Jack's small engines Bought out

[Scrubcadet10]

As bad as mower parts are to get right now certain electronics are much worse. My main wholesaler of equipment told me that the electronic components made in asia are holding up the supply chain and 100% recovery is not projected for another year. Some specialty chips are only run once or twice a year and if demand is not high enough they get back burnered. I have equipment on order that the mfgr has no recovery date projected.

Ford shuts down a plant because it can't find enough computer chips

A computer chip shortage has shut down the Louisville, Kentucky, Ford plant this week, the latest shutdown because of an industry-wide problem that is expected to spread to many other auto plants in the coming months.

www.cnn.com

 

[SamB]

I have had very good buying experiences from both Jack's and Northern Tool,from as far back to when Northern Tool was Northern Hydraulics. As someone that has and likes(loves?) his older "vintage" mowers,my issues have been 'No longer Available" parts. A deck lift rod that listed new for $7.00 was on one site that did have it for over $25.00! Some sellers wanted over $20.00 just for shipping. All for a 12" 3/8" dia rod with 2" of threads on one end. Obsolete or very expensive,unless one has a tap and die set!

 

[bertsmobile1]

I always like these types of threads.
You can easily see the people who have been in business for themselves and also those who have never been in transport / warehousing or distribution .
The warehouse I go to most regularly has 2 sales staff, 3 order pickers , 3 order packers & a dock supervisor .
so around 1/3 of the staff do nothing but wrap & pack orders and their wages have to be accounted for, let alone the time spent manifesting the goods, and the packing materials used .
Mower parts are not like books that can be slipped into a book bag , have the computer printed docket stuck on the front then tossed into a bin waiting for collection.
And as Pete often jokes, he can pack 4 pallets of parts in a day and no two will be the same, from decals through to complete transmissions .
Each one has to be packed according to the delivery companies regulations which also varies and because he is good every one despatched via the best value transport operator.

As for stored part inflation
A warehouse space has a price on it per hour / per day / per week / per month / per year and stuff that has been sitting there for 20 years will have accrued 2000 x its actual value in space costs.
Some bigger warehouses have computer programes that add this to parts that have been sitting unsold for X years.
And then there is funny tax laws in some places in the USA where tax is levied on the inventory in stock on a particular day, which is why we get millions of remaindered books sent down here from the USA for less than the actual printing costs.
On top of that there is oppertunity costs because the $3 they paid for the $ 7 retail part 20 years ago has prevented them buying $ 50,000 worth of fast moving parts over that time .
Then there is the space costs, that pallet of slow moving parts sitting there gathering dust can be taking up the space that fast moving parts could be using gathering profits .
And finally the wages & bonus system used to renumerate management often uses the P:E ratio as a measurement so keeping the minimum amount of stock on hand reduces the Equity so boosts the Profit to Equity ratio . Accountants all think ( or rather don't think ) the same .

 

[honda george]

As we now see cars & trucks & Electrics and battery development leaping to the forefront, these parts places gouging us for years on shipping will be offering shipping free and a double digit discount for orders over $10. I don't deny anyone their fair shipping costs, but a decal which could be put in an envelope and sent for .60 cents should not cost $25 shipping. So sad, as there are still a bunch of (us) people out there with mechanical skill to fix these things.

 

[bertsmobile1]

As we now see cars & trucks & Electrics and battery development leaping to the forefront, these parts places gouging us for years on shipping will be offering shipping free and a double digit discount for orders over $10. I don't deny anyone their fair shipping costs, but a decal which could be put in an envelope and sent for .60 cents should not cost $25 shipping. So sad, as there are still a bunch of (us) people out there with mechanical skill to fix these things.

Agreed
In fact it should be put in an envelope along with some of their dealers stickers & shipped for free as a promotion.
However they have decided to do a flat rate minimum shipping cost of $ 25 which is not a good idea.
But as for gouging very few warehouses break even on their freight charges.
And no freight will never get that low because depot to door is very expensive to do .
particulalry when some isolated places have to send a vehicle 50 miles to make a single delivery.
My first transport job was delivering air freight satchels .
The company got paid around $ 8 for every $ 60 satchel they delivered.
I got paid $ 1.00 + 50c for each additional one going to the same address.
The outer west metropolitian driver got paid $ 14 and was still struggeling to make a reasonable wage where as I was turning over better than $ 1000 / week
Then there were the intra state at between $ 25 & $ 40 a satchel .
People from outside transport have no idea about the costs.
And of course there were 4 data terminal operators who worked 10 hours a day sending back the POD's
Electric delivery vehicles hat are more economic to run than a diesel one are still at least another 15 years away.

The only thing that will push down delivery fees is if there is a single delivery agency ( used to be called the Post Office ) so they can take advantage of volume economies or slave labour by illegal imigrants.
Noe Amazon workers right now have a massive bill of claims with include things like toilet breaks .
Warehouses that have only standard sized objects like bed linnen for example have been automated for decades but for complex goods of massive variance in shape & weight it will be people for a long time to come.

The las warehouse I was involved in delivered wine into the city.
About 50 tons of it a day to over 2000 customers from single $ 1500 bottles to pallets of $ 2 bottles.
If you think these are going to be delivered by drone you are dillusional .
Amazon like to paint the "future" picture but for them alone in the Sydney city they would need over 100,000 .
Now multiply that by the 1000 or so delivery companies and the people below would never see direct daylight .

 

[Two-Stroke]

Sorry to hear about this merger but that seems to be the way things are going (consolidation).

My favorite source for small engine parts is mymowerparts.com (AKA K&T Saw shop). Sorry Bert, they don't ship beyond the lower 48 states.

I also look for hard to find parts on eBay.

 

[Tdj2591]

The problem with shipping anywhere is that not every vendor can get reason rates from the freight companies. I purchase from a lot different companies here in the US and it is a challenge at times to get the overall costs down for parts. It not only companies here that wont out of the US there are places over in Europe that wont ship into the US too.

I am dealing with an Earthquake tiller that I need some parts for. Ardisam Inc,.the distributor, doesn't even carry all the parts. Altapower.com which carries the parts I need wants over $25 to ship $50 in parts but offers to ship for free if I order over $99 in parts. If I actually could use the extra parts I would order them. I have manage to get most of the order down to where I pay more for the parts but with lower shipping cost I am saving nearly $20 by going through Amazon.

Doesn't make much sense other than they are having the customers with small orders to make up for the larger free ship orders. I have a vendor that has switch to a $200 free ship level but they charge retail UPS rates for anything under that so I need to compile my orders and even order a cheap item just to throw away to meet that level. I imagine they are a little piss that I place orders like $200.02 just to get the free shipping when the same order at $195 without the throwaway item costed me $46 in shipping charges. I currently got an order in with them that they have done multiple shipments of items. The current shipping charges are at $39 and they still got one item to ship. When everything get shipped they will then wrote-off all those shipping charges.

On top of that dealing with the USPS lately is a real pain. I currently got an inbound Priority Mail package. It should take no more three mail days from anywhere. But are taking a nearly a week to get it here from Memphis, TN to Elora,TN. Vendor takes it to local Memphis, It sat in the PO for nearly two days before being accepted. Then shoots across the state to Chattanooga where it sits another day. and it won't get here until Tuesday; maybe. Next time they won't the package as I have it sent via UPS which takes only two days to get it here. Normally before DeJoy got in it took only two days for same USPS delivery. He just making things worst as I couldn't even get a roll of stamps from my local PO even after Postmaster said I have them for you two days later just come in and pick them up.

Everything I order that goes thru or gets handed off to the Memphis USPS sits in Memphis USPS for at least a week. I’ve tracked some that sit in Memphis for a week, then travel to Jackson, MS, then return to Memphis before heading to me only 90 miles away.
I fully understand why most vendors cannot free ship small orders. They will lose money on every sale. Amazon isn’t concerned about that as their goal is to lock us in to their free ship model the cost of which is offset by the revenue from Prime memberships.

 

[winmod21]

Sorry to hear about this merger but that seems to be the way things are going (consolidation).
My favorite source for small engine parts is mymowerparts.com (AKA K&T Saw shop). Sorry Bert, they don't ship beyond the lower 48 states.
I also look for hard to find parts on eBay.

I like the looks of that little K&T Saw Shop ! Thanks for the tip, Two-Stroke !;-)

. . *stepping up on soapbox * . .

My last order from Jack's - was last summer 2020 - when I ordered a JD air filter base + some other misc parts. As had previously always been the case, the prices were very reasonable, as were the shipping charges. Their phone & email customer service were both fantastic. The items were dispatched promptly and arrived right away in just a few days.

But ten months on, after JSE sold-out to NorthernTools in April, when I tried to place an order earlier this summer, the so-called NorthernTools/JacksSmallEngines customer service was non-existent;

1) They never answer their so-called customer service phonelines anymore.

2) They plaster prompts all over their website to 'contact' them via their website 'message' form - if you have a parts related question &c; which I did, twice, with a very simple little question (e.g. did they have/stock a fuel shutoff solenoid for our Kohler w/Walbro carb #xxxxxx ?). But zero response both times !! =( Not a word; zip, zippo, zilch, nada, nix, nil, nothing! That was 3 months ago.

3) Rang them again; it rang forever; still no answer !

4) Another e.g. - They raised the price on their JD/Kohler replacement carb kit - over $50 more than it was last year ! Same exact carb kit; manuf in USA; probably old stock. As if, Hey, every manufacturer, transporter/shipper, and supplier in north america is price-gouging the general public in the neighborhood of 25~35%+ (900% for OSB !:-{ )... so we, NorthernTools/JacksSmallEngines might as well too ! We're an american company, right! So like all american companies, lets jump on the price-gouging, fleecing of the general public bandwagon !! ?
. . * steps down off soapbox * . .

 

[Scrubcadet10]

I ordered an Arrowhead starter from them in november (before the NT takeover AFAIK), i got it in january, (not particularly their fault), anyway, i had, i believe a 90 day warranty or 1 year... doh... if my memory serves me well, well after one month (30 odd days) the starter was screeching whenever the drive gear retracted, and by hand, it spun really rough... I contacted Jacks by Phone and Email, never a reply. I went over them straight to arrowhead, gave them my starter part number, the order number (receipt) from Jacks etc... they (Arrowhead) shipped me a new starter and it's been good ever since.

 

[winmod21]

Well good on Arrowhead for taking care of you ! ?

Speaking of being taken care of and/or being lucky . . . I just got a $7 late charge forgiven by an absolute sweetheart of an AT&T Wireless billing rep, speaking to me from somewhere in Texas !=)) I've heard that's kinda rare, cuz AT&T makes $,$$$,$$$.$$ millions every year on late charges ! Maybe I should go buy a Lotto ticket