Question about selling retail.

[Executivecleaning]

I have rented a small retail place to call home for my office. It is on the main street in town. There is only one supply house in town and they do not carry much exept for some basic janitorial supplies. Having said that, I am thinking about becoming a dealer for a couple name brands that most of us would use. I think this would help the other carpet cleaners out in the area as well. They all order form out of the area and have to wait two days and pay the shipping. If you were in the same town as me would you feel we were competing or would you see it as a benefit to the area? I would carry basic chemicals and a few fittings and accessories. Maybe I could have a consignment area too for used items. My intention is to help my local carpet cleaners and to have stock on hand for us too. Does anyone know what it takes to become a dealer? Any thoughts?

 

[SRI Cleaning]

I would call the product manufacturers and see what it takes. I wonder if companies would have a problem buying from their competition though. But if you dont sell much, you'll get your own chems cheap! i would imagine there are minimums that you have to purchase though.

 

[Executivecleaning]

I know what you mean. I just thought it would be good to bring a local source to the area. I do not want to make my competition feel wierd about this. I really see it as adding to our community and bring some of us together. At the end of the day we are in competition for jobs but there is no reason we can't work together in commerce.

 

[The Great Oz]

Often guys will often try to avoid spending money with a competitor, but practicality will win out when they need something. The key is to be a good guy and fair competitor. If the only competition is a long drive away, a low overhead operation can work well. There are many smaller town distributors that run out of their garage, or operate satellite locations for a larger company.

The down side is that every carpet cleaner will expect discounted prices and for you to allow slow payment ('cause you're pals, right?) and expect you to be the answer man for everything they don't know so they don't have to pay for any training.

 

[MicahR]

If your looking at carrying Prochem you'd might as well forget it. You are deep in LPM territory. Prochem would never set up another dealer so close. Hydramaster and Bridgpoint probably wouldn't either. Any of the "name" brand chems are already under protected territories.

Unless you already have good relationships with the companies in your neck of the woods, you could pretty much bank on them not buying from you. The don't want to support their competition.

You'd find out pretty quickly that it is a BIG headache trying to juggle the two.

Just my .02 cents but I've seen it first hand with a couple of service companies that have tried the same thing.

 

[Executivecleaning]

I get what you are saying. I can tell you the location is almost 9 hrs from LPM. and 4 hrs from any supply house. I have another location not on here yet until I get this figured out. Thanks for the help.

 

[Desk Jockey]

It only takes money and an open territory. Stocking orders can be as low as $10,000.00 but some will want $20,000.00

I wouldn't do it, it's a trap, it looks much better than it is.

Unless you have a bunch of money and a large market, you're just wasting your time...and money.

It's a tough business, too hard to compete with the big boys on price and service. You can also tie up ton's of money in stocking multiple lines and still not have what your customer wants. Don't expect your competition to buy from you, because the won't.

Been there done that, we were distributors for 10-years and had the major lines.

Most people don't realize how much effort it takes to operate a supply business, cleaning is far easier and much more profitable.

Be sure to check it out well before you proceed. You might be better off with volume purchase discounts from your current distributor?

 

[joeynbgky]

Bad idea. ...

what if one of your sompetitors runs out of pre-spray and has 4 jobs lined up??? You want them to look bad to their customers. So the customers will call you next time. Or possible your competitor will call you to do the jobs. In a small city its a no no.