Being in the residential flooring business for 35 years, the last 2 has been the worst on record. We've cut, cut, and cut again and are still seeing negative numbers. The consumer has little confidence IMO. Many of our customers are business owners or exec's in larger corps and they are guarding their cash. The unkown IRS laws and Health Care Reform expenses appear to be the main issue.
It's a great market to hire, but no matter how good the employee you can't expect them to sqeeze blood out of a rock.
Based on my "insider" infomortion the giants in the industry, Shaw and Mohawk, are projecting the housing market to continue bouncing on the bottom for at least another 6+ months. Their operating expenses continue to increase and most manufacturers have sent out price increase notices within the last 2 weeks.
As with any resession there are certain sectors that prosper, residential housing certainly isn't one of them. Car dealers appear to be holding their own amazingly to me since they are now building $30K+ disposable cars. Insurance business isn't terrible and the doc's I know aren't crying too bad. Commercial construction is hurting, one local contractor has retracted from $65m to $28m.
Public sector continues to spend while the private sector contracts which is creating (IMO) justified animosity and tension.
Across the country 11 cops were shot yesterday..........that to me suggests tension in my book.
Cash flow and patience is the name of the game with me.
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