March 18 — the manufacturing gods want me to buy polarized plugs
Turns out my 3 outlet adaptor supplier doesn’t actually have the supplies.
As I look for a replacement, I realize that I was ordering non polarized outlet adaptors when I needed polarized ones. Phew! How lucky that the non polarized ones never shipped.
I was really struggling to find this part online until Angelo helpfully educated me: these are called polarized taps!
I messaged a bunch of sellers on Alibaba about the part, but they didn’t get back to me quickly enough (I started getting texts and messages from them on Wednesday and Thursday, 4+ days later).
So instead, I’ve been looking into dollar store suppliers. Here’s a list of the ones I’ve looked at so far:
Concord Import
Concord Import had a three outlet tap with a ground, but I needed one without. I’ve ordered lightbulbs and extension cords from them, and am waiting for their arrival.
Their website says FREE SHIPPING, but actually you have to make the order, and then contact them about the shipping quote. They told me that shipping costs $120 for my order, but they would give me a discount and only charge $40. I paid for shipping over the phone via credit card.
UPDATE: The lightbulbs didn’t arrive, and a week after I got the extension cords I called Concord Imports. The sales rep Yari told me that the lightbulbs I had already paid for were out of stock, but she found me comparable lightbulbs that cost a couple cents more each. I paid the difference and got free shipping for the new shipment.
Dollar Tree
Dollar Tree only had the item I wanted as part of an assortment of different items, and said that I could not order only one kind. I wonder if they are packaged at their facility and that they could give me just the one kind if I were already a loyal customer. They said that the assortment has a random number of each part which makes me think they aren’t prepackaged as an assortment.
Dollar Days
Dollar days also had the item I wanted as part of an assortment, and said that the assortment arrived at their facility already packaged, so they could not sell me just the one kind.
Dollar Item Direct
I ended up finding my part at Dollar Item Direct. I found out about them because their website was linked on an Alibaba supplier’s page. I’m kind of worried because I don’t have any views of the product other than this picture, so I just have to trust that it actually has 3 outlets and not just 1.
Total came out to $102.75 USD for 120 pcs, even cheaper than the original non polarized taps I was going to buy. Actually my order online was for 110 pieces, but they called me and said since they came in boxes of 24 I would have to buy 120 or 96. I paid for the difference via PayPal. Their shipping fees are nicely shown when you order, unlike Concord Import.
