October 12, 2002

THE CONSPIRACY CONTINUES

Last week I mentioned that the so-called hard drive shortage was easing up.  We have seen pricing increase on the smaller drives. (10-40GB) However; we never really did experience any difficulties in obtaining these drives.  Now we are being told that there is a shortage on the larger drives (100GB and up) and the prices are starting to increase as well.  Once again, they are not difficult to get, they just seem to get more expensive every day.  It makes me wonder who is manipulating this market.

  DOCK WORKERS STRIKE

3 different vendors have now notified us that the dock workers strike is starting to affect them.  One vendor tells us that they have backorders on about ½ their inventory and it is currently 5 to 6 weeks out.  There are about 4300 containers per day that reach the west coast from Asian ports.  They carry anything from produce to computer components.  Although the items our industry needs are not perishable, we do rely on these shipments to bring us the latest technology.  We may start to see an across the boards price increase soon.  

DENVER ITEC SHOW

S&K will have a booth at the upcoming Denver Itec show at the Colorado Convention Center on the 22^nd and 23^rd of this month.  We would like to invite all of you to stop by and see us.  We will be demonstrating the Net Integration Server along with displaying many of our product lines.  If you need tickets please let us know and we will try to accommodate everyone who is interested. 

S&K