Electric boxes not on the shelves.

I was at menards yesterday to get electrical supplies. My wife decided that our kitchen light needed to be on a three way switch with a dimmer.

Not a huge deal but I needed a plastic box to mount the new switch in. Their shelves were empty.
They had boxes for new construction but not for old construction. I thought maybe they were in the middle of a vender change or something.

So today I stopped at home depot...
Same situation.
Of course there is not an employee in sight to ask.

What the hell is going on?

a reply to: Bluntone22

Was at HD the day before yesterday and was attacked by employees at every aisle. I was looking at new carpeting and the carpet person was like a used car salesman. I asked my husband what is going on. I had heard they were doing great because of all the remodeling but wondered if they are anticipating struggling times coming up...

Weird that yours was the opposite.

a reply to: JAGStorm

During the first shutdown these stores were packed with people buying paint and other home improvement junk.

I just don't understand this particular supply being scarce.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Not sure how many get pay on commission, but for retail, the worst times of the year are in January/February/March. So they are just getting into the dead times now.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Lots of grow ops going up in the area maybe? You've usually gotta run some new electrical first.

a reply to: Bluntone22

What the hell is going on?

Due to the Presidents dumb### tariffs we’re running out of everything. I work in HVAC and we have a lot of houses we can’t finish totally because it’s become impossible to find the breakers we need. Because the plastic comes from China. We drove an entire day round trip just to buy four of them to finish a place out.

Also lumber has tripled in price. I have several friends who are contractors that have just stopped building houses. They can’t afford it. And these are big contractors, who build 60-70 new houses a year.

I’m not trying to make this political, but that’s the reason.

Ran into issues with bathroom floor and wall tiles lately. New garage doors are on a 10 week lead time at this point as well. My builder is also running into issues with my interior doors, trying to get the 36 inch doors that I was wanting, he's having to put in blanks essentially to get the CO done in time. I know building a house is one of the most stressful things you can do, during Covid it's even more stressful. Supply shortages all over the place, heck the appliances I'm trying to get have gone out of stock and back in stock a half a dozen times over 3 months now. The company building my house did what they normally do and wait until close to finish to order light fixtures, only to find a 30 day lead time at the minimum. If they would have ordered in June when they had the list I wouldn't have had to go to a lighting store here in town and pick what they had in stock, he's ordered what I want but these will be temporary just to get the CO.

What boggles my mind is when first words of a pandemic popped up I called everyone asking if this was going to cause issues, because I had a feeling it would. "Oh no of course not, never have issues with supplies." I know they're the professionals in that arena and I am not, but might want to consider the possibility of shortages ya know.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: JAGStorm

Not sure how many get pay on commission, but for retail, the worst times of the year are in January/February/March. So they are just getting into the dead times now.

I don’t think they get commission, but maybe they know jobs will be cut after the holidays.
On the plus side two of the things I was looking at was the lowest price I’ve seen in two years, so that is good for us!

a reply to: dug88

Lol...
The thing is that it's only the retro fit boxes.
The type you nail to a stud and the metal boxes used with conduit are still on the shelf.

a reply to: Bluntone22

My husband is an electrician and even his suppliers are slow. They've been overnighting basic supplies from the states. He doesn't do residential, but I imagine a lot of the supply chain is being snapped up by contractors renovating all these older homes people are buying, and a lot is getting purchased by suppliers up here.

Apparently mid January is when things should be back to normal.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: JAGStorm

During the first shutdown these stores were packed with people buying paint and other home improvement junk.

I just don't understand this particular supply being scarce.

Not sure if it is up to code, but is that something that can be 3D printed?

a reply to: underwerks

Lumber is up because Canada closed their border and has nothing to do with trumps tariffs.

Not sure about the breakers but I did see plenty at home depot.

a reply to: underwerks
Most circuit breaker are made in Mexico. Square D was closed because of COVID-19. They are far behind in manufacturing. It has nothing to do with the President.

a reply to: Hypntick

I've heard that Windows and siding have a long wait too.

This is what happens when you go single source suppliers.


America deserves this for being stupid.

a reply to: lakenheath24

I agree with you there.
Never understood how we let foreign countries make critical supplies.
Especially economically hostile countries.

supply chains messed up everywhere, even on things that don't make any sense.
Don't cheap out and go for the plastic boxes, boxes are meant to be grounded, wait for the metal boxes to be restocked.

Retail sales people have seemed more pushy since the pandemic. My theory, they are being pressured to get people in and out of the stores quickly as to limit their covid liability. With the right lawyers, it wouldn't surprise me if someone filed suit, that they got covid because they were in a store longer than they intended because they couldn't find what they were looking for.

Its a nasty by-product of capitalism. Peeps get hooked on cheap snip, but that cheap snip will bite you in the bottom.

Remember when Wally worlds slogan was "Made in America". Thats until Sam died and the corporate overlords and dumbass kids got greedy.




a reply to: Bluntone22

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: JAGStorm

During the first shutdown these stores were packed with people buying paint and other home improvement junk.

I just don't understand this particular supply being scarce.

A lot of it is supply chain crap and raw material shortage... governors declared a lot of manufacturing jobs as “nonessential” even though the workers using the materials were deemed “essential” which is the problem you have when people that have never lived in the “real world” are creating policies... just one “for instance” toilet paper companies were allowed to be open but printing companies had to close... the “geniuses” somehow didn’t get that if you want “bear clean” arse someone has to make the wrapper that it comes in and Charmin doesn’t do that on site it’s farmed out just like almost every other aspect of its production...

Anyhoo... see if they have metal “old work” boxes and get the f-straps... you need to use the ground from the 12/2 to ground the switch but you need to ground the box too so either get a ground screw and strip back the ground and wrap it around that before you put it on the switch or pigtail it and wire nut that along with the neutrals... if you need a walk through let me know...

a reply to: RenaJN

I'm not concerned about a switch box being plastic but I do connect the ground wire to the switch.

They had both plastic and metal boxes in stock just not the retro fit ones with the wings.