What part of "NONE SOLD TO DEALERS" does this family not understand?

[Shabo]

You have to consider location. If the store across the street is doing it, that's a valid point. If it's a smaller store an hour away, they are bringing a better deal to their area and they have every right. The majority of small stores who do this are not buying anyone out of anything.

Yeah, those are the stores that it wouldn't bother me to see them doing that. But if it's a competitor not far away, then it's not fair to the customer. But that's neither here nor there.

[siead_lietrathua]

we had to set a limit on our bags of milk (go epic boondock milk-wars, the only place with 4L milk for $1.67) to two per household since the local stores were coming in and buying milk to resell. even still they walk in, buy two, go stik them in a cooler in the trunk, and walk back in. we can't stop them from buying more if they leave the building first.
but it sure angers the local milk-men

[digilight]

I live on both sides of the fence. As a consumer it does irk me to go in on the first or second day of a sale (say soda 4 12 packs for 10 bucks) to find its empty. But as a small business owner I have to do anything possible to keep costs down and make a buck.

Now I don't buy up entire stocks (haven't found products I could use that much of yet). But most of what I do doesn't require large amounts of anything from retail outlets. Granted I get my copy paper from OD but thats because its cheaper (I order online so I don't have to lug it in). but thats only a quarter skid at a time.

What I will do though is go to Frys or target or OD or another store of that nature if I need a certain item for a job that I don't have in stock. Stuff like amoray cases I will buy at frys because they are cheaper then ordering them and paying shipping (but I'm only buying a small number at a time under a 100 cases usually). stuff like VHS tapes I do buy from local retailers (but I only go thru maybe 20-50 a year on dups) and the CD's and DVDs I use I have to order online (the brands I like aren't avaible in stores) and the prices I pay are about a quarter of what the same type retail for.

I can understand the mindset of a retailer taking advantage of a good sale for the purposes of stocking their own shelves. But as a consumer I can't imagine cleaning out a stocked shelf unless it's for my own personaly use (I guess i have a soul after all).

[Dips]

The owners of the store in the OP probably feel they have good reasons not to sell to resellers. Even if their reasons aren't good, they still have the right to refuse service.

It looks like they are choosing to exercise that right.

[Fandangoose]

That happened to me when I was a salesperson at a bedding store. A woman called to ask what price we'd give her if she bought some unremembered and ungodly number of twin size mattresses, I think it was over 100. I told her our lowest price was $99 each, and that she probably wouldn't get a discount on those, but that I'd check. On one of my days off, the other salesman there spoke with her. At first she was reluctant to tell him, but he finally elicited that she had seen an ad in the local newspaper for a college seeking the lowest bidder to supply mattresses. In effect, she was trying to compete with us and all the other bedding stores in the area. Needless to say, we weren't too happy with her.

[Andara Bledin]

I really don't see the problem.

The store wants to sell merchandise and the customers want to buy. If the customers are buying because Costco, let's say, is getting a deal on Coca-Cola products that's better than what Coke of offering the bodega owner, then let the bodega owner hustle his ass to Costco to get his inventory for less than what Coke is charging him.

Everyone is griping about a non-problem.

Yes, it's true that the first store is getting its money, and that they shouldn't care, but what about the customers that are getting screwed over?

Actually, it can be hurting a store for dealers to come in and buy out a sale item rather than regular customers.

Stores have really low advertised specials in order to get people to come into the store. They make nothing or actually lose money on each sale. What they're hoping is that once they have you in the store, you'll do the rest of your shopping there as well, purchasing far more in your trip than just the single sale item.

Dealers, however, never do that. They go in, buy up the one thing on special, and leave. That's not good for the store in any fashion whatsoever. They don't get money from incidental sales, and they have a lot of irritated customers who can't get the special because dealers have cleaned it out.

Nothings better than buying 200 giant pixie sticks you know will be gone in a couple of weeks

Heh. I've sold Giant Pixy Stix at conventions. It is not unusual to go through between 100 and 200 of them in a single weekend.

^-.-^

[Sliceanddice]

Heh. I've sold Giant Pixy Stix at conventions. It is not unusual to go through between 100 and 200 of them in a single weekend.

^-.-^

Lol whats amusing is its for my meimei, all that sugar would make me sick.
I perfer 200 Paydays.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Everyone is griping about a non-problem.

Incorrect. Often those cheap consumable items will be "loss leaders" that the store advertises to get you in the door, in the hopes that you will buy other things while you are there.

Dealers do not do that--they just buy the item in quantity and scram. You're selling items but making no profit and in fact losing.

And then along comes Suzy Shopper who, among other things, wants to buy that cheap package of toilet paper or bottle of laundry detergent or whatever along with some other things. She goes to the paper towels and finds the paper towels on sale are completely out (because dealers bought them all). She goes to the laundry detergent and also finds that the laundry detergent on sale is out. So Suzy leaves and does her shopping elsewhere.

So yes, it is a problem, especially when I have to be the one to placate the angry customers accusing us of bait and switch when all that happened was a couple of resellers came in and cleaned us out.

[CrazedClerk]

People will try anything to make a buck, it's a fact.

At my games store, we had the right to kill any preorders we thought were just set up by people who wanted to resell on Ebay. We cancelled at least 15 different orders because of this.

Even so, when PS3 day came, a few guys came in and each bought one of our units and no accessories or games. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where those PS3s were headed.

We also had occasionally abuse of our trade in program by people I'm pretty sure are dealers.

I myself buy from second hand shops to sell on ebay occassionally. Sometimes I make decent money. If I can sell something for more than I paid for it, that's good business.

[Fawn]

Every store I've ever been in has a limit on sales items. Like "limit two deals" or whatever. Imagine how many trips they'd have to make then.

Same thing goes on in the stores around here.
If anyone came up to me with THAT much stuff, I'd immediately send them away!

[LadyAndreca]

*nod* Had this one happen at my store last Thanksgiving. We had a whole bunch of movies that were on super sale for 'Black Friday'...and these two guys not only had two HEAPING carts full of these items, they had someone on the inside who just handed them unopened cases of the stuff. They just scoured lines until they found someone with the "New Team Member" badge on register.

They came back 2 hours later to try this again, as they successfully bullied the cashier into ringing them up. And quite bluntly responded "reselling them on e-bay" when asked what they thought they were doing. The manager slapped them with a 2-item limit (normal limit is 'a reasonable' amount, 6 if we're pressed for a number) and told them she didn't want to see them back in the store for the rest of the sale.

I also saw someone attempt to buy every single one of a pre-paid phone plan card we had on sale once. He took every card from all 22 registers AND all the ones from the electronics display. The manager--same one, actually--laughed him out of the store. (I would have been more amused if I hadn't had to undo the transaction that had been started. He'd been rung up for more than 100 when the manager caught him.)

[Dave1982]

His line of thought is as long as he's buying them the store's getting the money, so we didn't have a right to limit the amount he was getting. While that was technically true (the SC's favorite kind of true) there was also the matter of all the "WAAAAAAAAAAH, BAIT AND SWITCH~!" complainers when we'd be out of an advertised item by the end of the first day.

"No sir, you are wrong, because I am going to sell these one way or the other, and I would prefer to keep the majority of my custoemrs happy than to piss them all off just to keep YOU happy."

I'm just waiting to be able to say something like this (more politely phrased, of course) when the next round of pre-season penny sales comes around for Back to School at Staples.

Then there's the fact that there's likely a limit ont he number of rebates that one person can redeem. At my store, for free stuff, it's often "Limit 1 of each per household."

[DesignFox]

Yea. I hate those people that buy out all the collectibles and sell them on Ebay.

There are some things I've really liked to have purchased, but was unable to, because some jacktard grabbed 50 of them and there were none left for me.

Those people need to

I won't purchase things for outrageous prices on ebay, and I refuse to buy a collectible/high demand item simply because I CAN sell it on ebay. I think it's wrong and I just won't do it. If it's something I collected and simply don't WANT anymore, then it would be a different story- and let the bidding do it's work if it's a high demand item.

It makes me sick to think that some kids can't get a Wii, or a PS3, or some other toy or even high-end CLOTHES because some greedy SOB bought it and jacked up the price. If YOU don't want it, let the person who DOES want it, have it! Work for a living, or start some honest business. Quit the scams!

Can we tell this hits a sore spot with me?

I think if the store in the OP was set up to sell to resellers, or if the people buying cartloads of gaterade have a reseller's license, then there is nothing wrong in what they are doing. But if they are simply buying out the shelves to jack up the price later, and they aren't licensed to be buying products there, then they are essentially stealing from the other consumers.

I do happen to agree that if this is a problem, the location should start imposing limits on the sale. Make the scam artists work just a bit harder at getting their stuff "cheap."

I, personally, still don't see how any of this ends up being cheaper than coming by the product honestly- I mean, seriously, how much time and gas do you waste searching for the sale, going out to the sale location, arguing over limits, or just plain arguing because the staff know you are being a scumbag, loading the crap into vehicles, bringing it in to YOUR location, loading the shelves...

Duh. you might pay a little more to get it direct, but ultimately it balances out in time, gas and labor saved.

[Kogarashi]

And it's situations like this where I think, "C'mon, this is why we have wholesale clubs." I mean, the sign for Sam's Club even says, "We're in business for small business." Go buy bulk there.

(Has anyone here every bought a box of 144 candy bars?)

::raises hand:: I have. I like having a big candy stash to raid at 3am.

[Sandman]

There's a guy who periodically comes into my store who pulls crap like this. He's not a true "dealer" but rather an eBayer and private reseller. He used to buy cartloads of pre-paid phones (back when we sold them) and then resell them in the Caribean. He buys F-status goods to resell on eBay. And he's very pushy and greedy. My sales manager hates the man and it apaprently just waiting for an excuse to kick him out.

Recently I found out that he has actually been thrown out of AND BANNED from almost every other Staples in the area. Which amazes me, since the compnay (like so many others) bends over backwards for people who are much worse than him.

We have one guy like that, the only reason why we still have him in the store, he sends people down to us.

He's also the only person who will more than likely purchase some of our clearance machines.