At 08:48 AM 5/28/97 EDT, you wrote:
>Regarding the suggestion that some company should extend a discount to
>members of BEE-L,
 Discounts are given to VOLUME. >
>Even though there are many members of BEE-L, a company that might corner
>the market on subscribers would for the most part still be dealing with
>small orders to many buyers rather than a large volume to a single
>destination.  The overhead of counting, packing and shipping would still
>be on the company with no real benefit for extending a group discount to
>a large group of mostly small potatoes beekeepers .
 
Sorry to disagree, but a real benefit for extending a discount to a large
group of small potatoes coustomers is the large increase in sales and
coustomer base. Since you would then be buy larger quantities, the shipping
cost (to your warehouse} per item would then be reduced, and you might get
a volume discount from the manufacturers which means a lower cost of goods
sold
 
 
  Volume
>discounts for subscribers is a nice idea, but I doubt you'll find a
>distributor willing to take on the headache when one distributor or
>another is going to get your business anyway.
 
IMHO, it depends how hungry one vender is for business and/or whether a
vender will sit back and say that you will either buy from me or my
competitor anyway.
 
 
  Discounts for small
>orders is a nice idea, but walk a mile in distributors' shoes and it
>becomes easy to see why there will be few if any takers.
 
It only takes one agressive company....
How do you think the air fare wars start?
 
>
>Volume discounts for small orders ARE achievable if you can pool
>resources and find someone willing to do the distributors' chores for
>no compensation.  This would be a good project for clubs and
>associations.
 
This is a very good suggestion and quite workable.
 
  But realistically, don't expect distributors to offer
>discounts merely because you subscribe to an electronic forum.  That
>would be like expecting A.I. Root to discount their equipment merely
>because you subscribe to "Gleanings".  Nice idea, but it ain't a gonna
>happen!
 
You may very well be correct that it will not happen.
Maybe all the vendors are satified with their share of the market, they
will not offer lower prices, better service, or other incentives to attract
new customers.
I am not in the bee supplier business, however I have lower prices than my
competition, am open 7 days to their 5 1/2, and open later by 2 hrs. a day.
 I do offer 10% discounts to firemen and peace officers.  My  business is
growing.
 
Dusty
Angel's Old Town HomeBrew
http://www.netropolis.net/dusty/homebrew.htm
Beauty is in the hands of the beerholder!