The sign suppliers that closest serve me are 160 miles away. They have delivery trucks that cover around a fifty mile radius. I've had an arrangement for many years with a shop to receive my deliveries and I'd have a courier service pick them up and deliver them to me, and it was an affordable price, but required my prices to reflect that and be higher than shops down toward the city. That delivery service quit serving our area and when I called others they wanted materials strapped on pallets and charged for the weight of the pallet. I might need a couple gallons of paint or a few sheets of coroplast. Last week I needed three sheets of 1 1/2" HDU and they wanted $169 per sheet. I drove down and got them. Are others having this problem and what do you do about it?
Posted by Don Hulsey (Member # 128) on :
I don't have that problem, but yesterday I received one of the two rolls of vinyl that I ordered on August 25th. I'm hoping the other one will show up in a few days.
Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :
getting rolls shipped is no problem. Getting paint shipped is also very do able. What about sheet material? Sheets of HDU or coroplast, plexi, polycarbonate, that I can't get from the local lumberyard? that's where I'm finding a new difficulty. Driving down to where I can pick them up and get back is a day trip.
Posted by Bob Kaschak (Member # 3146) on :
Hi Rick,
We are also rural. As we joke, we have to drive 5 hours south, just to start our drive...to anywhere, ha ha.
We order 5' x 10' HDU and we pay a flat rate of $135 for delivery, whether we order 1 sheet, or 10 sheets.
The HDU comes from Pennsylvania, or New Jersey, and both are over 5 hours away.
[ October 29, 2022, 01:43 PM: Message edited by: Bob Kaschak ]
Posted by Ken Henry (Member # 598) on :
Hi Rick. I'm not trying to be a smart-ass here, but it would seem that you are in a geographic/economic dilemma. As I see it, you either have to accept the reality of your present situation, or do something to change it. That might entail reconsidering the substrate materials that you use, and replacing those with what is readily available. You might consider designing signs constructed from materials you can readily get locally.
I don't see stocking a big inventory of materials, because inevitably, what you have on hand, won't be what the potential client wants. I'm sure that you've had the experience where you have more than enough reds on hand...but sure as the sun rises, the customer wants blue, and NOT the one you have on-hand. Another possibility you might consider is designing & selling smaller signs from those "offcut pieces" you get when a customer orders a 4' x 6' sign and you end up with a 2'x 4'piece of offcut. The money made from those smaller sales could go toward that costly trip you have to make to restock a few key items.
It's a tough situation you've described, but I've honestly attempted to provide a couple of solutions that you're free to consider or reject.
Hopefully, your situation will see some improvement, but time and distance seem to be conspiring against you. Best of luck to you.
Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :
Thanks Ken. The direction of selling what's available has been our primary goal. We mostly do carved redwood signs and live in a redwood forest. There are the needs tough for some aluminum and plastics, although they are a minor part of our community's need. I can get MDO from local lumber yards. It might be fun to phase out everything other than carved and blasted signs though. We also letter trucks,although nowhere near as many as we once did. We probably do three a month when it used to be three a week. What to do with the scraps? They get organized and stored and often eventually we haul them to the dump.
