Well, They did it to me again. Went to their store in Knoxville to purchase an item and for the third time in less than six months, I was told "sorry, we are out of stock on that item". That should be their theme song. Don't think they stock anything. I'm done wasting my time and gas on them.
Don't know about you, but I usually phone a someone first to see if they have what I want in stock.
Is your phone broken?
-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)
Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?
Whether one phones or not is still not an excuse for a poorly stocked store. It would seem to me that if something sells well, the merchant would either reorder with more frequency or purchase larger quantities. Even if one does call before making the trip to the store, what is the point of a business that is chronically understocked? If this happens often, I certainly can appreciate Doug's disappointment with his Woodcraft store.
This is a catch 22 situation for everyone...the store and the customer.....in a perfect world the store would have everything you desire and lots of it in stock. I can tell you from experience, the store will always be out of some things. You try to keep your inventory dollars at a respectabvle level and not have you inventory get out of control, but you try to stock for your customer's needs. It is hard to do, and then your supplier shorts you or they are backordered and the problem gets worse. If I am making a special trip, I will call first.
I always enjoy going to visit and see the store anyway. If they do not have it in stock, my WoodCraft store will ordered it and ship it to me at no shipping charge.
Try treating the store and the employees as you wish to be treated. As an employee, we hate being out of stock as well.
Mike
Depends on the item. Do you phone ahead to the grocery store to see if they have hot dogs? Bread?
If you are talking about Danish oil, sandpaper, a 1/4" Forstner bit, I expect they will have it in stock. Replacement blades for a 15 year old discontinued planer, different story. Twice I wanted to get a set of Cool Blocks and the local store was out of them. I asked about it and was told "they go out as fast as they come in". I suggested they order more. I was given a strange look as though they never thought of that.
Let's see on my last three trips: Cool blocks, 18" drawer glides, 2 of 4 handles I wanted.
on 4/6/2005 8:41 AM TEF said the following:
What is the point of discussing this if we're going to do so with incomplete information?
That Gerald didn't call to check to see if the item was in stock before he went is his "bad." Pure and simple. More so if he traveled a great distance. If he was already in the neighborhood and "just stopped by," what the hell's the big deal?
"They don't have anything" is pure, unadulterated bulls**t. It's hyperbole that means absolutely nothing to me but that the OP doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. If they have nothing would their doors be open to the public and would they be paying an employee to tell somebody "sorry, that's out of stock?"
We don't know what he was looking for. Was it a couple booked sheets of Birdseye Maple veneer? Was it a certain, not terribly popular hinge? Or, perhaps the opposite? A very popular item that was in their sale flyer that week? Hell, we don't even know - from Gerald's post - if it was the same item in each instance.
So, there you have it. We don't know just how put out Gerald has a right to be. We don't know if the store is "chronically" understocked. All we really know is that he never bothered to check before making the trek.
There's really nothing wrong with not calling to check stock before going in to make a purchase. It's just that it seems a tad whiney to bitch about it later.
One further point, since Woodcraft is a franchise operation I don't think it fair for anyone to view all stores in this light. I know I won't be patronizing the Knoxville store - not even if they were selling brand new Unisaws for $1,000 out the door. But that's only because that particular store's not close by.
I'm with you. Frankly, I can't remember ever leaving the local (Matthews, NC) Woodcraft store empty handed. I have on occasion had to wait for something to come in, but I've initiated those transactions by phone first. They're excellent about calling when the stuff gets there.
Most recently, it was about a selection of bandsaw blades for my 18" Rikon (which I bought from them). Since they only recently began selling the saw, they didn't have any spare blades when I first bought it... but they had been ordered. They called me when they came in, but I put them off. Then I went to get them the day they put the whole store at 15% off. I picked up a 3/8" and a
1 1/4" blade made by Timberwolf.In the Charlotte area, they have a nicer selection than the Klingspor shop which is closer to me. In any case, I always call before I go, and if they have it, I ask them to put it aside for me if I'm coming out that day.
I've had really good luck using that there Internet email thing, Copy and paste the item from the website into an email, go to the store locator and grab the standard 'city name'-retail email address and usually have an answer back within 1/2 an hour as long as I don't send it at lunchtime..
It used to be that stores had "stock rooms". No more. It's a Fed Ex/UPS society that we live in now.
Stock in the back = tied up cash and we just can't have that. The stores try and keep stock as small as possible. There are still a few stores that stock some items, but for the most part, they go on an order it when sombody asks policy.
Same reason your customer service drops off the chart when the holidays are over. Gotta cut that overhead. Come on, they have to free up the money so they can pay their CEO's.
I do agree with the fella's above, call ahead if you're heading in for something in particular. WoodCraft has always been great that way for me too.
They free up cash by not stocking stuff and then spend all that cash paying huge shipping bills for overnight delivery.
A lot of stores lose my business by not having stuff in stock, or not carrying it at all. Sure, the store can order it, but so can I and probably for less money.
Brian Elfert
Actually, they conserve cash flow in order to be able to do other things such as pay the light bill, rent or the mortgage, salaries, benefits, ...
It's only a prudent way to do business. Some high volume items pay to keep in stock, sure, but it's financially impossible to maintain inventory of high-ticket or low-turnover items.
When lowest-initial-cost wasn't the overriding consideration w/ many customers, it was possible to be able to do some things that simply can't be done any longer if one wishes to stay in business. The occasional loss of sale to the "you don't have it so I'll order online" is a cost that can't be made up for because there are too many who order online irrespective of onhand stock simply to save a few bucks on sales tax and wouldn't patronize the brick-n-mortar store even if it had everything they wanted if it were a nickel per item more.
On 6 Apr 2005 05:16:36 -0700, the inscrutable "Gerald" spake:
Gerald, you could have called the store to check stock before driving any distance. I made that mistake once with Harbor Freight and won't again. (50 mile r/t) Whatever you do, call the store manager and give him your gripes. If it was he to whom you talked in Knoxville, call corporate instead and give them the story. They have a reputation to keep up and if he isn't doing his share, they need to know.
-------------------------------------------- Proud (occasional) maker of Hungarian Paper Towels.
Well, I'll take the ding for not calling ahead and checking to see if they had the item in stock, but three times in a row tells me they stock very little of anything. And it was a Porter Cable Dovetail Jig.
I have overheard workers at my local Woodcraft complaining about slow delivery of PC stock. Exactly how true this may be is hard to say. But, I would not assume that they or anybody else has PC gear instock. Jim
I guess it depends on the type of store one goes into, so I wouldn't think that dovetail jigs are that popular a woodworking tool for the average home owner. Saws, drills, hammers, etc. could be considered commodity items for joe woodworker, but not a dovetail jig. I agree with you however, if a store regularly doesn't have what I want, whatever it is, it soon gets dropped off my 'like to visit' list.
My Woodcraft store in Clearwater, FL typically does a very good job. Last week I went looking for an item, a clamp on bench vise, which they did not have. I was told several would come in on the Friday shipment. I went in on Friday afternoon, but the truck had just come in, the item wasn't readily found in the huge shipment. I would have called, but was passing by anyhow....besides, the guys were offloading about 2000 board feet of new lumber too.
Woodcraft called me the next day...they had the item on hold for me and said to 'come on down'. I can't complain about the Clearwater store.
bill otten
A lot of items I've tried to buy and were out of stock at local stores are medium to high volume stuff, not something that would collect dust for a year. Some stores have back stock, but most are what you see is what you get.
I wouldn't expect a woodworking store to stock a Unisaw unless they are a machinery dealer.
Some of the items aren't worth online ordering due to shipping, but some are.
Brian Elfert
A conclusion not supported by the evidence. A conclusion better supported by the evidence is that they don't stock what you're looking for.
They probably don't stock more than a couple of those anyway. All it would take is to sell two of them in one week, and bang! They're out of stock until the next truck comes in.
-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)
Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?
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