I have always assumed that as service (or products) get worse consumers will start looking for alternatives. This does not seam to be happening. It might be the alternatives are run out of business and are doing something else now. Maybe consumers have a hard time finding alternatives, as in independent contractors do not show up at the top of the search or are not in the app. Maybe it just cost to much and pays to little to be an alternative. I do not see a lot of open doors.
Good contractors are hard to find. My longtime one retired. For a bathroom refit a few years ago, I eventually booked through Lowe’s. He got the job done but communication was terrible and his plumber was awful. I live in a fairly small town and I can probably get decent recommendations through Facebook these days.
For recent remodeling though it turned out my housekeeper’s husband is a carpenter and I just coordinated a number of things myself.
It’s definitely harder to find the indy tradespeople now. My tactic has been to spend a bunch of time reading reviews. When the same first name of the tradesperson keeps showing up in the review then it becomes clear it’s a one person company and I’m much more likely to hire them.
If you are the business then you have incentive to do a good job. I have more faith in getting a quality job done by someone like that.
I used to have an HVAC guy like this. I currently have a plumber and a car repair shop like this. I can DIY the smaller things but I know my limits so it’s frustrating when finding good help is difficult.
I think this is true. Its getting hard to find really solid contractors.
I have nothing but speculation and wonder if some of this is due to how much we look down on trade jobs in America. The general attitude has been that a kid who goes to a trade school is a failure compared to a kid who goes to college.
People look for alternatives but they are increasingly hard to find. Seems most businesses raise prices in lockstep. Competition seems to be sooo yesterday.
