I understand that Stihl is not a franchise, but you still are responsible to follow the guidelines as per Stihl's corporate policy in order to maintain your status as a dealer.
An example would be their policy of no internet sales. If you are caught they can revoke your dealership.
It's not a free for all once you become a dealer, and once you enter into a binding contract with someone regardless of state and federal law if you break the rules and guidelines of the contract it can be ended at any time. I'm sure Stihl has guidelines to follow as a dealer, franchise or not.
Again, I could be wrong here, but I would assume that as a dealer you would be responsible to meet Stihl's advertised pricing structure.
How much business do you think you would do if people look up prices and then come in and you charge them $100 over MSRP?
Most things here are damned expensive..minimum wage here (shop assistants/cleaners/rest home caregivers/factory workers etc) is $13.50 hr before tax I think. a lot of our workforce are on minimum wage, or $1 or so above
I, as a paramedic make double that, along with Police/Fire/Nurses etc, but pay 30% tax roughly
Average house price in our biggest city, Auckland is $475,000, making home ownership here very hard, if you move to small towns and travel a long way to work they are much cheaper..we pay $2200 a year to our council for water etc, roughly $1100 a year for house insurance
Gas is $2.10 litre
Milk $4 for 2 litres
Bread (decent stuff) $4 loaf
To own a car here is $280 per year registration plus $100 for safety checks (called Warrant of fitness) then you pay insurance, maintenance etc
4 litre pack of Valvoline engine oil $50
Stihl 2 stroke oil $22 per litre
Cord of pine firewood roughly $160
McDonalds smallest burger $2.50
Decent 25 inch bar and chain for chainsaw about $200 (what I paid for the MS440 chain and bar, GB bar) Stihl bar would be $200 by itself at a guess
New Zealand is a stunningly beautiful country, but run by absolute retards, the National Government, here you can sit on your fat arse and get weekly payment from the government to live on, and not really look for work, pop babies out and get the same, which works out to be more than minimum wage...so we have a huge population of non working bludgers sucking the country dry!
Cars are expensive, a new Chrysler 300 SRT-8 is $85,000
Toyota Corolla ( the most basic) $30,000
Husqvarna saws here
http://www.husqvarna.com/nz/products/professional-chainsaws/husqvarna-proffesional-chainsaws/
Just a small list...lol!!
The contract doesn't stipulate pricing. Stihl distributors are wholesalers and dealers are the retailers. MSRP or DSRP is suggested pricing, but not mandatory because it is against the law to fix prices. Obviously Stihl would like for their dealers to maintain DSRP to maintain the profitability and image as a premium brand. Once you start discounting it left and right, it becomes a price war amongst dealers. In the end, the STIHL brand will suffer, and the dealers will suffer because nobody is making money. Then it becomes another commodity, ie Homelite.
It would be ridiculous for dealers to sell whole goods at above MSRP but some do and get away with it.
exactlyDealers are independent. Once they buy items, they can sell at whatever price they wish.
Yea those are some good prices, a little lower then my local dealerI think I have the dealer with the best prices around. I drive about an hour to PA to see him and past about 3 dealers but it's worth it.
$550 201t
$900 ms660 r
$560 362
Those were my prices with bars out the door as my saws are for farm use only so no tax
GEEZ!!!!A link for you guys to see prices here in New Zealand....no doubt much higher!!
http://www.stihl.co.nz/STIHL-Products/Chainsaws/01573/Professional-Chainsaws.aspx
In fact Woodf (#29 above) gives a European price - "MS 201 €440 + tax 24%" which is substantially more than I'd pay here in New Zealand.
Thanks for answering some of the issues I brought up earlier, however,,,As many already know, I am a Stihl dealer.
I can sell for any price I want.
I can print price tags and modify the price using a program available on a Stihl website for dealers.
On the website where you can reserve a saw in my store it states in the small print that the price listed is MSRP and the price at the store may differ from MSRP.
I sell my saws at MSRP and I will special order any saw and have it within a week.
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