Thursday, May 30, 2013

Big Box Stores Versus Specialty shops

Occasionally, I have a customer come in and point out that Home Depot or Lowe's carry grills and smokers cheaper than we have them.

I have an answer for that and would love to share that philosophy.

First of all, the big box stores operate on volume profit. This means they sell a ton of something for a lower profit margin (lower price). The more they sell, the more they make. The cheaper they can buy the product and sell a bunch of them, the more they make.

Unfortunately, in order to purchase their products cheaply they usually purchase their product overseas where products are made with very low quality. Again, the thought is just sell a bunch. If it breaks down in a year;  no worries, the customer will just come back and buy another. They also do not usually offer good warranties on their products due to their lower quality. If you are lucky you will get a year tops but most are about 90 days. They figure if it works 90 days, you are good.

Secondly, they make up some of their costs by charging assembly fees meaning they charge to put it together for you. Or, you can just load the box up and fight through the instructions putting it together yourself hoping it works. So now you have purchased something for a price not realizing in order to take it home assembled you need to pay more!

Thirdly and lastly, if you have a question or an issue with your product, who are you going to talk to? Are you going to ask the lady who they assigned that day to that department? Pretty sure she won't be an expert. Who do you call? Their headquarters? The manufacturer of the product? They just tell you to contact the store. Good luck on that one.

A small business specialty store MUST offer these services in  order to complete with those big box stores. Yes, our grills might be a bit more than what you can buy at Home Deport or Lowe's BUT they are much better constructed, most are actually made here in our own country, and will actually last.

Smaller specialty stores such as Colorado BBQ Outfitters will assemble your product for you and test it to make sure what you are taking home works 100%. Should something go wrong, you know who to call. We will answer your questions or offer suggestions. Colorado BBQ Outfitters will even on some occasions go out to your house and fix whatever is wrong. Any warranty issues will be taken care of by us.

Oh, and by the way, the warranty on our grills compared to the big box stores are much longer. In some cases up to 20 years!! Specialty stores such as ours will take care of any warranty work for you in the slim chance you will need it. Will Home Depot or Lowe's do that for you? Most likely, no.

The owners of small specialty stores love talking about their business and products. It is their livelihood compared to the employee of a big box store making minimum wage. Use them for their expertise.

We here at CBO assembled, at no cost to our customers and test each and every one of our grills and smokers.

So basically for the cost of one premium coffee at Starbucks a day you can receive special treatment now and in the future from a specialty store. If you are looking for cheap, inexpensive product with little to no support, then the big box stores are for you! However, if you are looking for hands on service, great conversation and constant support, come visit us at Colorado BBQ Outfitters or any of your locally owned specialty stores.

Dan


No comments:

Post a Comment