wholesale?

[Joseph Alkana]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
Terry,
I'm not sure you and I are looking at this the same way. Take the dolly =
with 5" castors. Price at My Piano Shop is $295.00. The price I pay at =
Schaff is $160.00. It is general practice to "keystone", or double our =
cost to the retail customer plus add our shipping which according to my =
invoice from last year was about $40.00. That will bring the unit's cost =
to the customer to around $360.00. If I want to compete with the online =
retailer I've got to beat the $295 price or lose the sale. I can't do =
that and still make a profit.=20

The Hands Off fallboard  lock is another item I get asked about a lot. =
Schaff's price is $48.00 my cost, which translates to $96.00 retail to =
my customer. Plus sales tax of $8.45.I can get it myself for $59.95 at  =
many online stores. And not pay our state sales tax.=20

Either the piano supply houses or the suppliers to these house are =
selling to on line marketers at prices we can't compete with. That's my =
point. And for what it's worth, I see this as an increasing challenge =
(threat) to our attempts to retail merchandise.=20

I had url references showing Dampp Chaser products for sale but have =
lost the source. As I recall, the situation was the same, with out the =
door prices to online shoppers far below the ridiculous figures =
suggested by Dampp Chaser in their latest literature to us techs.

Am I missing something here or don't any of you really think it's worth =
getting an eyebrow raised over?

Joseph Alkana  RPT
josephspiano@attbi.com
  ----- Original Message -----=20
  From: Farrell=20
  To: pianotech@ptg.org=20
  Sent: Wednesday, May 08, 2002 4:11 AM
  Subject: Re: wholesale?


  Don't know what you are talking about here. I looked up the student =
hammer, the gooseneck hammers and the European hammers and each one is =
available at Schaff for less than half the advertised price on the site =
below. I have looked at a couple other sites in the past just out of =
curiosity and found that the prices are all pretty much wholesale plus =
normal markup.

  Now be careful what you are comparing. For instance, a tuning fork - =
so many grades at varying prices are available - the site below does not =
state the exact fork they have for sale. I didn't even want to compare =
the "hardwood" tuning lever price. Who knows what kind of wood or the =
quality of the hammer. Whenever I have found items that I a sure of the =
exact mfg., model, etc., I find that we get wholesale from the =
suppliers.

  Terry Farrell
   =20
  ----- Original Message -----=20
  From: "Joseph Alkana" <josephspiano@attbi.com>
  To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
  Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 11:30 PM
  Subject: wholesale?


  List,
  I was trying to price out some accessories for a customer using my =
normal piano parts suppliers. i.e., Schaff, Pianotek and compared their =
"wholesale"  prices to retail prices offered by any number of on-line =
distributors. For example:
  http://www.mypianoshop.com/tools/

  Not only do many such companies offer free shipping their retail =
prices are, in some instances, lower than what we piano techs can get at =
the supply houses. So much for even considering a mark up on our end. =
Plus the shipping.

  Any comments on this annoying situation? Are the suppliers to the =
supply houses really under cutting us by selling direct to what I would =
call "jobbers" or are the supply houses just gouging our checkbooks?


  Joseph Alkana  RPT
  josephspiano@attbi.com



---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/c4/2e/40/d4/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--