“How About Tomorrow?”
Yesterday I called my auto dealership for regular service on my van, and they said, “When can you come in?” I said that I could come in any time over the next seven days. “How about tomorrow?” was the reply. I agreed, and then I thought about how I normally have to schedule a week or so in advance to get service, which made me wonder whether things have slowed up that much in the economy.
Almost makes me want to test the waters, and call a contractor to do some deferred maintenance on our humble hovel.
I’ll put it to the rest of you. How much do you think business conditions have slowed down? How anxious are sellers to get your business?
January 10th, 200812:27 pm at
Where y’at? “Slowing” would get different answers in Lipscomb county vs. Williamson county (both TX), and I’m certain that the disconnect between those two counties has zero to do with macro trends in the U.S.
How does your dealership handle their holiday schedule? Do they clear out their books of work so that their employees can be with their families, and thus have a traditional empty spot in the first two weeks of the year?
How does the average person handle vehicle upkeep? Is there a seasonal trend that needs to be accounted for?
How does this compare to this time of year in other years?
Seriously, the lack of critical thought in this post reminds me of Barry. I expect more from you, David.
January 10th, 20081:09 pm at
I live on the DC side of Baltimore. In general, things have been going pretty well, but after doing well for some time, the real estate market is softening even here. I know a variety of realtors, and they are all seeing volume slow, and prices start to sag.
I have a fairly good feel for business activity in my area, and while nothing has seemed bad, things have been slowing. A lot of that is qualitative “feel” from talking with people; that’s not a lightweight thing necessarily. The Wal-Mart is hopping, but we went on a good day, the upscale mall was kinda dead, but we went on a bad day. Those observations I can’t use as data. I am sensitive to alternative explanations; there just did not seem to be one in this case.
The post was a request for anyone else with data to post. Sometimes, I’m just curious as to what others are seeing. More eyes are better than just mine. I’ll ask my dealer on the seasonality/staffing issues.
January 10th, 20082:01 pm at
Scheduling is getting easier but, prices are not coming down. I also don’t see more unrepaired auto damage than usual or apparent repairs needed elsewhere but, not being done. So, this is a kind of an intermediate slowdown.
After reading you comment, Doodad, let me say that I don’t expect any better than that from you. Wanna know how long ago you disappeared from my bookmarks?
January 10th, 20083:40 pm at
In the Kansas City area real estate seems soft to me; especially in the growing suburb of Lee’s Summit where I live. Pulte homes had a large subdivision being built near me and buying appears dead to me and they are supposedly leaving the area. There are a lot of homes for sale in my subdivision (which also baost a private lake for waterskiing). I have a hard time guessing how much retail traffic has slowed; it appears some. MY friends that own a jeweler business; business was flat ompared 2006; weather did slow down retail taffic; but other jewelers in the area had 10% to 20% declines in some cases. They feel people are tigher with the money; but that seems obvious to me.
January 10th, 20085:53 pm at
Back to Bill, the repair guys at my dealer said it was a slow period because of the recent spate of warm weather. Cars perform better then, and people put off maintenance because they have more to do. Things are booked for them for the next six days. So there — they said repair work was pretty normal, but that normal could include a lot of volatility.