CLIPBOARD : Vendor Deliveries

One indication of how the economy is doing is to look at how fast vendors fill orders to be delivered. If orders are being filled quickly, it means they are not busy, i.e., business is bad.

In the second quarter of this year, a survey of Orange County businesses found the percentage saying goods are being delivered at a faster rate than usual was much larger than those who thought deliveries were slower than usual. The upshot? As deliveries get filled faster, the market gets glutted and prices go down.

Here are the survey findings for the last five quarters:

Quarter % Saying Faster % Saying Same % Saying Slower 2nd Quarter, 1991 31.0 59.1 9.9 1st Quarter, 1991 33.4 55.1 11.5 4th Quarter, 1990 21.8 67.8 10.4 3rd Quarter, 1990 21.4 63.1 15.5 2nd Quarter, 1990 13.0 58.0 29.0

Source: Chapman College, Center for Economic Research