Parts pricing for small engines

[TreefarmerNN]

My brother sent me a link to this which has an interesting discussion about the pricing difference between buying from a machine manufacturer like Husky or Stihl and buying the part directly (especially carbs) from the OEM supplier.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=nww5Hm5BAT8

[rusticretreater]

The Dealers always have a markup, kind of signifying that you are getting the real thing when pricing is compared.  The manufacturer also deals with the hassle of getting the part branded and packaged in the proper boxes. 

The manufacturer price is usually less as they don't have overhead, no middle man to get it to the market.  The manufacturer usually sells to more than one business client who make saws in different price ranges, so the carb is priced closer to the necessary manufacturing cost + needed profit.

When I was in the automotive trade, I learned that cars like a Cadillac used the same brake parts as the other full size cars in the GM line.  The parts would be under a different number so they could charge much more for it.  Also the markup on expensive brands would be much higher too.

The shop owner would order Chevy parts, sell them at Cadillac prices and increase his profit margin.  Buyer beware eh?

[TreefarmerNN]

I certainly expect dealers to mark up parts.  They've got an investment in stocking parts and need to get some return. 

The examples in the video showed markups as much as 800% on carb kits.  I think some of the kits had more markup than that.  So Stihl or Husky buys a carb kit for $5-10 and sells it for $80-100.  I'm willing to take 10 minutes to save those kind of bucks.  I like supporting my local dealers but they've got to be in the ballpark on price.  15-20% over internet options, I may very well buy from the dealer.  Double the price or higher and I'll certainly shop.   

[Al_Smith]

Many times after market parts are just the same as OEM and come from the suppliers that make OEM parts .The more people you can bypass in the supply chain the less they cost .Dealers often times  are not sitting on parts as they order them as needed so they really have no inventory costs involved.I for one am not sympathtic towards them .
The classic example of price gouging could  be the Bing model 48 carb rebuild kits.They became rare and Stihl dealers were charging nearly $40 a pop for them until Oregon came out with them for 5 bucks . 20 years later with inflation last I checked they are now $8 .You all have the internet and Google can find nearly everything .

[DHansen]

I agree you have to shop to make a wise decision.  But when the small, local business are gone, you will miss them.  Our shopping habits and shopping environment is changing.  There will always be mark up and profits, but there are good and bad business models. Spend wisely!

[TreefarmerNN]

I prefer to shop locally and expect some mark up.  They aren't in business just to make me happy.  But when the difference is extreme, I have to suck it up and order on line. 

It's not just small engines either.  I had a Ford dealer tell me a filter kit was $150.00.  On-line was $71.  Both were Motorcraft kits.  It may have cost the dealer $30-40 so they expected a 300% profit margin. 

[Al_Smith]

Speaking of Ford another example .Few people know that the models often use the same part  .For example the Lincoln MK 7 used the same door hardware as the Escort and cost twice as much because it was a Lincoln .If that is not price gouging I'll be monkey'es uncle ,call me Bonjo .

[barbender]

I do try to buy from the local dealer, but the mom and pop shops are kind of a thing of the past. 

If they have to order what I need, what service are they really providing to me? They order it, then I have to go to town to pick it up, when I could just buy it online and have it shipped to my house. 

[DHansen]

This is only my opinion.  People will spent their money where and how it works best for them.  But its not just about parts, tools and accessories.  It about jobs and locations.  I miss the local bakery in Pine City, but Wall-Mart came to town.  Big box, on-line sales, Amazon and the like all put pressure on local businesses. Lower pricing is one way to put the other competitors out of business, then move pricing back to where it needs to be.  You need to shop around and be smart.  There are businesses that are over pricing the products.  Some may be an honest mistake in pricing, let them know.  Every operation has someone in charge of pricing.

[Spike60]

Every business sure better mark up anything they sell or they won't be in business for very long. Don't need to be a math major to understand that. We  sold most parts at list, but never added any extra mark up on top of that. We stocked a LOT of parts. Some dealers don't of course, as pointed out above. Over the counter sales only accounted for about 30% of parts sales, (not talking accessories) The other 70% were sold through the shop via repair work. Which is why it was important to have a heavy parts stock. You can't run an efficient shop if you have to box up every job to order parts. I thought a job should be finished on one trip to the bench.

Used some AM parts in limited fashion where we felt it wouldn't compromise the repair. AM stuff was more useful on the accessorie side, such as mower blades and bar oil. One thing we never did was to sell AM stuff at OEM prices. Only crooks do that. 

People constantly tell us they miss us since we retired. Yeah, we were good. But it wasn't hard to look good against some of the lame shops in this market. I never really felt we were competing with the box stores or on line sellers either. We concentrated on pros and what we called "serious users". We'd turn stuff around in 3 to 4 days, not 3 to 4 months like the jerk who picked up Husky after we closed. I certainly understand why some of you guys get frustrated. 

[barbender]

Spike, if there was a shop like yours around I would happily use it and buy whatever I could from you. I just haven't experienced consistent, competent repair work out of anything local.

As an example, we have a local family owned tire shop that has been in business for well over 100 years. Their prices are always fair, and they always get me in and taken care of when I need a repair. So they get most all of my tire business.

[Spike60]

Have a similar tire shop near me. Father and 2 sons. Doesn't go back a hundred years, but the same service you describe. I like that I can actually talk with the people doing the work, which is not something you can do at the franchised shops that do 60 point inspections with the objective being to sell you $600 of work that you don't need. 

The utter helplessness of the morons from NYC that invade every weekend has led, at least around here, to more need and respect for guys that work with their hands and are willing to get some dirt, other than dust from a keyboard, under their fingernails. 

[TreefarmerNN]

Our local tire shops are the same.  Long term businesses that have stayed in the family.  One sold out to a larger shop in a different part of the state but they left the management with the original owners so not much changed from the customer point of view. 

Small engine and equipment should be the same but neither the two closest dealers are anything that I get excited about.  I'll go there for necessary parts but don't think the "mechanics" really know the equipment and repair times can easily be a month from what I'm told. 

[Spike60]

Other thing we had going for, (or against), us was limited space. Didn't have the typical corral out back to accumulate a lot of wheeled goods. Had to manage the work flow and get things turned around quick. Which meant not letting the line get too long. Turned away a lot of folks with other brands of stuff, which most of them didn't understand. But I always found the "we work on everything" shops to put out shoddy work and have turnaround times measured in months. Never wanted to be one of those operations.