What do you consider a good deal? There is a place in Dundee selling them from $175 to $250 depending on supply and demand.
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Merchandise Shortage
- Thread starter castlecake2.0
- Start date
TikibirdLand
Well-Known Member
was hoping I could get a CM price on one... $175 isn't terrible... Not sure my DW would let me spend $250 for one though!
Read an article today that said there appears to be some hope of at least reducing some of the thefts along the Union Pacific rail line in LA. However, I can't really post the article I read or comment further about the systemic governmental problems relating to the thefts, because it will quickly get political. In short, what @TP2000 has posted is true - There are more and more ships sitting in the water, and less and less prosecution of the criminals breaking into railcars and stealing the contents, the latter being the direct result of a state that goes soft on crime.
I've read about electric fences for dogs designed to hurt them. Electrify these rail cars and these dogs that steal will be in for a big surprise.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Yup. It is what it is. It's reality you can see with your own eyes.
You can see the fleet of megaships sitting motionless in the water for miles off the coast of Los Angeles. You can see the satellite tracking of almost 100 more ships waiting for days out in the ocean past the 40 mile mark so they don't get counted as officially waiting.
You can also see piles and piles of ransacked train cargo that stretches for several miles along the Alameda Corridor spur lines out of the great Los Angeles rail yards.
This photo is real and it is simply daily life in Los Angeles, California in the year 2022. No wonder a cargo train derailed 17 cars here last weekend... There's an air conditioning unit sitting on the tracks!
This is simply the current and ongoing reality. And it's why your local big box store has empty shelves and why your Amazon order disappeared and why WDW can't keep all of its shops stocked and operating.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
The Southern California Marine Exchange updates its ship tracking chart for the week every Friday morning. Here is this week's new chart which shows the backlog of ships waiting to enter the SoCal megaport; Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach.
Those two ports combined is the largest port complex in the Western Hemisphere, and it handles just over 40% of all imported cargo headed to anywhere in the United States.
The massive backlog of ships waiting offshore or out at sea (to avoid fines) is still not getting better. There are now 106 ships waiting at anchor just offshore, or slow steaming from Asia and/or loitering more than 40 miles offshore to avoid government fines and official tracking.
Those two ports combined is the largest port complex in the Western Hemisphere, and it handles just over 40% of all imported cargo headed to anywhere in the United States.
The massive backlog of ships waiting offshore or out at sea (to avoid fines) is still not getting better. There are now 106 ships waiting at anchor just offshore, or slow steaming from Asia and/or loitering more than 40 miles offshore to avoid government fines and official tracking.
Oh yeah. All fixed.
JoeCamel
Well-Known Member
I don't understand why we can't get the guard or the army to bring all those flat beds and driver's they have to move the containers out of the yards to further distribution points. This would get us back to "normal" much faster than hoping thousands of drivers and trucks decide to start hauling containers. This force needs to be mobilized
John park hopper
Well-Known Member
Crime now pays -----now more than minimum wage it seems
TP2000
Well-Known Member
At the SoCal megaport it's not the truck drivers that are handling most of the cargo right off the bat. Almost all of the cargo coming through SoCal is loaded from ships directly onto trains that then travel the high-capacity Alameda Corridor away from the port complex 20 miles north to the giant rail yards run by the Union Pacific or Santa Fe railroads just east of downtown Los Angeles.
The trucks (and truck drivers) don't come into the equation until much later in the process, when those massive cargo trains arrive at their destinations in Portland or Denver or Chicago or Atlanta, etc. About 9,000 cargo containers move per day from the Port complex to the rail yards in east LA via the Alameda Corridor. It's one of the most efficient and modern transportation complexes on the planet.
Which is why the constant thefts and mass looting in those rail yards of slow moving cargo trains are so painful and impactful.
ImperfectPixie
Well-Known Member
They do seem to at least be cutting into the backlog a little...your last update there were 135 ships...hopefully they can keep up the momentum, and for Pete's sake, the governor needs to do something about the railroad situation.
JoeCamel
Well-Known Member
Or I could find the food I want on the grocery store shelves and not so many feet of generic emptyness.
In my area, the Wal Marts, etc shelves are not fully stocked but when I go to the ethnic grocery mom and pop places ( Asian , Middle Eastern, Latino ) the shelves are fully stocked with ethnic goodies some not even written in English on the respective items. Fortunately I know what some of the products are or I just ask a staff member or fellow customer and they are more than willing to help me out.
John park hopper
Well-Known Member
ImperfectPixie
Well-Known Member
I'm in MA and pretty liberal about most things...but this is ridiculous beyond belief. CRIMINALS ACTING TOGETHER ARE GANGS.It actually went up this week to 136 ships. It's confusing because whoever puts those graphs together for the Marine Exchange often flips the info bubbles around that identifies how many ships in total are at berth/offshore/waiting.
Last week that total was 135 ships. This week it went up by one to 136.
You'll be happy to know that Governor Newsom did a photo op there yesterday on a pre-cleaned stretch of track. He donned one of his I'm Still A Hot Dad t-shirts and a mask (he was outside, remember) and spent some time not only flexing a bit and giving Josh D'Amaro a run for his money on Hot Dad status, but also picking up garbage for the cameras.
But then he made a huge mistake by referring to LA as a "Third World Country" and mentioned the "gangs" of criminals who are causing all this mayhem as "gangs", and today he has apologized for using such hateful language. The proper terminology he should have used is "Organized Groups Of People" You. Can. Not. Make. This. Up. Welcome to California! They don't call us the entertainment capital of the world for nothing!
Gov. Gavin Newsom Apologizes for Saying ‘Gangs’ When Discussing ‘Organized Groups of People’ Looting Trains
‘Forgive me for saying “gangs”‘news.grabien.com
And no, they shouldn't get away with a slap on the wrist. They should be prosecuted and do jail time. These packages may not be being delivered by the USPS, but it's pretty much the equivalent of large-scale mail theft and should be treated as such.
JoeCamel
Well-Known Member
So while they are doing the op they can't run trains. Burning question would be were any trains delayed by this?It actually went up this week to 136 ships. It's confusing because whoever puts those graphs together for the Marine Exchange often flips the info bubbles around that identifies how many ships in total are at berth/offshore/waiting.
Last week that total was 135 ships. This week it went up by one to 136.
You'll be happy to know that Governor Newsom did a photo op there yesterday on a pre-cleaned stretch of track. He donned one of his I'm Still A Hot Dad t-shirts and a mask (he was outside, remember) and spent some time not only flexing a bit and giving Josh D'Amaro a run for his money on Hot Dad status, but also picking up garbage for the cameras.
But then he made a huge mistake by referring to LA as a "Third World Country" and mentioned the "gangs" of criminals who are causing all this mayhem as "gangs", and today he has apologized for using such hateful language. The proper terminology he should have used is "Organized Groups Of People" You. Can. Not. Make. This. Up. Welcome to California! They don't call us the entertainment capital of the world for nothing!
Gov. Gavin Newsom Apologizes for Saying ‘Gangs’ When Discussing ‘Organized Groups of People’ Looting Trains
‘Forgive me for saying “gangs”‘news.grabien.com
TP2000
Well-Known Member
I'm in MA and pretty liberal about most things...but this is ridiculous beyond belief. CRIMINALS ACTING TOGETHER ARE GANGS.
I know that, and you know that. Everyone knows that, in fact.
But you can't discount the pure entertainment value of it all. It's just perfection on so many levels. This is California in the year 2022. I just laugh and laugh, honestly, because that's all there is I can do.
But the impact to large and small businesses alike is also heart breaking. So much of WDW's merchandise is made in China and would naturally transit through the Port of Los Angeles and then travel the Alameda Corridor on trains for a stop in the LA rail yards before it heads across the transcontinental railroad system. (Probably BN-Santa Fe's mainline along the southern route to New Orleans)
I had two Christmas presents shipping from Amazon a week before Christmas go suddenly missing after their tracking number took them through LA. Amazon eventually cancelled the order after the package went missing in their system. I had to shlep to the mall on December 23rd and buy something else. I can't prove it, obviously, but I'm absolutely positive my electronic barbecue fork got thrown off a train in east LA.
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TP2000
Well-Known Member
The Alameda Corridor is 20 miles long and leads from the port up to the massive rail yards run by the railroads. The very high-capacity triple tracked Corridor is mostly submerged in a deep trench and completely safe. It was built that way to allow endless high speed service without worrying about grade crossings or access by people or vehicles. It's once the trains get out into their respective railroad system in east LA that they are seized upon by
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