Yeah, today’s plunking will be from my soap box. Isay sorry but really I’m not apologetic about this. I had something else to talk about this morning but when I say last night on national news that Wally World is pulling out of the small towns where their business practices decimated the local economy… and now that their numbers have dropped …. basically they have sucked the life out of the small community and now they are moving on. What’s left…. a community now has to go to another town for their basic necessities! The American attitude about capitalism has caused this. The big guys suck the life out of any community it targets. It happened to the consumer electronics industry I was in way back… do any of you have an independent home stereo shop near you? Can you audition speakers in a properly set up room?
This soap bpx of mine is cranked up because Walmart is showing you things to come in the GMC community! Look at our classic motorhome as a small town. The big boys have sent in their price squad and put out of business the small local dealers and now all that’s left is maybe a convenience store. If you cause this same thing to happen to the dedicated GMC dealer structure blame yourself when you cannot get that special part you need at some unrealistic price.
Just like the Dr. Suess story of the trufular trees… “I speak for the trees….”, it’s the same story… my librarian Mom brought me up on Dr. Suess and all the stories that were to teach us ethics and cooperation. We have forgotten all of that I think…
As you have been witnessing we have reworked our company… vastly increased our capability and we will continue with the GMC and by growing will be able to bring our coach to the next generation but along with that… actually the thing that will keep our work viable are the other things we will be doing along with the GMC. Custom, quality and cost effective work is needed in many markets so along with building awesome motorhomes and keeping our coaches on the road, we are doing the same thing for the limousine industry along with other custom vehicles.
OK, I’m off the box but heed my warning… the dealers are here to help you, in turn you need to help them. That’s it… guys, do the right thing….
You are right on Jim.
I never buy anything from Rock Auto or any other auto parts store when I need anything for my coach.
I just put in tank pumps in mine & purchased the kits from Jim K..
I replaced all the full lines at the same time & was told that by Applied that I could get the fuel lines local.
I said, no, I’m getting everything from you because there are too many GMC people out there that are too cheap to support the dealers & I’m not one of them.
Just saying.
It’s kinda “Yea, Nay, and Maybe”, in that what WalMart is dumping are their ‘marketplace; stores. Small grocery types, whic would compete directly with the Mom n Pops that have developed niches where the bog box stores don’t fit. They found out quickly – fortunately – that the big box binniss model simply doesn’t fit – which is why the niche operations survive. And hopefully will continue to do so.
That being said, Dechiene makes a valid point – I suspect the GMC shops have a reasonable profit on standard stuff, and I could certainly buy most of it elsewhere for a bit less. This gross profit, however, supports the specialty end of the business, the warranties and ‘take backs’ on stuff that isn’t quite correct, middle of the night service and shipments, etc. If this subsidy goes away, the other will as well, or will become sufficiently costly that the price of GMCing will increase out of proportion.
–johnny