yet to be lost. Contributing to even more shortage. Another aspect to this IS the demand for "natural" foods. So producers are forced by public opinion to do much less to protect their birds and cattle. Thus they are even more vulnerable to loss from disease. (Well, the public wanted it and didn't think it through!) Griping at folks in the store does nothing. They cannot mitigate the circumstances! Atop it all, railroad problems. And a HUGE shortage of truck drivers to get the products delivered. I have seen a number of new faces among the truckers delivering to us. But also some of the familiar ones have disappeared. It is a great big mess. I have read articles by the so-called "experts", who are saying it will require years more to regain where we were several years ago, but at that point we will still be behind the growth in demand- so even more time....
I hear ya. Our local Safeway hasn't had Lipton Ice Tea on their shelves for over a year. https://th.bing.com/th?id=OP.bb53p87N4xjXHg474C474&w=300&h=300&o=5&dpr=1.2&pid=21.1 Everyone I ask at the store as to why just gives me the 'deer in the headlight' look ! My wife had to order two jars of it ONLINE the other day. SMDH !
Interesting details you've shared and it all makes sense. We now shop at three grocery stores because our primary store is consistently out of the same things and we now "cherry pick" the lowest price items at each store to reduce our inflation-boosted grocery bill.
Thanks for the info Boxcab. That all makes sense but I'm not positive that's what was going on with my example. As I was walking away listening to lady and the meat dept. guy going at it, I heard him say that they can't afford to have excess sit on the shelf and go bad. This made it sound like it wasn't a supply chain issue in this this instance but maybe something closer to what we're seeing in the hobby.
Another thing- If it seems as though you can get it by ordering on-line, but not in store, you are correct. There is a push on toward selling that way.
Difficult to point to the exact cause from where I am sitting. One reason is because of the push toward on-line ordering. It changes the way people shop. You lose the old fashioned "impulse" buy. And, nobody is walking past those "clearance" or "sale" signs. What they might otherwise move, well before expiration, doesn't happen. Of course they could even donate some items to local food banks or shelters. Also, if it is true what you are saying about spoilage, that can be a different supply chain issue. In store inventory is not being managed properly. Their fault. Excepting some small and independent stores, it should all be computerized. If they are not keeping proper track of shelf capacities and stock on hand, it throws automated re-ordering off. They can then get too much of something, or not enough, depending... Or if they are manually inputting incorrectly, same resulting situation. But even computer systems by themselves can fail to do all that is needed. So much is upside down these past three years.
Imagine what the situation is in China where the whole Covid thing started. They are still battling Covid and entering in to their third year of lockdown. That does not bode well for anything made in China. Manufacturers should be getting their production out of China. If the Chinese won't allow them to retrieve their tooling then have all new tooling done here or in another country.
I worked for a company that was one of the founders of Just In Time or JIT, when that supply chain went down we went from Just In Time to what we called Just In Trouble. After a while a few semi-trailers started popping up so it kinda became Just In Trailer. I guess you could say we shortend the chain. Ralph
Since I first heard of the JIT process/theory/practice I have always said it would bite us hard some day! Thanks bean counters.
I had one of these. Also, if my memory is not too faded, wasn't there something back then in Burlington Lines?
