I wanted to start a new sewing machine shop in the Kansas City area but have been turned down by Bernina and Janome. There answer to me was that they were happy with the dealers that have there machines. Here is the problem, these dealers have at least four stores each. Where is the competition? To me this is industrial price fixing.
industrial price fixing
Dec 12, 2005
2 Replies
Many distributors will give their dealers an exclusive territory based on location and population. Perhaps both Bernina and Janome feel their products are adequately represented in that area by the existing dealers as shown by the sales volume of those products.
gwh
Some years ago here, the Pfaff dealer closed. A friend of mine applied to Pfaff for the territory, and was turned down when it was given to the White dealer. This was frustrating in several ways - the dealer did not do repairs, but sent everything out, and the dealer tried to switch customers from Pfaff to White or Viking. That dealer used to have Singer, as well, but now there is no Singer dealer at all in this area. When shopping, I tend to drive to the next state to find a dealer and to do more business on line.
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