My point was not about having dealers, it was about the supply chain.
With your analogy, you set up a nice bmw dealer as the corporation dictates. You follow their rules and take the appropriate inventory investments.
You set up a dealership per the rules. BMW importer sets the prices you need to sell at and what your costs are. Things are tightened arbitrarily cause the importer says it should be this way and can change the landscape without prior notice or discusion.
Now you start to hear that your customers are buying BMW's directly from the importer at reduced pricing. The importer is advertising this service and undercuts the prices you, as a dealer, need to sell at.
Your supplier becomes your biggest competitor.
Now you also find out that dealers in another region pay substantially LESS then your costs. But because of your importer, you have no access to these products.
So your customers now have a choice to buy from your supplier or from other dealers in another pricing environment.
How would you feel????
Jerry
Jerry
You have me completely confused as to how this has anything to do with how the NF dealer network works.
EVERY NF Authorized dealer in Canada buys their product DIRECT from Nightforce, who publish a pricelist that applies the same to everyone who is an Authorized dealer.
There is NO importer of NF that works like Korth does, so there is no way for a customer to buy from any other legitimate source.
ATRS is the sole Canadian "distributor" for NF, yet the cost I pay for NF product is EXACTLY the same as what the other authorized dealers pay for their product. The only thing that being a distributor does is allows us to sell to other non authorized dealers, like yourself, without being in breach of the agreement that authorized NF dealers sign as part of becoming an authorized dealer.
The idea behind NFs plan is to have the country covered with a dealer network that works together for the good of all, currently most of us do.
Unfortunately there is a rogue dealer, but they are being dealt with.
To have several hundred dealers that carry a specialty item makes no sense. They protect their dealers unlike many companies. When some of the chain stores wanted to carry the line, NF listened to the Canadian dealer networks concerns and opted to not to sell to the chains. More manufacturers should take heed or the chain stores will be the ONLY option for firearms.
To me having a factory educated person who actually knows something about the specific shooting sports and knows the product line intimately would be my choice for purchasing an expensive optic from as opposed to take a ticket , wait for the clerk who knows ZIP about nearly anything, to take my money for a box containing something said clerk has likley never even used
Like with many comodities we have a minimum advertised price (MAP) that the dealers are supposed to stick to. This will vary with the dollars value as it is based on US pricing, but believe me the margin is low. Most economists will tell you that minimum mark up required to keep the doors open is 35%, there is just over 1/2 of that in NF scopes.
Hopefully we can get back on track with what the thread was about now.
