Ryan,
To answer your question about what I do for a living, I have two jobs: One for 40 -50 hours/week during the day Monday through Friday; the other one as a "part-time" instructor at the local communidty college teaching four 5-credit class sections/quarter, which is one mmore section than a full time instructor teaches, year round for 45% of the wages a full-time instructor gets paid for his first year of college teaching with no experience doing so. Between them I make more than your mythical $60,000.00 maximum. However, I put in 70-80 hours work nearly every week of the year.
You are also misquoting me and putting words in my mouth. I never said I hate shops; but I did say that if a shop doesn't have good customer service or gives bad information about products the shop doesn't carry, I will not do business with that particular shop.
Also, I don't use Okuma and other such poor quality equipment. I have very good equipment, which I bought with hard earned money. And I have been buying quality equipment since I was 16 and got my first job. This was 35 years ago. I have no problem paying for equipment; but I will always ask for a discount just like I do at a car dealer (which is a true franchise). After all, this is capitalism and shop owners/employees should not get offended if a customer requests a discount of some sort.
Eddie,
I'm not bitter, not down on shops. I am simply asking if it is reasonable for manufacturers to require an independent retailer sell its products at the "suggested retail price". Fly shops are not a true franchise like McDonald's where the owner of the local McDanald's must pay a franchise fee to McDonald's Corporation for the priviledge to sell McDonald's products and use the McDonald's name. They also have to build the store to the specifications of McDonald's, sell only McDonald's products, and buy their supplies from McDonald's.
A shop owner can buy from any manufacturer or distributor he desires. And as you know, his so-called franchise from a manufacturer is nothing more than having met the minimum opening order in an area that the manufacturer has deemed OK for him to sell the product.
Also, I have lost jobs due to layoffs in my life. And I have quit jobs to get other jobs. When I have been laid off, I went out and found another job. Was this a tragedy, not at all. Instead it was an opportunity for me to do something different or expand my horizons. Just because someone has started or opened a business, he has no guarantee that he will still be in business 5 years or even 15 years later. That depends on many factors. However, capitalism requires that a business succeed or fail on its own without government intervention to prevent it from going out of business.
Gracies Dad and Eddie,
My friend is very much one of my best friends. And I do not begrudge him his success, I rejoice in it with him. He worked hard for it and spent many an 80 hour week in the shop. He earned his million the old fashioned way, he worked for it and watched his spending.
Ol Rich,
My friend paid cash for all his inventory right from the get-go. Therefore, he never had interest payments on it and he expanded his stock of inventory both in quantity and diversity as he increased his sales volume and could afford to do so without borrowing. Yes, this meant for the first 3 years he lived on rather meager wages had no vacation from the shop, and worked all holidays except Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Also, he never opened on Sundays, said he needed one day/week to recouperate and get some fishing in. But after the 5th year, his income literally took off.
He figured his markup after the cost of freight. He hardly ever advertised and built his business on word-of-mouth so advertisizing cost was negligible. His knowledge of fly fishing and fly tying materials is outstanding, and he had tremendous customer service. Also, he thought nothing of giving fly tying product away to teens who came into the shop, or throwing a top quality fly line in with the purchase of good reels or rods, backing included. He would splice lines at no cost, put loops in lines for interchageable tips, and was always willing to give casting lessons free of charge. This things endeared him to many who then told others about his shop. And he had customers who made trips from over 1500 miles just to buy things from him yearly. They would then spend several thousand dollars in his shop.
Why can't all shops do these things for all their customers like he did?
Sinktip,
Maybe the problem is that very few customers are willing to ask for a lower price on the highest priced items because they don't want to anger the owner/employee of the shop. I do think there is something to the major rod makers starting to offer lower priced rods. Why does a rod maker need to have a suggested retail price of $700.00 for a rod that cost about $130.00 to make? Maybe the manufacturers need to put an end to the replace the rod free if it gets broken regardless of cause. I noticed over the years that even high end gear and spinning rods made of the same material as our beloved graphite fly rods are far lower in price. Maybe this is because gear guys and spin fishers refuse to spend $700.00 for a rod.
But suggest the fellow referred to above is a true survivor.
