Relief from the heat is hard to find

By NANCY KIMBALL

The Daily Inter Lake

Don't give up hope.

If you wish you were chillin' from the heat but just can't find the air conditioner to make that happen in your home, you still have a chance.

You may have to stand in line a while, though.

All the big box stores that could be reached at noon Wednesday reported they were out of air conditioners. And a quick survey of some local hardware stores turned up a lot of empathy, if not so many in-stock air-conditioning units.

"Probably half the phone calls we get every day are for air conditioners and fans," Cardinal True Value assistant manager Ron Walker said from the Kalispell store. "People are desperate. They're willing to come in and prepay to get it as soon as it comes off the truck."

He is allowing customers to do that, but cannot guarantee they will actually get one. If only 10 units arrive on the truck and you're number 11, he said, you will get a refund instead of the air conditioner.

On Monday, his store was sold out within two hours of a new shipment's arrival. He followed the delivery truck's route to Cardinal's Evergreen store and then to Columbia Falls, but found out with each phone call that they, too, had sold out almost immediately.

Sliter's Ace Hardware in Bigfork was out of most everything by Wednesday at noon. A couple of air-conditioning units were to come in today - but those already have been pre-sold.

Sliter's sales representative Jeff Salois said the Yakima, Wash., warehouse has been devoid of air conditioners every time he checked over the past couple weeks. The Bigfork store does have a few 230-volt units that take some rewiring for the standard household, and probably could order swamp coolers from the warehouse - but most people aren't interested.

In the meantime, they're coming in for fans, sprinklers and children's wading pools.

Montana Ace Hardware might be the best bet this morning.

At noon today, Kalispell store manager Tim Fox expects to start selling his new shipment of 80 of the most-popular 5,000-Btu air conditioners, four of the 10,000-Btu models and six or eight swamp coolers.

He still had an 8,000-Btu model on hand Wednesday afternoon.

"We mainly focus on the 5,000's because that's what people want for keeping their bedroom cool," Fox said.

As with every store that sells any type of air-cooling or circulating equipment, Montana Ace has been doing a land-office business.

"We sold more than 100 units in the past week," Fox said. A normal summer week would see sales of 40 or 50, "but with this hot weather, they want to keep cool."

His air conditioners come out of a warehouse in Moxie, Wash., which he thinks should be able to continue a relatively steady supply.

"If these all go," he said of this morning's shipment, "the rest will be coming into the warehouse between the 18th and the 31st, so we should be able to supply everybody after the 31st with anything they want. But once they hit the warehouse, it's pretty much first come, first served."

The air temperatures weren't the only hot thing, though. Phone lines almost never stopped ringing.

"We've had at least 25 inquiries since 7 this morning," Fox said Wednesday. "And we had at least 100 yesterday. On top of that, we had at least [25] walk-ins this morning."

For frustrated air-conditioner buyers, or those who just don't like the refrigeration but still need the air to circulate, good old-fashioned fans are a great option.

Rick Nelson at Nelson's Ace Hardware in Whitefish has sold out of a couple of pallets of fans that he ordered early in the season, and is getting more.

"As soon as the weather gets to 90 or 95 degrees for two or three days, we start selling a lot," the store owner said Monday. "We always have plenty of fans."

It was a busy place with the Fourth of July heat wave, he said. It's cranking up again with the renewed onslaught.

"And next week there's supposed to be 100-degree heat, so we'll see them walk out the door," he said.

Nelson does offer an air conditioner or two, "but whether or not my supplier will get them to me, we have no idea."

The Flathead's bigger retailers reported similar runs on their air-conditioner supplies.

A Costco representative said occasionally the main warehouse will find units and ship them out, but "as far as we're concerned we're out of business" for air conditioners.

Lowe's said the 25 or so that arrived Wednesday morning were gone within an hour. But a representative recommended calling at 6 a.m. today to see if a new shipment arrived overnight.

The Home Depot's shelves were empty, with no guarantee of more to come. Call in the morning, a representative advised; there just might be some. A surprise shipment came in Monday night, she said, and all were sold by 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

A representative at Vann's Electronic and Appliances said the store will be getting some portable air conditioners in on Friday.

Rex's TV and Appliance didn't answer the phone at Wednesday noon - a recorded message said the staff was too busy with air-conditioner sales. The recording advised callers to come down to the store with window and room measurements. It also promised more trucks carrying air conditioners would be coming in as the need continues.

Meanwhile, word apparently had gotten out that Rex's was about the only place in town still stocked.

At the 8 p.m. closing time, with one customer after another still walking in to ask about any unit available, Chris Brummett was nowhere near closing Rex's. He was short-staffed, but keeping his cool as he dealt with the current customer.

The phone rang. He lifted the handset off the base, brought it to his ear, shook his head and set it back on the base. Dead battery again, even though it was stored on the charger. It simply had been ringing all day, he explained.

One customer asked about portables.

"If I had 200 of them come in," Brummett answered, "I pretty much guarantee I'd be out right now."

Tuesday night a truckload with 205 air conditioners came in. They were being pre-sold on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, he said.

Another customer came in, took a look at the lone 24,000-Btu unit still boxed on the sales floor, and got into a conversation with Brummett about the 15,000-Btu units. Fourteen were coming, Brummett said, and the customer could pre-pay if he wished. This one decided to take his chances.

A truck of 300 units is coming in this morning, he told a caller - when the phone started working for a few minutes - so be at the store at 10 a.m.

But if you miss that load, Brummett said, another truck load like that will come in Friday. Probably.

Back at Cardinal True Value, Walker is a bit concerned if the heat doesn't let up over the long run.

"If this continues on a regional basis, I just foresee not being able to get any" air conditioners from the warehouse at all, Walker said.

He admits that he's seeing a few people who are tired of the heat and have become a bit more cranky than usual. He's anxious to supply those customers with the cooled air they seek.

"Then," Walker said, "it'll be nice to see all the friendly folks in town again."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com