Glass Price Increases????

I believe that if a retailer can't build a successful business charging no more than double the wholesale price, that retailer should clear the field to make room for a more efficient one that can.

Where do you get these rules from Dennis? Retailers sell items based on very different criteria. Let's examine yours. A shipment of glass can cost a retailer hundreds of dollars in freight alone. Add in the basic cost of doing business that we call overhead. This includes rent or taxes, utilities, insurance, let's not even talk about employees and salaries for all. Oops..... what about breakage? If a retailer gets lucky, they may make

20% profit using your system with sheet glass. Now if you're talking about a ring saw, then maybe your idea works, but how many $300 saws can he sell for $600? At the 20% we do make on saws we make a whole $60. Is that being a successful retailer? The real answer in retail Dennis, is that it takes a very wise and varied approach to be successful. That means an assortment of markups that yield a profit. Glass is the highest because of the problem of big money outlay, that returns a smaller percentage profit. Be a sport and support your local retailer, with a few extra bucks. You pay a bit extra to buy razor blades and diapers at your 7-eleven than the supermarket right? Do you bitch to them too? Without the SG retailer, there would be no hobbyists that you can lecture to.

You're kinda biting the hand that feeds you aren't you? Afterall, Northwest's retail shop sells Waterglass for just about $9 a foot and that's where you buy your glass. Face it dude, your business sense is woth all of about a nickle...despite your claim of having a business degree which btw...you don't or can't seem to provide any actual proof.

Have a nice day!

Carl

I just paid $2.45 a gal. yesterday here in Scam Diego. Cheapest I could find. I've seen it over $3.00.

We're paying just about the same....here in So. Oregon. BTW...lived in Diego for about 11 years, from 69-80. Loved it there till the last couple years. Sure do miss the weather. Is the Homegrown album still being made?

Andy

Come up and visit beautiful Victoria for the Victorian Glass Art Festival next September.

...be happy to get you a copy of the complete CV. Wanna list of where all I've taught? Come visit. Lotsa great classes - in a truly beautiful place.

Carl or whoever you are...a word to the wise, don't be posting my name or any of my info. You troll!

Andy

Any reason you haven't addressed any of the responses to your post re: retailers markups for glass? I saw several that directly contradicted yours with compelling evidence that what you paid was perfectly fine.

The free market will determine when the retailer clears the field to make room.

No. I still believe a retailer should be able to sell glass at no more then double their cost. I also believe that those that insist on higher markups will be driven to extinction by the Etailers and other more competitive retailers. As another poster here so well comments, the free market will decide who lives and who dies.

You may believe a higher markup is required. I don't believe it's sustainable in a free market.

Adapt or die.

Dennis Brady DeBrady Glass

Victorian Art Glass

"Dennis Brady" wrote ....snip....

So let me see how dense I am, if the distributor sells to a small retailer, who buys at slightly lower than net, say $3.25 USD per sq ft, pays app. .25 per sq ft to get it to the door, they should be able to sell it for $7.00/ sq ft and be happy and pay their bills, etc?... This is a retailer not a wholesaler/ studio? Curious, But how do the standard everyday expenses get paid? From that "extra " $3.50? Sounds like wishful thinking , but then I'm not a retailer, and at that expectation , am not likely to become one.

Kinda makes you wonder how every other type of retail business survives. Even Walmart does more than just double thier cost. Face it, a retail business can't survive on only doubling the price. If you buy a product for $1 and sell it for $2...you don't really make a dollar. you have maybe 15% in shipping, 25% in overhead and 25% that you have to pay yourself. Do the math...you won't be in business very long. Do you really think big box stores only double their price? C'mon.....

I agree with you, Andy.

The real costs of selling a sheet of glass include pilferage, breakage, obsolescence, shipping, wrapping and packaging, measureing/weighing/ pricing, labor to cut down stock sizes to retail sizes, store rent, helper's salary, sample boxes, time spent helping the customer decide "which" sheet they should buy, time spent reordering, inventorying, time to restock the bins, bad check costs, utilities, telephone, advertising, shop supplies (cutters and oil, etc.) and GOK what else.

I suppose if I were the only source for art glass in a whole region and I had a volume that was truckloads of glass per month, selling out of a warehouse-type space (rather than high-end retail shop), I "maybe" could survive on keystone pricing, if I were to institute a minimum order of $75 or $100 per ticket.

Personally, I think Dennis has been sniffing some of that turbo flux....or something.

I've sold products to Costco. They often markup as little as 30 to 50%.

I believe the "wishful thinking" is the expectation that higher markups will continue in the future. You now have Hobby Lobby selling glass and soon will have Home Depot - possibly Michaels. How much glass do you think the local retailer will be selling at $9./sf when HL, HD, and assorted Etailers sell it for $7.? (or often less). The most ludicrous "wishful thinking" is the belief that the big players pay the same wholesale price as the small retailers. They buy for the same price the distributors do. They'd pay closer to $2. then $3. Import Chinese glass is available at about $1/sf. If Costco or Walmart decides to sell art glass, they'll launch sales at $3./sf. That's precisely the kind of predatory pricing they specialize in. They'd hold that price until they've bankrupted all the small retailers.

How much you need (or believe you need) is irrelevant. What matters only is how much you can get. Whether it's selling supplies or finished product. If a retailer's overhead is such that they can't get by on keystone markup, I believe they either must cut their overhead or face extinction. Many already have. More will follow. Believing that won't happen is also "wishful thinking".

Yes, that's true. But they also mark up some items over 300%. Using your example is not a fair assumption on all products. On the same line, a retailer of any sort doesn't keystone or higher every product they carry. BTW...in the past 10 years I've seen several etailers fall by the wayside because they couldn't survive on keystone or less markups. Besides, when customers want something most want it now. A majority of etailers (not counting the major 3 big boxes) don't even carry half of what they list on their websites and I think that includes you. Who wants to wait 2 weeks or longer? Lots of my customers are aware of etailers but they still shop with me despite me having higher prices that an etailer.

Andy

This is your defense Dennis? Costco? Finished high end goods maybe. Yes they sell cameras, TV's and such that way... but it's box in one end, box out the door at the other right? They may make $150 on a $500 item that they warehouse and never touch. You're comparing this to sheet glass? Crated, shipped, restocked, cut up, breakage, etc etc. Use your head Dennis. Can they sell all their products at that markup and stay in business? You're backing yourself into a corner here. At what point do you admit you're wrong?

Of course Home Depot etc can undersell anyone, but can they get glass crated and shipped cut to size, or cut it themselves? Is the hobby market big enough for them to carry sheet glass in a variety of colors and textures? I don't see it happening. I wouldn't want to be the manufacturer that does it either. The backlash at the retail level will be enormous. Groups like RAGS will lead a revolt!

If you talk to the people in various departments in HD or Lowes you will find that most of them have some professional expertise in the same field as the department where they work. My local HD has, for example, a couple of guys who have painting businesses working in the paint department, the plumbing and HVAC department is managed by a guy who used to have a heating company, and same for the electric department.

I can't imagine there are enough "qualified" and available folks out there with SG experience to staff even a chain as small as Michaels or Hobby Lobby, muchless one of the big box chains. I think you would agree that SG is a bit more complex than stocking 2x4's in a rack, and I doubt that HD or Lowes would want to absorb the learning curve to train and/or find folks who know even the rudiments of SG to step off into that arena.