The great chandlery swindle

andyball

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Dave...why will it change?

There's still plenty of "blister pack" car accessory shops selling bulbs, screws,spark plugs etc at higher prices than I'd like.
B & Q have pushed up their fastener prices over the years,'cos they can, corner shops (bless 'em) & beachside kiosks wanting 60p+ for a warm can of no-name pop, coffee for over £2 & shove off inside 10mins?.....I won't go on.

It's not just a marine chandlery thing- think the same complaints can be made about most types of business.

An argument could be made that by avoiding the expensive local guy for larger items ,he's forced to go for larger margins on the stuff you really need on a sunday morning; but it's often not worth the drive to save a quid or two, or is it?.

Which is not to say I don't think that sharing news of cheaper deals isn't a very good thing indeed : buy your halogen bulbs by the box at an auto-electrics place (Furneaux riddall in Portsmouth for example), don't assume that the advertisers in mags will be cheap (there's some huge prices for rope out there at the moment) + some super "deals" on 2001 & earlier electronics that are hardly less than the latest stuff.

mentioned b4, but <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.beal.org.uk/>beals</A> are very cheap for anything that might be considered consumable in a workshop,there's a list on their website ;actually,that's all there is apart from an address/tel.no, but they have a decent catalogue : highly recommended by me,at least, esp. for proper glue-filled heatshrink.


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the_wanderer

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Yes I would agree with you wholeheartedly. The essence of selling bits to boaters is to think of a price, ridiculous as it may seem and double it and see how many punters take it. It runs through the whole boating world. Slipways, moorings, repairs.....now there's a thing! better to do it yourself. At least if it is not right it has not cost an arm and a leg. As long as the boaters are contented to pay anybody these inflated prices so that the perpetrators of this scam can become millionaires this situation will exist.
I've said my bit, thrown my hat in, probably stirred up a bit of contention but is this not what this website is for?

Hornets nest?

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LORDNELSON

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Well if you manage to get good straight speaking articles and reviews that will be great but I think you will have to pay a good deal more for your magazine, because I think the advertising revenue will drop away!

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Avocet

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Like everyone else, I don't like being ripped-off but (and I have to say my experience is more with car parts than chandlery). It is very easy to get two parts that look the same and are designed to perform the same function but where one is substantially better than the other. Over the last three years I've been keeping a record of when I fitted a particular replacement car part and I'm starting to find out that the (say) £4.00 CV joint gaiter from my local motor factor lasts about 18 months and the (£12) item from the main dealer lasted 6 years. I bought some (admitedly very cheap "Jubilee" clips from Screwfix and some not-so-cheap genuine "Jubile" ones. The genuine article has a nice radius on the edge of the band to stop it cutting the hose, it has better plating (as far as I can tell) and it can be done up much tighter and removed/replaced more often without stripping its drive than the cheaper version. On other occasions, there's no discernible difference. What I'd really like to see are very detailed tests on rival components. Tests that examined (say) UV stability of plastic components, fatigue life and material spec of metal components, resistance to electrical interference of electronic components and so on. Proper destructive tests on occasions. The trouble is, these tests would be very expensive to carry out and would take a long time. Where will the magazines get the funding to do them?

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Dave_Knowles

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It will change when the chandleries get together and buy directly from the producers.

As for prices we all want things cheaper and cheaper but someone at the end of the day has to loose out. We all wanted supermarkets because they were cheaper and now they dominate the place with many small shops gone. Has this helped, I don't think so. What it has done is alow them to control prices. If this hapens with chandlers I think it will be a sorry day.

Here in UK we pay more for a lot of things (look at the car scandle with Europe) but this is because our goverements (be them of any party) do not look after our interests in the way that other countries goveremnts do for their nationals. We now have thousands of jobs being done by people abroad (telephone call centres) no car industry the list goes on and on. In many other countries I visit (India, Midle East etc.) jobs go to their people before foreigners as a policy. Here it sems the reverse.

Sorry to go on but my feeling is the cost of a shackle is minor in the whole picture.

<hr width=100% size=1>Take care.

Dave

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But the picture is BIGGER than that ..

Witness the ICOM guys post some time ago - where US and EUro prices were compared ...... forget the crap about DSC etc. that was his point ..........

There are price schedules dependent on where you buy.
The excuse being size of market etc.

Please explain why I bought my GPS - Garmin eTrex for 140 quid incl. the data cable WITHOUT discount in Tallinn Chandlers - Estonia ?? Now that is a very small market compared to the UK alone !!!

Sorry but with observation there appears at times a correlation between wage levels and prices ...... it used to be wages set to live against price of articles ...... it seems that it is now the other way round ...... prices set to what wages are ...... So what happened to production costs etc. dictating prices - especially that cheap Korean / Chinese labour is now the norm ??


<hr width=100% size=1>Nigel ...
Bilge Keelers get up further ! I came - cos they said was FREE Guinness !
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sophie4

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Any west country dwellers will be familiar with Trago Mills, if you can pluck up the courage to actually go there they sell the exact same single burner gas cooker sold for £20upwards by many chandlers/camping shops, for only £9.99. In Millets the replacement gas bottles are £2.99 each, in Trago Mills they are £4.99 for 4.

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andyball

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beals sell "hi-grip" stainless clips, a box of 10 30-40mm ones is £6.30 + vat.....sadly if you need plated, they're in boxes of 50! for £9.30. Haven't used the plated ones, but the stainless are v.good imo.

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yachtbits

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Response from a chandler/equipment installer.

In response to a number of the issues raised here.

Some of the products we sell on-line have a gross profit margin that is a single figure percentage after the credit card companies have taken their bit. And yes we do have a good merchanting deal. Out of this single figure margin we process the order and risk the couriers loosing it, we also carry the risk of credit card fraud.
And don't forget that the wonderful insurance companies calculate their premiums on gross turnover as well!

Our liability insurance costs us nearly three times as much to work on boats as it would have done if we just did domestic electrical work. When we tried to get alternative quotes, it took 3 months to find another insurer that would touch "marine risks". Now who is being ripped off! Oh, and it's an extra 30% if we want to sell anything to the USA. And commercial boats are by special arrangement.

Our labour rates are cheaper than the chap who turns up to fix your £400 washing machine or your BMW, and we don't charge a call out fee because too many people moaned at that.

We recently looked at new premises on a new marina development. It was half the size of what we already have, and was going to cost half as much again as what we currently pay.

As for volume of sales. Of course B&Q are cheap, everybody has a house or garden that needs maintaining, only a fraction of a percent of people have a boat. If I could convince every home owner that they need a Garmin colour chartplotter then you guys could all have one for £200!

Now you might start to understand why some on-line chandlers don't provide technical support, they just provide the manufacturers phone number, and why one has started to charge you extra to place your order by telephone! Another one is about to set up paid for technical support for computer products because the minute margins can not support it for free.

Don't assume all chandlers are rip-off merchants and never be shocked when one goes "down the tubes". We are okay but we work in other market places and export worldwide, so we don't have to suffer the seasonal peaks and troughs of the riverside chandler as much. How many people drop in to their local chandlers in January??

And maybe after this, you might understand why the local chap is a bit dearer. And finally, is the sheffield based rigging supplier open on sunday and within walking distance of your pontoon? Marine Insurance, marina rents and sunday wages all add up.

kev




<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.yachtbits.co.uk>http://www.yachtbits.co.uk</A>
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oldharry

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Its not just in the Marine trade....

.... although the word @marine@ does seem to be commensurate with a hefty price hike. Should you happen to own a Renault 19, needing a set of steering swivels for MOT: Price ex Renault £94.00 + VAT. Local Motor factors stock item £12.25 VAT inclusive.

I wonder which one your local garage would have used, and which price would have appeared on your bill....?

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andyball

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Re: Its not just in the Marine trade....

don't tell me.....the local "renault service agent" stuck a rotten grabby pattern clutch in my van & charged me renault prices....gits.

In fairness to renault (not the local oafs)....many of the parts for a trafic have been the same or cheaper as genuine than pattern & much better quality.

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andy_wilson

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What business are you in?

And how do you set your prices?

Mass market, high volume and cheap, or specialised, bespoke and expensive.

ps Builders buckets 99p B&Q special offer. Chandlers £12.991

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andy_wilson

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What business are you in?

And how do you set your prices?

Mass market, high volume and cheap, or specialised, bespoke and expensive.

ps Builders buckets 99p B&Q special offer. Chandlers £12.99

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