This is a bit of long rant but I wanted to get it off my chest.
In anticipation of a decent-sized tax refund, I’ve been planning to change out some of my brewing equipment and add some new components.
The biggest item on the list are burners. I’ve been using two propane units that are both long in the tooth. One was purchased 15 years ago from Sabco, the other is a more recent but much more cheaply made turkey fryer from my local hardware store. Both suck down gas with abandon, so I was going to get two Blichmann’s to both replace and upgrade things. There are also a couple of other higher cost items on the list, such as an additional Corny keg and some other CO2 gear, as well as a bunch of less costly items. All told, I was planning to spend about $500 and headed to my LHBS last night with the cash to purchase the equipment. I returned from the shop with no new gear and a feeling that I’m being taken for granted.
The LHBS sells the Blichmann for $169. Since I was buying two, as well as a bunch of other stuff, I asked if they could give me a little bit of a break. My suggestion was to make the burners $155 each. I pointed out that this amounted to about a pretty small discount on the total bill. They refused. The stated reason was that Blichmann forces them to sell for a certain price and so they can’t discount them. I suggested they simply apply it to the other 200 bucks worth of stuff I was buying. The answer was “can’t do it dude.”
I always try to support local shops rather than using web stores. In fact, at the LHBS, I always try to pay in cash rather than by card, to help them out a little. But this episode makes me feel that I’m not very valued and in fact am being taken for granted, especially since this the first and only time I've asked for a discount.
This has left such a bad taste in my mouth, that for the first time, I'm thinking of buying over the web. The burners even with shipping will still be less (state and city sales tax adds 7%). Ditto on the Corney and CO2 gear. In the past, I would have sucked it up, reasoning that it was worth it to help out the LHBS. It appears that the feeling isn't mutual though.
Do I take another run at things, suck up the extra cost or be a bad person and just buy over the web?
In anticipation of a decent-sized tax refund, I’ve been planning to change out some of my brewing equipment and add some new components.
The biggest item on the list are burners. I’ve been using two propane units that are both long in the tooth. One was purchased 15 years ago from Sabco, the other is a more recent but much more cheaply made turkey fryer from my local hardware store. Both suck down gas with abandon, so I was going to get two Blichmann’s to both replace and upgrade things. There are also a couple of other higher cost items on the list, such as an additional Corny keg and some other CO2 gear, as well as a bunch of less costly items. All told, I was planning to spend about $500 and headed to my LHBS last night with the cash to purchase the equipment. I returned from the shop with no new gear and a feeling that I’m being taken for granted.
The LHBS sells the Blichmann for $169. Since I was buying two, as well as a bunch of other stuff, I asked if they could give me a little bit of a break. My suggestion was to make the burners $155 each. I pointed out that this amounted to about a pretty small discount on the total bill. They refused. The stated reason was that Blichmann forces them to sell for a certain price and so they can’t discount them. I suggested they simply apply it to the other 200 bucks worth of stuff I was buying. The answer was “can’t do it dude.”
I always try to support local shops rather than using web stores. In fact, at the LHBS, I always try to pay in cash rather than by card, to help them out a little. But this episode makes me feel that I’m not very valued and in fact am being taken for granted, especially since this the first and only time I've asked for a discount.
This has left such a bad taste in my mouth, that for the first time, I'm thinking of buying over the web. The burners even with shipping will still be less (state and city sales tax adds 7%). Ditto on the Corney and CO2 gear. In the past, I would have sucked it up, reasoning that it was worth it to help out the LHBS. It appears that the feeling isn't mutual though.
Do I take another run at things, suck up the extra cost or be a bad person and just buy over the web?