Husqvarna Chainsaw Fiasco

Exactly, very well said! My local dealer has definately turned me off and if my saw needs work after the warranty period had expired I'll go someplace else.

I agree with Rich's perspective above. The internet and the Borg's are the biggest reason why the local dealer should extend every courtesy possible. Within reason of course. While noone can deny that there are those that will go for the lowest price everytime, a certain number of people will return to the service oriented dealer. This guy just guaranteed he will make no profit from Rich. And, as someone else pointed out, if this guy lost money on warranty work, he wouldn't do it. If they do, they're stupid. I would venture to guess, the profit just wasn't big enough for the guy. Which is one of the reasons we have the Borg's. The big retail profit centers may be monopolistic in nature, but one thing they do NOT have a monopoly on...is greed. This is, of course, just my opinion.

Spaz

I agree. I like to support the local guy. I really do. But what do you do when you consistently get reamed by him. I went down to the local Ace to get a

I live in a somewhat upscale college community. The local equipment rental place charges a hefty daily charge including Sunday on everything. If I drive 5 miles to the largely ag community down the road, the shop of the very same rental chain charges 30% less and gives Sunday free if the equipment is returned by 8AM monday. Where would you rent?

Both the Ace store and the rental shop seem to be quite busy so I assume their business model works for them. It sure doesn't for me.

snip---

I needed a brush hog. Local dealer wanted $800 for a 40" model, a perfect fit for my small Kubota. A 100 mile drive yielded a brush hog for $500, and no sales tax. Difference? 2" narrower, otherwise the same hog. No big deal, especially when I saved $300, plus 7.7% sales tax on the $800 price. No sales tax paid on the $500 purchase.

Some folks see every sale as a retirement plan, so I can't get too excited about supporting them. I purchased common seals from the local dude because I was in a bind. $12 each for $6 seals. His screw the consumer prices are outrageous, always well above market value. It's clear that some folks do little to earn your patronage. I've tried to be a faithful customer, but I can't afford to be. I now shop everywhere except for his store.

Harold

I have my own business and I've been in business for about 7 years. My wife and I make a comfortable living at it, we have some control over our destiny and we get to *mostly* make our own rules. The three main rules are 1) build something that works and doesn't hurt someone. 2) tell the truth to customers, vendors and each other. 3) price our products so that we can make a comfortable living. I've learned that this gets us the most consistent revenue stream and generally keeps our customers from switching to another company that may introduce a product with a slightly lower price. I've tried setting a higher initial price and dropping it later to try to get market share. It doesn't work. The damage has already been done. On the other side of it, I've turned down a couple of big customers because I couldn't make a comfortable living meeting their terms. The ability to say no is just as big of a negotiating tool as the ability to say yes.

We can all find exceptions. It pays to be a smart consumer and do some homework. I can also give exceptions the other way around. I needed a refrigerator part for the ice maker. Big store wanted $60 for the part, Internet was $55, local guy was $40 not for the part but for a hole new unit. Ed

Yep! The key to this whole scenario is to shop. Often I've been pleasantly surprised to find the best deal at the least likely place. and that includes the guy you'd swear would not compete.

When you live on SS, you don't toss your money around like it's from a bottomless well. Our lifestyle is a humble one, but we live as comfortably as we choose, and do it on minimum money by not being wasteful or stupid in how we use what we have. In order to do that, we have learned to shop before we buy. It always pays benefits.

Harold

You will, of course, pay the appropriate tax on your out-of state purchase, though?

I know I always do....

I could use a brush hog too, but first the hydraulics for the front blade. Dragging snow is tougher than pushing it.

. Then, in the last go-'round, when

Done deal, and for ever. Any time I find a business that has that kind of attitude, I not only don't patronize them, but I make sure that others understand their attitude. There's nothing like negative advertising to sink a business, and it's the cheapest and easiest advertising a person can get, with plenty to go around. All it takes is a go-to-hell attitude displayed to the consumer like the example above.

Small wonder!

Interestingly, a local hardware store recently learned how to sharpen their pencil. A few years back I needed some damp proofing for the foundation of the shop. They wanted double the price asked at Home Depot. The 50 mile drive one way was worth the trip because we needed a few pails. Of late, however, they seem in tune with more reasonable pricing and we've been spending our money with them. Smart business people don't rely on screwing the consumer if they want to be in business tomorrow. All too many of them chase business away that way. For the most part, they're now getting a wakeup call in our community. HD is going to open a local store, and Wal-Mart has one of the largest stores in the western US near us. There's considerable bitching, but it's going to get things on an even keel here. In the end, more of the local dollars will remain here, instead of going to other communities where prices are reasonable.

Harold

Mother in law owns the small town (500) paper. Town grocery decided it wasn't worth advertising in the paper for $300 for the month. Mom stopped buying food there. Any guesses on how much a family with 6 kids spends at the grocery?

Joel. phx

Oh, yeah! I'm always the first guy in line on Monday morning. I consider it an honor to be paying taxes in a state that is near the highest one in the nation in taxation and can't find enough reasons or ways to get them even higher. That isn't preventing them from trying, though.

Good luck with that project. The best scenario is to live where there's no snow. Notice I don't practice what I preach?

Harold

Talk about biting the hand the feeds you!

Harold

Hmmm, I'm asking myself the same question as I look at fuel prices. Our biggest local dealer, who used to be a mom & pop of long-standing in the community, was purchased by "city people," a couple of years ago, (literally, NYC "investors") and now refuses to deliver anything less than 150 gal. at a pop, and at nearly $1.60/gal this is a bit much for *many* people in this tiny burg to cough up at a time (myself included, sometimes). Their excuse is, "With everybody only buying

A survey of local kerosene prices (at the pump) yields $1.95/gal for the "local guy" and $1.63/gal for the town 11 miles away (further south, that is). I've been asking myself for several years now, since our local grocery chain started charging "screw you" prices year 'round, rather than just in the summer, "When did the local, small business model become &$#@* the Locals?"

Amen! Another local fuel dealer, this one a gas station, (also owned by a transplanted city dude, oddly enough..hmmm, notice a trend?) was on the gas roller coaster recently, but keeping prices apace with the larger community down the road. Then, in the last go-'round, when prices dropped back down 20-cents or so, his stayed high. Consequently, I stopped buying my gas there. Then, one day I stopped and asked, with all due respect, why their price had previously reflected that of the same brand station in the next town, but this time had stayed high? His reply? "Go down there and buy your gas." So, guess who _doesn't_ get my 3-5 fillups a week now?

-- Chuck *#:^) chaz3913(AT)yahoo(DOT)com Anti-spam sig: please remove "NO SPAM" from e-mail address to reply. <

September 11, 2001 - Never Forget

I learned that lesson from a former employee years ago. He told of working for an old guy who sent him out for some item to purchase. When the guy returned with his purchase and showed the old guy the price, the guy asked him what the other two prices were.. Employee said "HUH?" That has always stuck with me, and getting at least 3 prices for anything over around $50 is now what I do.

RJ

No excuse for bad attitude, but gas prices are an odd case. Assume a station buys 3,000 gallons at a time (pretty typical). They sell it at a price that is usually 1-5 cents above their invoice (plus all the taxes). If the price of gas goes up 3 cents and they were selling at 2 cents over cost they have to dig into profit from other sales to cover the increase, but they can recoup that as they sell the new load. The problem comes when the price starts to drop. If the station across the street buys a new load that is 6 cents cheaper and cuts their retail price while you still have 2,000 gallons in the tanks you are pretty much up the proverbial creek sans paddle. If you price match the guy across the street you lose money on every gallon you sell. If you don't it takes forever to empty your tank and refill with cheaper gas. Most stations split the difference.

Most of the c-store gas stations actually sell their gas at almost no profit because they make the money on beer and cigs. The low gas price is just to get you in the door. Stations that sell gas and do mechanical work can also keep their prices lower. The ones that only sell gas usually have the highest prices because they have to make enough profit to run the business, and that will depend on volume and the local competition.

Tim Douglass

If they shop efficiently, in the $250-300/month range. :) However, grocery stores are a _low_ margin operation. 4% gross profit is a "healthy" store. that $300 of revenues means maybe $10-12 gross profits.

Then, there's the _other_ side of the story. The town I grew up in was considerably bigger -- metro area circa 250,000 -- but it was a one- newspaper town. Just after the Korean conflict, the paper raised it's ad rates significantly. The local owner of three grocery stores went in to 'talk about it'. The paper said, in almost so many words, "If you don't like our rates, advertise in another newspaper". He pulled _all_ his newspaper advertising. Eliminated 'advertising' as a line-item in his budget. *REDUCED* his shelf prices by the amount of the expense reduction. Sent a one-time mailing to every household in town, announcing why he wouldn't be running any more newspaper ads, what he'd done with his prices, and asking people to patronize his stores. 15 years later, he had 10 stores in town, and the _smallest_ of his stores did twice the volume of the next-largest store in town.

Since that time, they've run a newspaper ad precisely _once_. And _never_ done any radio or TV advertising. The one occasion was to mark the opening of a new "showplace" store -- lots of exotic vegetables, etc. And more than twice the square footage of any prior store.

They bought one full-page ad, and the newspaper ran a THREE PAGE (three _full_ pages, including the entire front page of the 'family' section) "feature" story about the new store. (Yes, the newspaper management was _drooling_ at the thought that they might start behaving like a 'regular' grocery again -- picking up several full pages of ads every week.)

They're a _strange_ operation. They don't advertise -- that one newspaper ad was the *only* piece of paid-for advertising they've done in more than FIFTY YEARS now. They don't even hang sale signs in the windows. Or have sale flyers in the store. Their prices are generally stable/predictable, and -- except for 'loss-leader' sale items at other stores -- usually lower than at the competition. Combined with superior customer-service (would you believe that they _still_ have the 'bag boys' take groceries to your car and load 'em for you?), it's a _very_ successful model.

Not at all unusual in small Southern towns, but unusual in larger towns and cities.

Charlie Self "Character is much easier kept than recovered." Thomas Paine

Good decision 30 years ago but not 5 years ago. I bought a Homelite and after a couple of years of frustration I tosed it into the woods as far as I could. Never regretted doing it.

It ended up at the home of a small enngine repairman/rebuilder. He tossed it also as it was not worth rebuilding. I'm talking only a few hour run time. Ed snipped-for-privacy@snet.net

As I said, it was 30 years ago. Homelite was located in Port Chester, NY when I got that saw, moved to Charlotte, NC a couple years later, was bought by a holding company about the same time (along with a potful of other companies) and is now, I think owned by Ryobi or Ryobi's parent company after being moved from hand to hand to hand to hand. That XL 12 was the stone ax of the Homelite line even in '73-'74, vibrated like someone's sister Kate used to shimmy, turned fingertips white as all get out, but cut like crazy.

Charlie Self "Character is much easier kept than recovered." Thomas Paine