Hello,

I come to you today on a serious note. I remember not that long ago, bottom feeders only bought from safelite. And the ones who PPG and other felt like dealing with got a much higher cost. Today there are so many bottom feeder one man shops paying the exact same price i am paying when you buy at the level i buy at you should not get the price a bottom feeder does. I think we need accountability from the distributors. This low ball Sh*t has to start to be fixed at the distributor level.. Why would walmart pay the same as mom and pop for a stick of gum if the mom and pop are buying 1 case and walmart buys one million! Wake up demand accountability from your distributor.. as a matter of fact i think i am gonna start a non profit org to push for this!

Larry

Used to be the longer you had an accuont with a supplier, the bigger your discount. new guys get the same discounts i'm buying at.
To sum up your post...DITTO

Well alot of the big boys dont pay theyre bills for 4 months on those hugh jass orders either they buy big to get the discount and have beer pocket money when the bil lcomes around forcing the distributor to eat the ticket for 120 days until they actually sell off the inventory whereas a bottom feeder pays cash and carry or in an on time every month scenario .

No distributor want to take a 20k whack from some big balled glass shop.

LOWBALLERS. I wonder how much most distributors know about the often ridiculous discounts glass shops are having to give insurance companys, except of course the ones in the business of installation not only do they know about the discounts, they're primarally responsible for them. Just two short years ago we had "contract" price list from three vendors, now we just go online and assume our price is the same as everyone elses. the whole rebalancing "revenue neutral" crap has made it impossibe for glass shops to keep up with inflation, it's the only industry where price is the only thing going down..just like any other business, labor, insurance, equipment costs, fuel, etc. etc. keeps going up. The exception being private pay where we still have the control over our markup. We've been forced to go up on private pays to help close the gap left by insurance loss of profits, there is still profit there its just not comparable to two years ago. Diversity in products and services is where you have to go, and hope insurance gets out of auto glass replacement all together. I'm sure not all glass shops that buy quantity, pay late.

I'm somewhat confused as to how it is the fault of a distributor if one chooses to install a piece of glass for "X", when everyone else might do the job for "X" + $100.00. That's why they have been given the name of "Low Baller", right? Using Walmart as an example is comparing apples to oranges. But as long as people want to install for nickels, there isn't much you can do.

I believe it is the Dist.’s fault. Shops were required to establish a track record before they were taken off cod. The shop had to have a location in order to buy glass. Discounts were based on order quantity. 1-3, 4-7, 8-12 and then pallets all had a different discount category. Newbies buying 1 or 2 a week were not paying the same as an established shop who were buying in quantity. Shops had racks of inventory so they could place bigger orders. Now anybody with cash in hand can buy one windshield at the same price as an established shop ordering 10 windshields a day. That IS the distributor’s fault not ours.

Are you buying in quantity anymore, or do you too get prices on one at a time. Unfortunately times, they are a changing..Also there are federal laws about basing prices on quantity. Restraint of trade comes to mind.

No need to buy in quantity any more. Same price for 1-25. If you think quantity priceing brings to mind restriction of trade...you better rethink it again. Manny Flybynight buys 1 at the same price I do. Why would I tie $$ in inventory if it doesn't save me $$$?? Every catalogue I get in the mail has quantity priceing.