This has forced me to use Amazon more...

[bigdessert]

It is truly sad when amazon can beat my pricing on the distributors site.....

 

[twincountycomputers]

yep it is sad, hard to see how some distributors can stay in business, but the market in this country is totally upside down.

I'm not in favor of higher prices anywhere, but I think manufacturer's should not be able to sell directly to the public.... and that is essentially what they are doing thru sites like amazon.

 

[Cornerstone Technologies]

yep it is sad, hard to see how some distributors can stay in business, but the market in this country is totally upside down.

I'm not in favor of higher prices anywhere, but I think manufacturer's should not be able to sell directly to the public.... and that is essentially what they are doing thru sites like amazon.

How dare companies try to make more of a profit by selling directly, those bastards!

In all seriousness, this is going to be the trend, and it will only get more difficult to turn a profit. Typically, our shops tend to be more convenience oriented, versus price. That and excellent service will help to deter people from just picking some junk from Amazon because of price. I just literally got back from a service call where a tax collector had a shot computer and was going over to Wal-mart for a replacement. I just pointed out that he will be rather disappointed in a year when that too needs replaced when I could get him a decent Dell that has a 3 year warranty. Sure he could do it on his own, but I am the professional and just gave him my best advice given his profession. I told him his up-time is worth more than the money he will save on whatever he would end up picking. Our physical presence is a plus.

 

[altrenda]

Welcome to the Internet Economy, where middlemen are cut out if they don't add value to the deal.

Distributors were used because manufacturers didn't want to sell in small quantities, and wanted to keep control of prices. Disty's would buy in quantity, keep items in stock, and resell in smaller quantities for a profit. Everyone benefited, customers got local access to parts and manufacturers shifted the cost of sales to the disty.

Now, most distributors don't stock much and order from the manufacturer as needed. Why should I buy from a middleman when I can buy direct? why should the company sell to a middleman when it's now cheap to sell direct or through Amazon?

You've only got 3 things to sell , Price - Delivery - Quality. I was taught in salesman school that you needed to do at least 2 of those as good or better than the competition to make the sale.

 

[Steve202]

Amazon is one of the first places I look. They're so cheap at times that its not worth trying to find it cheaper somewhere else.

 

[Simmy]

I've always found Ingram Micro and other wholesalers to be truly rubbish on price. Especially if you factor in £25 shipping or whatever IM used to charge for each order.

 

[Parkwaytech]

Not a big fan of Ingram Micro and the like. Amazon and the other big Internet retailers crush them. And with free two day shipping from Amazon, we dropped our accounts with those guys months ago.

 

[JRDtechnet]

I let both my DandH and Techdata accounts lapse. I usually just buy from Newegg I have a resellers certificate on file so I don't get charged sales tax. I usually buy on a 'as needed' bases and the distributors prices were normally higher or at best the same plus they charged $5 or $10 on orders under $500 and their shipping charge was much higher then newegg or amazon.

 

[nesrinamb]

I was going to get a distributor account for a while then someone sent me the price list for all of ma labs stuff and realized i would have to pay to get an account with them plus pay more so since then i stick to amazon, newegg and mono price.

 

[vtscomputers]

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one doing this. I currently have accounts open with D&H, MA Labs, MAX Group, and ASI Partner and can honestly say that 90% of the hardware I purchase is through Neweggbusiness.com or Amazon.

The 10% I do with the distributors is when I need to put in an order of $10k or more, then I can usually get a better price than the internet retailers.

 

[Knightsman]

went to do a computer build this weekend. New egg was $60 cheaper on CPU+cooler+memory+thermal grease than amazon was. free shipping on both.

 

[BMiller]

What's really sad is when the item is cheaper on Amazon than the distro, so you buy it on Amazon. When the item comes in, it has shipped from the distro. This has happened on multiple occasions at our store.

 

[RegEdit]

Welcome to the Internet Economy

+ 2

Everything has become fragmented. People fighting for crumbs.

 

[Simon Yates]

I have been buying from my own online store for a long time.

Take a look for yourself...

Contact me privately if you want more info.

Regards,

Simon.

 

[carrcomp]

yep it is sad, hard to see how some distributors can stay in business, but the market in this country is totally upside down.

I'm not in favor of higher prices anywhere, but I think manufacturer's should not be able to sell directly to the public.... and that is essentially what they are doing thru sites like amazon.

Personally, I think we should get rid of distributors, but require that people that purchase direct from the manufacturer be a legit business.

 

[Kim101]

Amazon is totally worth it to me. It's practically instant gratification and I think it saves me a ton of time and cash.

 

[Patch22]

Amazon is one of the first places I look. They're so cheap at times that its not worth trying to find it cheaper somewhere else.

I just yesterday quoted for a 2TB Western Digital hard drive. The customer emailed me straight back having found the exact drive on Amazon for cheaper than I can from any other supplier (I did try!!). I know some techies would match Amazon's price but supply a cheaper, poorer quality drive to maintain a profit margin, but that is not how I operate. I try and provide a quality service and have just excepted there is very little to be made by supplying hardware.

On the positive side, not every customer is as savvy or can be bothered to check prices and so a cheap buy from Amazon can work in our favour. Some also are happy to pay a little bit more for hardware knowing I am the first point of reference if there is a problem.

 

[ParadiseTech]

I Agree

I have been using NewEgg Business, eBay and Amazon to purchase parts as well. What I really like is being able to read the reviews and those sites tend to have so many you can really make an informed choice.

Thanks for sharing!