This is a subject near & dear to my heart, since this is my life. It's definitely not easy today for the small dealer to survive. The big boxes have a lot of business advantages over the small dealer: buying power, location, sometimes a bigger selection, their own credit cards, access to a big line of credit, etc. That being said, the boxes also have drawbacks. At my store, you deal with the owners. I've never met Mr. Depot or Mr. Lowes, and I believe Mr. Sears is long gone. The little guy has to do things differently to survive. At some meetings, we've met dealers that charge for every little thing, and then turn around and complain about lack of business. At our store, you always get a new cord for your new stove or dryer. We don't make you pay extra. We deliver free of charge to the 1st floor or basement (and you do not even need to pay for it 1st and apply for a delivery rebate and hope to get it in 6-8 weeks). If, when installing your new dryer, we see that you need a new piece of venting, we'll swap out the old stuff. FREE! Yes, this costs us some $, but it also generates good will with the customer. We are a small dealer and choose to remain that way. We've sold Maytags since the early 1930's. We used to be the only Maytag dealer in our county. Now there are over 15 retail locations that sell Maytag within a 15-20 mile radius. We also sell used appliances and do not deal in junk or vintage. That seems to be where the market is nowdays. Other than the fine folks on this board, people do not want the old harvest gold beltdrive WP/KM, coppertone refrigs, avacado ranges, etc.
Now, the big boxes do not always have lower prices than the little guy. On the BOL models, yes, the box stores kill us. We won't make $20 to sell the BOL. On the other hand, price a mid-line or TOL model with us, and 9 out of 10 times, our price will be the same or less than those guys. (example HD & Lowes on Maytag EpicZ mhwz600tw $849, us $775)
The thing that slays me though, when we get into an old customer's home for service & we see a new Maytag something or other and they say, oh we didn't know you sold new ones. DUH, we sold you the last one you had! There is no loyalty today. We understand that you may not want the brand we sell, fine, but to buy the same that we sell and not even get price shopped. That hurts.
Well that's enough of a late afternoon ramble. LOL!
