Hey guys... cut me some slack. I wasn't saying you SHOULD sell at cost or "give away the store". I just got the impression from talking to the Stihl dealer I bought my 361 from that he didn't have much choice on prices, that Stihl dictates lots of that, and I was just curious how exactly that works or how strict they were, thats all. I know enough about how businesses work to know that Joe Consumer usually has no clue what merchants go through to get that stuff on the shelf for them and try and make an honest dollar doing it. The example of the cutter telling the dealer it wouldnt hurt to sell him some saws at cost says it all. People will come up to me, usually its a friend of a friend or some such, and say "hey I hear you have a woodshop, can you make me an xyz?" I tell them about how many hours it will take, how much wood at xyz a bd ft, and thus roughly how much it will cost. When they often balk at the price I usually say "well so how much is YOUR time worth... 5 bucks an hour? ...20 bucks and hour?" People expect you to work for nothing. For close friends and family I do of course, but c'mon people, my time is just a precious as yours. So dealers, I'm on your side, and just as I expect to get paid for my services when I work, I have no problem paying a GOOD dealer his due for his services. Guess I gotta be a little more careful how I word a question like that. Sorry if I ruffled any feathers or fostered any negative implications. :angel:
Dave
