Work has dropped off...

[kdw75]

For the past month work has just stopped. Few phone calls, no email orders, nothing coming in over our website. I talked with two other small printers in town, and they had noticed the same thing. Generally this is our busies time of the year. We are in small town Missouri. Anyone else noticing this? Think it is related to the election?

 

[DYP]

The real voting is going on all the time and not just on election day. Real voting is done with feet and pocketbooks. My guess you're probably seeing that unfortunately.

What would be real interesting is see just how the online low-baller are able to set the prices they do. Small town Missouri must not be a high cost of living area, just wonder are there any small print shop left in higher cost of living areas.

 

[arossetti]

The real voting is going on all the time and not just on election day. Real voting is done with feet and pocketbooks. My guess you're probably seeing that unfortunately.

What would be real interesting is see just how the online low-baller are able to set the prices they do. Small town Missouri must not be a high cost of living area, just wonder are there any small print shop left in higher cost of living areas.

Never really thought about it but the only ones I know of in high cost of living areas focus on an niche.

 

[kdw75]

The average income here is supposed to be around $42,000 per household. I have tried to order out some of the bigger runs, but they are on a different time schedule than our main clients. The people that pay our bills consider 3 day turn around to be "giving us plenty of time".

 

[kdw75]

What surprises me is the sharp cutoff. It is as if everyone got together over a weekend, and just stopped ordering. Since we deal primarily with businesses, it makes me wonder how they are functioning. We had one company come to us from Nebraska, and the guy was shocked that we were $30 cheaper on brochures than Vista print. He got mad at them because they wouldn't fix his fold points, and lack of bleeds without charging him. He is a farmer who only gets a couple thousand brochures a month, but we'll take it.

I can't fathom the amount of work it would take to keep this big print shops presses busy, or what it would cost them to have a 40" press waiting for work a couple of hours per day.

 

[arossetti]

Well I know of one vista print facility in BFE Illinois and it is something like 1,000,000 sq/ft, wrap your head around that.