Absolutely!! Most seem to think all business buy products for the same price, not true. Money talks, and the more you spend, with most manufactures, the lower the price per item. It's called "volume buying/selling".I don't have a horse in this race but isn't the 2 tiered pricing you describe very common in most product lines?
I don't have a horse in this race but isn't the 2 tiered pricing you describe very common in most product lines?
Yea that is pretty much the norm in the sporting goods industry. Almost every company does the exact same thing, unless they are big enough to have a large staff of sales reps to be able to call on small shops. Or just up the price enough that the end user to pays for the rep. You will find most companies that go dealer direct have a bit higher prices to pay for the extra sales people needed. Its much cheaper to sale 1 distributor $10,000. worth the bullets than it is to sale 10 different dealers $1,000. worth. Also most dealer dirrect companies (not all) use some sort of price fixing, which is illegal and much worse for the end consumer (but better for the small dealer). Just something to think about.
Not "price fixing", It's called MAP pricing (minimum advertised price) and easily gotten around, just don't "advertise" the price in national media.
Thats why the free market works, take your business to who you think deserves it.
If enough people do this, maybe Sierra will change how they do business with small businesses.
I still believe this type of business behavior is much more common then uncommon unfortunately. With the economy the way it is and companies trying to shave the bottom line and do more work with less man hours, I suspect you will see more and more of this simply because of the reasons I listed in my first post.