Hello Jon,
What I actually meant was that some small speed shops are charged more for
a product direct from the manufacturer than Summit would charge direct to
anyone. MSD is the most serious one that comes to mind. I had the
pleasure (well kinda, long story) of working for a fellow who designed a
Ford crank trigger setup for MSD. He also sold MSD retail (kinda large
mail order setup also). Well Summit put on one of those famous 15% off
sales on MSD and certain other products that Christmas. The 6AL box was
about $158 if I remember right. With 15% off that dropped to $135 which
was about $2 less than MSD was charging this guy. Now he was buying these
things in quite large quantities, but obviously not as much as Summit. He
was not happy when he realized that he could buy the same product cheaper
from his competition.
Now many manufacturers in the industry are trying to (indirectly of course)
stop Summit's price gouging. If you look at a recent Summit catalog you
will see Summit's answer to this as they have found a very unique way
around it. Many people in the industry see the writing on the wall, there
is just too little prospective future business. So the companies that stay
on top now just might be the only ones surviving in the future. As in the
rest of America the large aggressive companies will eventually push aside
the smaller Mom&Pops especially if price is the dominant factor. That is
also evidenced by the exchange of information on this list, the recent
cheapest Gibson shop thread, etc., basically it is going to get worse for
many shops (I also am looking for the cheapest Gibson shop too).
This and the recent Crane Cams takeover of the majority of the cam core
manufacturing (that is a story that could fill a book) is what promted me
to find a different line of business. If you plan to be on the cutting
edge in race engine biulding or even trying to sell speed equipment retail,
you will need a large bankroll in the future.
Regards
Nicholas
07:17 PM 3/3/98 -0500, you wrote:
>At 03:46 PM 3/3/98 -0500, Nicholas McKinney wrote:
>>> Summit will typically have the best pricing on most
>>> automotive high performance parts, and in many cases
>>> their "retail" price will be less than your local
>>> parts outlet's "cost".
>>
>>This is so true.
>>
>>
>
> Be careful... That's not always so. :-)
>
> My local Parts America seems pretty competitive on many things. Also, a
>much better example: I recently bought a 1996 Mopar Performance SBEC.
>According to the invoice I received, it lists from MP for $345.
> Jegs wanted $311, Summit wanted $324, I got mine from Barrington Dodge
>for $279, and another DML'er got his for $240 from Koller Dodge!!!
>
> It pays to shop around.
>
> Once I get that price thing going on the web page, that should help us
>DMLers to get the best price all of the time. :-)
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