THE BOLT BLOG

In today's fast-paced world, we are constantly striving to improve and provide you with the best possible products and services. Stanion Wholesale started our bi-annual survey in 2017 in order to learn and improve. We continue every other year to get to know you better and keep up with your ever-changing needs.

Jud was a successful contractor who had worked on many construction projects over the years. He knew how important it was to keep his job sites organized and efficient, but he often found himself spending a lot of time and money on transporting materials from one site to another. This was especially frustrating when he had to work on multiple projects in different locations at the same time. 

Transition to Stanion

It has been seven months since I made one of the toughest decisions in my life! I worked for Pratt USD 382 for 16 years. I was happy and loved my job very much. Why did I leave then? Well, things were great on the surface but not so great behind the scenes. There comes a time when you must step back and decide if what’s going on in your life really is good for you. So . . . I took a chance and applied for a couple of jobs. Most of my efforts were halfhearted. Then one day I got not only one call, but two phone calls. I was given an opportunity to change things in my life. I started working at Stanion in April. It has been one of the best decisions. Why, you say? Let me tell you. FARM WORDS!! Do you know how hard it is to ram your knee into a desk or smash a finger and not say a farm word? It’s hard!! I can say the word “crap” and not have an entire room going “ooh” with lots of gasps, and a quick slap to your forehead for your lack of self-control.

Dreams

Do you ever wonder how one can cook a ribeye steak with a nice char on it and a perfect red interior from end-to-end? If you figure it out, let me know.

This obsession with ribeye started way back when my mom started letting me in the kitchen. She had only one rule for me – I was not allowed to eat the cookie dough. But I could fry, bake, and grill all I wanted. She did not have to worry about fixing meals any longer. Some of you know that I grew up in Coldwater. In Comanche County, you ate anything that moved or grew. Armadillos were just starting to show up in Coldwater when I moved to Pratt. I would have loved to try cooking one of them, but I’m pretty sure that my mom would have vetoed that escapade. No recipe has ever been good enough for me. Changing it and making it better has been my obsession. We all know that change is good for the soul. My dream was to be a James Beard award-winning chef.

Dreams. Everyone has them, but not everyone achieves them. Why is that?
Believe it or not, many people never even voice their dreams, let alone create an actual plan to accomplish them.

Going for it

Do you, as an employee of Stanion Wholesale Electric Co., have dreams? When I started with this company back in 1986, after getting laid off from the oilfield, I had no idea if Stanion was the right choice for me. I started working in the Pratt branch part-time in 1984 while attending Pratt Community College, but I never finished college. About a year later, I opened my mouth and told the Pratt branch manager that I was going to apply for the Junction City Assistant Manager’s job, and I asked him what he thought of that idea. He told me that, if that job was something I was interested in, I should apply. Let’s just say that a clash of personalities kept me from getting that job, fortunately.

From Pratt, I moved east to the Chanute branch in July of 1988 to see if I could help make a positive contribution there. The next stop on my journey was a transfer to the Olathe branch in 1990. After Olathe, I wanted to go out west to Dodge City in 1993. But McPherson is where I landed.

June is National Safety Month, and here at Stanion Wholesale Electric, we put a little extra emphasis on our safety protocols. Each month, the company has at least one safety training topic. Each employee completes a short safety training course online, and sometimes there are hands-on safety modules. For instance, employees will practice how to properly and safely use a wire cutting machine, change a propane tank, or climb up and down a ladder. Employees are required to complete hands-on trainings that are relevant to their individual positions. They are also required to complete monthly online renewal trainings for standard topics that apply to our company.

New Day and New Excitement

How many of you recall your first day at a new company? I do—sweaty palms, dry mouth, the feeling of uncertainty welling up inside of me as I mentally sparred with the temptation of knowing my vehicle was only 14 steps away and it’s not too late to change my mind. But my nerves weren’t limited to the typical first day jitters.

Supply Shortages

Over the past two years, we have seen our economy shut down. Some of us became home-schoolers or remote workers. We have seen firsthand as our customers and suppliers have struggled to obtain materials. We also experienced challenges that my grandparents lived through and often spoke of: supply shortages. I never gave supply shortages much thought prior to COVID-19. I had only heard about war rations on things like tires and sugar. That is until I experienced it firsthand in 2020 while trying to buy three-gallon jugs of water for formula. I thought a certain retail institution was going to call security and have me removed from the store for such an outrageous attempt.

How to become a solar installer?

There are multiple paths to becoming a solar photovoltaic (PV) installer, or PV installer. These workers typically need a high school diploma, but some take courses at a technical school or community college; they also receive on-the-job training lasting up to 1 year. Some PV installers learn to install panels as part of an apprenticeship.

What solar system size works for my business or home?

The system cost of solar PV can vary by energy profile and budget. Hard costs like material and labor are typically assessed in cost per rated watt. Solar modules and inverters are also rated and priced by wattage. For consistency, solar is sized by the DC rated capacity of the array. Local net metering interconnection standards will often set a maximum system size by utility customer class, i.e. 15kW residential, 100kW commercial for Kansas Investor Owned Utilities, 200kW commercial and 25kW residential for some municipal utilities and cooperatives.

Stanion Starting Small

Stanion is proud to be an independent supplier of electrical products. We like being able to run our business as we see fit, and we have spent 60 years doing just that. Our belief is that being independent helps us keep closer relationships with our customers and helps us to be more nimble and agile. However, being an independent does have a few disadvantages. One of the drawbacks relates to our size and scale compared to other distributors. Our larger, national competitors can buy larger quantities from manufacturers and can therefore negotiate lower prices and better payment terms than smaller distributors can. With the goal level the playing field, Affiliated Distributors (AD) was formed in 1981 primarily as a buying group to help companies like ours negotiate lower prices from our vendors. Over the 40 years of AD’s existence, it has grown to become more than just a buying group.