Shopsmith in trouble?

rstl99 · Post by **rstl99** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 11:47 am

Just called a parts place in Canada, who used to sell a lot of Shopsmith parts and say that their stock is almost depleted now. The guy said that Shopsmith hasn't been making parts for a year now

, and is going through a tough economic period, in part due to competition from chinese knockoffs etc.

Is this true? Would be sad to see this company go under...

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 12:06 pm

rstl99 wrote:Just called a parts place in Canada, who used to sell a lot of Shopsmith parts and say that their stock is almost depleted now. The guy said that Shopsmith hasn't been making parts for a year now , and is going through a tough economic period, in part due to competition from chinese knockoffs etc.

Is this true? Would be sad to see this company go under...

I don't know that Chinese knockoffs has anything to do with it but Shopsmith is not unlike many other US companies today. There is a rumor that we are experiencing a few economics problems in this country. If you watch the news tonight I think you will see what I am talking about. Shopsmith must be feeling the effects of those same problems. Sorta like GM and Chrysler only the government isn't offering bailout money to Shopsmith.

Someone told me recently that Shopsmith doesn't qualify for bail out monies because they can't be quantified as a small business and their demise (if it should happen) would not have a serious impact on the US economy (like the Motor Industry would).

What bunk.

By the way, I have received five different orders from Shopsmith in the last six months. I think they are still shipping.

rstl99 · Post by **rstl99** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 12:19 pm

A rumor you say?

... A lot of Canadian companies are struggling too, and many have gone out of business during this serious recession. Nortel, once a world giant in telecoms, is only a minuscule fraction of what it used to be, and even that is on the auction block as we speak. Mind you, our politicians up here are now telling us that "the recession appears to be over", so if one is to believe them, maybe there are better times ahead for companies that can ride it out.

Shopsmith is an institution of sorts, so hopefully they can survive and find a way to re-energize their business for the next decade and beyond. Because for all of us who own one (I am a very recent arrival), one of the benefits is that the company stood by its product and could supply parts even for 50 year old models...

john · Post by **john** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 12:26 pm

The ShopSmith situation is covered in many threads but the situation is a little different here in Canada with only one official distributor who is in effect just another customer to ShopSmith.

I suspect they have the same problem as our friends south of the border, that is so many items go on back order that they are not readily available. Since he only orders periodically, and may only get a portion of his order, I'm not surprised if he is running out of inventory. Not a good situation for all us Canadian SS users.

As Dusty has written, SS is still shipping, but not as often as we would like.

Hopefullly as the enconomy improves, so will their ability to do business.

John

keakap · Post by **keakap** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 8:33 pm

dusty wrote: Sorta like GM and Chrysler only the government isn't offering bailout money to Shopsmith.

Big difference. The 'bailout' was last fall, to the financial sector, and it is doing it's job (I gotta admit, even as much as I hate the idea).

But Shopsmith isn't in the same league as GM and Chrysler because that isn't bailout, it is simply Hugo Chavez style socialist government takeover of private industry and illegal shutdown of thousands of dealerships.

If Shopsmith involved Big Unions and had given millions to Barry's campaign SS might today be partly owned by U.S. taxpayers too (whether it wanted to or not).

Oops, almost forgot-- I wanted to add that I've gotten orders from SS recently too, latest one just a few weeks ago. And I'll keep orderin stuff. One good thing about that-- the credit card doesn't get charged until the order is filled (at least partly).

ryanbp01 · Post by **ryanbp01** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:59 pm

Dicksterp and I stopped in a couple of weeks ago and the company is not going out of business. What we were told was that, in part, that SS suppliers were also involved in the auto biz and that some had gone out of business due to what has happened in that industry. But from what I had seen over the past year, I am convinced that SS will come out of this O.K.

BPR

nelsonlake81 · Post by **nelsonlake81** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 10:39 pm

That's great news

dicksterp · Post by **dicksterp** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 12:00 am

ryanbp01 wrote:Dicksterp and I stopped in a couple of weeks ago and the company is not going out of business. What we were told was that, in part, that SS suppliers were also involved in the auto biz and that some had gone out of business due to what has happened in that industry. But from what I had seen over the past year, I am convinced that SS will come out of this O.K.

BPR

The other half of the statement was that while some of their suppliers have gone out of business, Shopsmith is working hard to replace them. The problem is that it takes time to locate new suppliers that can and will meet Shopsmith's quality requirements.

ryanbp01 · Post by **ryanbp01** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 11:03 am

Thanks Dicksterp for watching my back!:)
BPR

Len · Post by **Len** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 2:47 pm

Thanks BPR and Dick. That makes my SS thoughts a lot lighter. Even in this heat.
Now what's this rumor about the economy being in trouble? Our president says it's not. Now who are you going to believe? Your lying eyes and ears or that politician?