Supplies and best prices

I buy a lot from Amazon, but I donƒ??t mind paying a few bucks to support the local mom and pops survey shops. Your profile says youƒ??re in Asheville so Iƒ??m sure [USER=3114]@cwlawley[/USER] can hook you up somehow someway. Maybe Iƒ??m the typical surveyor that loves to do boundary work and sucks at business because I spend an extra $12 on a $300 order or nails, flagging, and markers; but I feel better knowing Buckie can send his daughter to dance class over helping Jeff Bezos line his pockets.

Taco Bell Dawg, post: 454528, member: 12957 wrote: I buy a lot from Amazon, but I donƒ??t mind paying a few bucks to support the local mom and pops survey shops. Your profile says youƒ??re in Asheville so Iƒ??m sure [USER=3114]@cwlawley[/USER] can hook you up somehow someway. Maybe Iƒ??m the typical surveyor that loves to do boundary work and sucks at business because I spend an extra $12 on a $300 order or nails, flagging, and markers; but I feel better knowing Buckie can send his daughter to dance class over helping Jeff Bezos line his pockets.

I agree about helping out the small business's when possible I am a small businees, however as a new solo operation i also have to look at the bottom line.

We buy everything we can locally - the good will is worth far more than anything we could "save".

I like buying local, but there are no survey supply shops near me, so I buy online. And when I shop online, price is generally the guiding criterion.

My biggest complaint is: Them - "No... we don't have that in stock, but we can order it!" My response - " No thanks. I can order it too! I was hoping you were carrying it" I try local first then look elsewhere.

See my post today about batteries...sometimes it does not pay to go cheap.

We used to buy a lot of supplies from New England Reprographics. They did not make enough so they stopped selling the paint, tacks, etc. They gave us all the stock they could not liquidate:
A 200m metric steel tape
Several hand levels
Several plumb bob sheath
2 boxes of dark green flagging
Various other items.

We give away the flagging to people with tomatoes in their garden...

I have to give a shout out to baseline survey supply in Oregon. Leon has good prices, and even better than that, often has alternative solutions to my order that save cash (Sokkia pole clamps rather than Seco pole clamps for instance).

If it's a pricy item, I will check engineering supply online and see if baseline can match.

... And I ain't even in Oregon!

For things in bulk forestry suppliers is hard to beat. We often order 20,000 pin flags at a time from them and I havenƒ??t found a better price in those quantities.