There was a major shortage of rebar wire ties all throughout my region. I don’t mean just my town or my area, this went beyond the state itself! The entire cluster of states around us had run low on rebar, which made it incredibly hard to find, and incredibly expensive to purchase even if you could find it. The company I work for is small, hungry, and young, so we were willing to try something new even if it was a risk. If all of the local distributors were out of stock, then we would have to find other distributors elsewhere in the country. I would rent a truck, and we would drive for as long as it took to find a full shipment of rebar and wire ties. It turns out this was far easier in theory than it was in practice. It took a lot more time, money, and energy than I ever thought to get it done… but we did get it done! We sunk several thousands dollars into the trip, but in the process saved ourselves thousands more with the prices we got for rebar rods, forming wire, and double loop wire ties. It would have cost twice as much to purchase these things locally, so it was worth the effort. Now we have the only substantial supply of rebar rods and double loop wire ties in the area, and other builders are offering me premium prices for them! I will probably sell some of the forming wire and double loop wire ties to recoup my investment, but keep all the rebar rods for myself.