How many of you ind's would like to join a co-op on buying units?Serious question.Thank you chris c.

I used to work in the farming business when I was a teenager for a co-op that sold to small ind farms who could not keep up with the bigger ones.

I have thought about the same kind of thing for auto glass on a few occasions. I'd be willing to at least entertain the idea.

Here where we are located the electricity is a cooperative, and we have some of the highest prices in the country. Makes me scared of the word co-op.

I agree with AGN

Go louise,This is alot diff.

Interesting thought, more info please.

I wouldn't mind looking at something like that

A county near us has an electric co-op and I hear some of the same complaints. From what I can tell most electric co-ops are considerably small and were formed many years ago...which means higher prices then say AEP or someone bigger.

An auto glass co-op would exist to buy large quantities of glass and sundries at cheap prices which would then be passed on to its members at reasonable rates.

The idea would be that because the co-op would function as a non-profit entity it would only need to mark the product up enough to cover its own expenses...which ideally would be alot cheaper then you could buy it for at most distributors.

Wow...I'm imagining the kind of distribution something like a co-op would have to have. It'd be like starting up a distributorship. Sounds like fun to me. I love a challenge.

Agn,it is something that we are working on right now with a few shops and seems to be really beneficial for buying power.The distrib's are not fond of this but who cares.There is more ind's out there than there is big box's.They need are biz,so we are trying to take back some power that we are loosing from tpa's,big shops,steering ect.This is a start.Keep your ideas and comments flowing.It will be a challenge on a national level but can work,if we can work together.Thank you chris c.

AAG,
hope you can find enough participants with cash, i wouldn't want to deal with people that wouldn't pay up front.

as i understand it, i am guessing you would have to commit to x number of truckloads per year, in order to get the manufacturer's attention. i have heard that manufacturer's no longer cover breakage in transit either, leaving the purchasing group holding the bag for damaged glass.

in addition to that suppliers aren't going to drop ship orders, so the people in the coop will have to be geographically close to each other so they can meet the semi and get the glass, assuming nobody would have storage for the amount of glass they will require you to buy.

We have started trying to put something like this together but have not had any luck with the mom & pops wanting to be part of this they all say they don't like buying from the competition,Even after we explain the procedure.

Now if I'm not mistaken this is basically what NorthStar and Glass Brokers do. I know Glass Brokers require a minimum order and you have to order x amount per year and pay for it before they deliver. They also require you have a fork lift and a large space for stocking large quantities.
NorthStar will allow you to order as few as 3 parts and you can mix and match but to set up a distributorship its basically the same as Glass Brokers.
Also Glass Brokers supplies most independent distributors at least the ones we buy from and some of these guys will drop ship to your customers for you.

I still think this could work with a little planing.

This is worth some investigation. I'm gonna talk to to the guys at the farmers co-op and see how they got started. I suspect they formed their membership and used the membership "dues" as capital. It would have to start as a grass roots type of thing with several local/regional co-ops eventually becoming one bigger operation once the idea gained validity with the shops.

AAG...where are you?

Some wrecking yards buy this way. I was told Spalding in Spokane does.(PPG) 18003662070 Then they sell to the public at a lower price than I can buy from PPG dist.

Didn't the IGA offer a program like this several years back? Several distributors went balong because of the IGA, but it fizzled out when the participation dropped and when the agreed to prices were shared with and used against other distributors?

It is one thing to join forces, I agree, but what distributors are going to help you and how will you negotiate in the price reduction, get your individual stuff and pay for it. ho will monitor your program and how will you be reimbersed for your time if you manage it?

Maybe CAGS can get pricing on this while they are working on the glass prices? What say DL?

AGRGUYS, just for the record I realize the difference in an independent co-op for buying power. And an electric cooperative for buying electricity. I was being fecesious, get it?

Now you gentleman get back to your serious and interesting discussion and pardon my brief interuption, I felt it necessary to save face.

Now Louise...we weren't thinking you weren't informed. Its so hard to tell when your reading what kind of emotion someone is putting on.

If the co-op doesn't have enough buying power then it could well be more expensive than wholesale. This would be a big ship to get off the ground.

Especially when you consider that the indy shops are scattered all over the country, how would distribution be handled? How would the Co-Op decide on a location for the distribution center, yep you're right it'd take alot of thought and planning to get it off the ground. Regarding previous post, I's just messing with em'

Agn, we are in the midwest.Good replys,We have already thought of some good ideas along the basis of this (co-op) idea.It will be tough but very possible.

We are curently doing this on a smaller scale. I am currently working with 4 shops(multiple locations for some) in surrounding areas and states and we buy truck load orders then these four sell to shops within their areas.

The biggest obstacles we have seen is the delivery/service issues to remain competitive. The main four are ok, but then making it so that we are not losing money and still getting the additional shops serviced keeps presenting unique challenges.

Take it for what it is worth. Just a little information to try to help.

Thanks sbok.We already have over a dozen shops now.It is tough at times, but at least we can compete with some major players and make more profit.Our time will come back.