Posted on 01/18/2006 9:32:09 AM PST by freepatriot32
You've never been to the Missouri Ozarks. We've got rocks, rock and more rocks. They crawl out of the ground and pop up in yards. We have limestone, onyx, chertstone, traces of lead and zink, etc.
The cable is fine, the plastic hardware broke.
"Who in their right mind would pay this much for so little?
If someone wants to pay that much, that someone can easily afford to have someone cut their grass!"
You answered your own question. That someone cutting your grass will have a nice mower. Perhaps a snapper. Nobody in the lawn care business would buy some piece of crap $100 mower.
Are you sure about the ball bearings on the crank for a four stroke engine from Briggs?
Well, like I said, I haven't been in the engine business for some time, and I don't know what Snapper is specifying now, but at the time we were trying to introduce Japanese engines, our engines had a ball bearing on either end of the crank, and Briggs answered with the "IC" series, sporting at least one, and I thought I remembered two, ball bearings.
They may have changed, but that's the way it used to be many years ago...
This guy looked at the 10 year financial graph without regard to the quick buck. Rare.
That's not a loss leader to my way of thinking. A loss leader is a can of soup or a t shirt you sell at a loss to entice customers to enter the store. While you lose a little on the one product, you get it back on the add on sales.
Snapper has nothing to gain in add on sales. In fact, by demonstrating to a generation of customers that their brand is Wal Mart crap, they will help generate interest in their competitors.
Ask Remington about that POS 710 rifle they made for Wal Mart a few years ago. They lost money making it, they lost more money fixing them, and they lost market share when they convinced all the Wal mart customers that Remington makes junk. They have since dropped the model.
They (Stihl) still do and that gets pretty ridiculous. In our tiny town in Texas (1,500 pop.), we have an independent small engine repairman that can fix anything, INCULDING a sacred cow Stihl. A lot of that stuff is snob appeal. Stihl is a good product don't get me wrong but I've also bought other chainsaws that did good service, were cheaper and with my good INDEPENDENT repairman, gots lots of use out of it/them--and Wal-Mart mowers too--for years.
I also go to other stores and guess what? Yep, their junk is ALSO Chinese made, so what's the beef? I tell you, we keep bashing good companies and running them out of business, soon we'll find ourselves right where the libs want us: Marxist/Socialist government, we're almost there...
My best deal on a mower was the used one that I bought for $15 at the flea market in Grand Prairie from an old man who refurbished them.
It was still running after 6 years but I left it behind for the man who bought my house. The worst thing to happen to it was the muffler rusted out and every neighbor within 4 blocks complained about the loud noise and the blue smoke.
Hey, Im a fan of Wal-Mart! They have pretty much set the bar with regards to how to pursue a cost-leadership strategy. We studied Wal-Mart a pretty good bit in several of my b-school classes, and it is amazing how efficient their operations are, particularly on the IT side of things.
Regarding Stihl, I think they have the licensed dealer/service requirement so they can keep their warranty claims more tightly regulated, although I could be wrong. Or we could both be right, as stihl could be using snob-appeal as part of a differentiation strategy.
The office furnishings are no accident. They are a message that Walmart will sell at rock bottom prices and pay at rock bottom prices. The Snapper guy was right. In time his company would be destroyed dealing with Walmart.
I hadn't thought about it much, but I just completed the 9th year on my Black and Decker CMM1000 cordless rechargeable lawn mower.
I've replaced the batteries once, at a cost of $100. I had it serviced at the same time for normal wear and tear, that cost me about $50 (replacing the brushes, the wheels, and the rubber grip on the handle).
So, in 10 years I've spent a total of about $200 for keeping my lawn mower running, plus whatever I spent on charging the batteries each week. The Lawn mower was $400, which seemed a lot for a mower that doesn't even power itself, but there's no reason to think I'll have to replace it for another 10 years.
I don't know why everybody doesn't buy a cordless electric lawn mower like this. No gas cans in your house, no tuning the engine, no oil changes, oil spills, pulling a cord a dozen times, etc.
And when I'm cutting the grass, I can run to the garage, grab the mower, and cut for 5 minutes. Then I can be interrupted, and start up and get interrupted and start up, because you just pull the lever and it starts back up.
And it is about half as noisy as a gas mower. And I dont' pollute the environment nearly so much.
They don't sell these at Walmart though...
About as far as this story is believable.
I spoke with a snack food worker and he told me that every
***** they make that was under wgt. was sold to Walmart in the original packaging. We cannot market it at the lower
wgt but Walmart buys all of the mistakes. You think you are getting a bargain when the ...... is not acceptable for sale in regular stores.
I'd say it was interesting, a slice of life in the world of the entrepreneur. Certainly no morality play, however, and the fact that many people cannot afford a 500 dollar lawnmower is not lost on the "hero", either, who acknowledges that WalMart provides a great service.
Eliott Ettenberg writes in The Next Economy what Brand Management is.
Like it or not Branding works. You don't buy a Porsche because you need a car to go to work. You buy a Porsche because it is like no other car.
Personally, I'm a brand name shopper. If you establish a proper maintenance schedule and stick to it, you'll actually save money over the long run.
I don't know about their tires, but a friend who has to use a man lift to change bulbs, says Wally's bulbs last about one fourth as long as the ones he gets from Granger.
Both are GE.
No, it's a loss leader because you hope that people will come into the store and buy the higher-end model instead. Regardless, Snapper will fade into obscurity if they don't have a retailer sell their stuff.
"I am curious if Goodyear is doing this too. I have bought 2 sets of Goodyear tires from Sam's Club and they were some of the worst tires I've ever used. I switched back to Michelins and the vibration, irregular wear, and premature wear stopped."
Sam's Club carries Michelins as well as Goodyear. And, Sam's stands behind them. I ruined one on a mountain road. Had about 10,000 miles on the tire. Sam's replaced the tire with a new one at no cost. Actually, Sam's credited me with the price of a new tire which was more than the price I paid. Couldn't complain a bit. Bought two more in fact.
Yeah, I know you're just bringing up a point and it was well taken (about Stihl), because in our little tiny town (again!), we also have a Stihl dealer and he was required to have a certified repairman in the business. Really not a bad idea, but it seems a little to ticky but hey, that's their deal! Yes, it's a good product. Meanwhile, our small engine repairman keeps plugging away at the line of mowers, chainsaws and weedeaters that extends out the front door and the back door, amazing--and he gets them repaired.
I am concerned about all the anti-Wal-Mart attacks though, I see this growing, creeping assault on businesses, usually big businesses but my gosh, look at the numbers they employ such has been discussed at length on FR.
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