Oh stop. As the pie is shrinking I am simply trying to point out that there are 'big box' tool companies that supply the masses, their main market is not RVs, and they spill over into the aircraft builders, then there are many companies that are built from the ground up around RV's. Advanced, Avery, Cleaveland, Stein, Aerosport, and a slew of others, where the bread and butter is the RV market. Just like your local WalMart drove out the locally owned variety store and Best Buy closed down the local appliance guy. Take Home Depot for example, pick any topic you want and go into H.D. and ask the kid (if you can find one) about it. Then go into a small locally owned hardware store and do the same. You may be saving 10%, with it you are giving up an immeasurable service after the sale. I answer calls every day that start with "I didn't buy it from you but..." so I am still providing the service but without the profit that makes that 800# ring and puts food on the table. Conversely it usually leads to people recommending me to their buddy that may order in the future. The builder education and social side of this is really where my enjoyment comes from. We could easily compete on prices if we were to quit going to shows, drop all the essential but not profitable items, and stick to selling only high ticket items on a slim margin. But that would make my job into work instead of fun
. For now I will stick to the 'buy from the little guy' soapbox.
P.S. I guess I should have mentioned, thank you for all of the kind comments here and in other posts. I need to emphasize that Annette in C.S. and Shipping, Marshall in the Machine Shop, and Ida our part time book keeper are really the ones that allow me to do the fun part of this while they are doing the work. And most of the comments are due to their performance, not mine.
3x Rivet Gun
Linear Mode
