Distributor owned laundries

[Anonymous]

As a distributor,we feel store ownership is a conflict of interest.As a company or by employees our policy is a definitive NO.We won't have a route operation(co-oping procedes from equipment installed in apartments etc.) or sell washers to the home user.I'm not tryig to grand stand here,our competitors do these things and don't seem to get alot of flack for it.I won't change our policy I'm just looking for opinions.

[BWJR]

I agree with you totally; I think its poor business practice to sell your customers equipment and then one day open down the street from them. Distributors like that should be boycotted.

BWJR

[Kitty]

Rob,
Have you not had the pleasure of my tirades on this subject???

I do not see how some distributors DO NOT see it as a conflict of interest? Many, many distributors have stores. It is their rite to do what ever will make them prosper, but they cannot expect laundry owners to find them owning and selling as an exceptable practice. Distributors will definatley have lower upfront costs because of their position. I am sure the savings is quite significant, and a real slimy distributor can use information and substantial savings against the current stores within a market which can cause harm in any market environement with price wars.

[Anonymous]

I would never buy anything from a company like Fowler, who I'm sure you are aware of, as they are probably one of the largest route operators in direct competition with us owners. They do a lot of other bad things too, but they need to pick what side they are on. I applaud your stance.

[Kitty]

Ok so who is this Fowler?

[Anonymous]

They're a very large distributor in northern NJ.

[Ronald]

Justins in Little Rock Arkansas also run a few stores call Fun wash and I also noticed they have moved in to Conway Arkansas also:

[BWJR]

The only voice we have is to not buy their products. We do have a voice in the matter, we just have to exercise it. If enough of us stand together and don't buy from them, they will get the message.

BWJR

[Gary C]

Rob, I like your stance on this. I did not deal with the local wasco dealer because they start and sell new stores and the head salesman for them owns three stores. They will NEVER see any of my money. Can you sell me new Dexters?


Gary

[CharlieS]

Well, here we are in a bind. The state Maytag dealer has one of the largest route businesses in the country. The largest chain of stores in the state is also a Dexter and Huebsch dealer. The closest Wasco and SQ dealer has 3 stores.

If you can't beat them, I may be forced to join them. I agree that in a perfect world, there would be strict separation. However, there isn't. So we need to look at the other options.

Charlie

[BWJR]

I wonder if Maytag, Speed Queen, Dexter, or Wascomat would care if you called one of them and said you were not buying their washers or dryers because of the local distributors practice of opening and owning stores as competition to his or her customers. Would it matter??? I wonder!

BWJR

[Ken]

Almost every dealers in my area own their stores,so I buy most my machines and parts out of state.

[Kitty]

I say it should be common practice to discuss these types of business practices. We should all protect ourselves. Keep the info coming.....