Oh yes I am fully aware that those big box stores sell at lower margains, I just want to get a fair deal thats close not the pricing my local Tom Lee quoted me!
Long and McQuade's everyday price on that Jagcaster was better than I expected,I will always pay more for better service too!
In fact after I posted last I called the Surrey store and found they had both in stock and when I asked his name thinking he was on commision like Tom Lee's guys, he said his name then told me anyone there would be more than happy to help me as they were on salary......so its off to Surrey and if all goes well they will get my business.:rockon:
I think if you could get someone working in a Canadian store to tell you the score you'd find that it's their supplier screwing them!
There are a number of different products in Canada that are sold through very old fashioned channels. From what I've heard I'm convinced that music equipment is one of them.
Years ago Canada was looked upon as a very small market. Compared to most American states that was understandable. Our population in those days was maybe half of what it is today. So they would either set up a branch office or hook up with a Canadian sales rep outfit. Either way, they would carry inventory here in Canada and do all the sales promotion. They marked up the product over a cost that was actually not much better than American resale and sent it out to Canadian distributors.
I saw this selling products like ITT Cannon connectors, Molex, Mallory caps and Bussman fuses, among others. The American factory source got the advantage of shipping fewer but bigger orders to their Canadian master disti and the Canadian stores could order from them in small quantities.
By the time the 70's got rolling the Canadian market volumes had gotten much larger but the old purchasing channels were still there. I'd lose large orders to either ITT Cannon's Canadian office (on volume orders they were not just my supplier but my competitor!) or to an American disti who could resale at my distributor cost!
The situation grew so ridiculous that by the mid to late 80's it fell apart and Canadian electronic distis would just order from the American factory network just as if they were an American reseller.
Wabasso sheets and linens was another product. Stores in Windsor watched as their customers went over the border into Detroit to buy resale at a Windsor store's cost.
Car tires were the same. Free trade came in and eliminated many duties but kept all the paper work! That's where the brokerage fees on ordering guitar parts and speakers from the States comes in.
If any Canadian reseller tried to go around his Canadian master distributor source the factory would refuse his order and often the Canadian master office would pull the reseller's franchise so that he had no source for that brand at all.
Some master reps claim they earn their (usually BIG!) extra markup by adding value to make the product conform to Canadian laws. This most often means a blanket comes over the border and the Canadian rep would stuff a sheet of paper in the package written in both English and French. Big deal!
Textiles has the worst reputation for this. There are a ton of sales rep houses mostly in Montreal that do nothing but relay orders to the American factory. They don't even touch the product, let alone hold inventory. Their take can be 30% or more, in some cases.
As I've posted before, if you're a little store in Smith Falls, Ontario you've got very little clout to change such a situation. You'd like to sell at a competitive price but you'd have to go below your own cost. Obviously, that can't work.
I think over the next 5-10 years things with music stuff will have to change. In the electronics market US factories found that they were losing sales representation in Canada. Distributors would stop carrying a line if they couldn't make money with it. If the factory wanted local people pushing their products into a Northern Telecom plant or Celestica they had to make it a level playing field. An American disti would cheerfully take a big Canadian order but they wouldn't send out salespeople to work with the customer's design engineers every day. It would be just too far to drive!
The Internet is blowing away the idea of geographical sales territories. Guitar and music parts had better follow soon or we won't have any local stores left, except for bigger chains like L & M.
L & M is a great company but do we really want them to have a monopoly in Canada?
:food-smiley-004:
