Covid protection of my fire pit business

The demise of the fire pit business will be government restrictions.
Idaho already starting to require gas pits to avoid embers from starting fires.
The east coast ought to be OK for years to come since fires are much less a threat.

California seems to be the wildfire capital of the country yet continue to be the #2/#3 buyer of fire pits.
It surprises me that they have not restricted use of the wood burners. For air quality issues too.
Of all the states California being lenient surprises me considering their fire issues and it's massive population.

Sales has been great but keeping inventory has been a serious task.
Two used electric fork lifts has made logistics easier. And a very capable experienced welder.
The large Jamaican welder took on a challenge, 300 medium and mostly large fire pits fabricated in 6 days for $10,000 pay.
One of the days would involve a filming with the Magnolia Network for a Discovery gardening series.
At day 4 he is just over 200 units even with the 1 day film interruption. Looks like he is going to meet the challenge !

200 of 300 bowls ordered in, 300 bases made prior in background.



Rojan getting it on at 8am.




Rojan being filmed.




Me being filmed in a faux fire pit sale to a young couple lol.




Some finished product ready to move to inventory. This task also hired.





They also did filmed part of a 'bamboo in the garden' series using the bamboo groves I grew for resale back in the day.
They filmed me giving a landscaper and her clients advise about gardening with bamboo more than I wanted.
Hopefully they will cut me out lol. All of the talent was half my age, as was the film crew.
They were dynamic and experienced.

I got paid $200 for location(and possibly for talent ha), Rohan $100(for talent), but the TV ad time towards fire pits will be quite valuable. This I knew and told them upfront I needed no compensation for site use.
It was a fun day for all.

Just call me Hollywood Baby !
An easy laid back filming. Not normally like that Robin.
I packed my 4WD with hot blondes and had them screaming(I should say from the wild 4WD ride he he).
Bunch of urban gals that never had real fun.

Don't ask me how these events occur.
Just passing thru life with the rest of you folks.
About as photogenic as a brick and personality to match, ain't no movie stars in this household.

The massive bamboo plantings has continued to catch attention.
I was the Atlanta go-to for bamboo for 20 years.
Residential plantings of bamboo caused a lot of trouble since it creeps into adjacent neighbor's yards.
An act of nature, so people can not be prosecuted for it's behavior lol.

Lots of solicitation from ETSY if you are a high volume seller.
I think the movie gang found me on ETSY or word-of-mouth.

At first glance, I thought you were preparing to string some colorful beads on that wire!

In a Covid world suppliers can be shut down instantly so maintaining a large product inventory makes good sense.
Steel prices were also low the 2nd half of 2020 making it a good time to stock up on steel from a commodity standpoint.
Steel prices are rising rapidly starting November 2020.
Steel mills are reducing production to reduce inventory to force prices up in 2021 and create shortages as early as February 2021.(don't ask me why)
Trade embargo's created by Trump may be lifted throwing unknowns on steel prices.
And may prompt countries like China to copy cat my fire pits and send them over for sale at very low prices.

Regardless I decided to buy enough material and pay labor to weld up 900 fire pits.
A large(speculative)investment.
About a 12 to 16 month supply based on the past 6 months sales rate.
Heavy spending on a large inventory is normally not a good business practice.
The upside is an easy year of shipping only with no fabrication, purchasing, and other management headaches.

The 2 man fabrication team made $28,000 in the past 3 months(8 of 13 weekends) building 900 fire pits.
It averaged about 5 times their normal hourly welding pay resulting in very happy employees.
But they worked real hard long days.
Material cost was about $80,000.
I had to pick up about 100,000 pounds of steel on my trailer from the freight yard 10 miles away and unload it myself.
But now there is a fork lift to assist unloading - YEAH !@#$%^.
Gross inventory value is about $900,000 when fire pit cover purchases are added in.

Fab team



900 pit inventory in 4 locations one of which is the loading area.
The loading area is targeted for new asphalt and 50% increase in surface area for easier fork lift navigation.

Loading area with 200 pits:



Candler re-stocks the loading area from these 3 other storage locations on Mondays:





Looking forward to at least a one year rest of shipping without fabrication concerns.

All I can say about your activities is !

Basic stuff fernwood.

Those in the steel industry know the politics of steel. Listen to them carefully...
Covid is apparently not going away. Nor it's potential to allow gov't. to shutdown businesses.
Freight seems fairly Covid protected being a spacious operation for easy distancing.

And customers picking up ?
That is my right to have them to my place to make purchases(damnit).
We will practice safe distancing !

Inventory already down from 900 to 855 since Dec 1.
900 units probably not too out of line.