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Toro Dealer lost
#1
reynoldston
reynoldston
This last fall we lost another dealer in our town. He started with Wheel Horse and then went to Toro/Wheel Horse. The only good I can see from it I might gain some new repair customers. Time will tell. I know am going to miss them because they were a close source of parts and information. Just hate to see them go. The Big Box stores are taking over more all the time.
#2
R
Rivets
R
Rivets
I hope someday Joe Public will realize what it means to them when this happens. What is Joe Public going to do when there are no repair shops like your's for them to go to. You know they will be screaming at the cost of repairs when they going to the big equipment dealers who sideline on the small equipment. Another reason there are no young guys or gals going into this line of work. Real problem is, I don't think there is a solution to this problem in todays society. Does anyone out there have one? Reynoldston, I hope you don't get overloaded and burned out, if you know what I mean.
#3
primerbulb120
Joe Public will turn to the people who fix and flip lawn equipment and trade in their broken mower on a nice working one. I can identify at least 5 people within 30 minutes of me who fix and flip equipment as a hobby, myself being one of them.:biggrin:
Sure, I couldn't make a business out of it, but I enjoy doing it.
primerbulb120
What is Joe Public going to do when there are no repair shops like your's for them to go to?
Joe Public will turn to the people who fix and flip lawn equipment and trade in their broken mower on a nice working one. I can identify at least 5 people within 30 minutes of me who fix and flip equipment as a hobby, myself being one of them.:biggrin:
Sure, I couldn't make a business out of it, but I enjoy doing it.
#4
B
bertsmobile1
B
bertsmobile1
Well it goes along the same lines as the little ( well long actually ) rant I had on the why Honda stopped making ride ons thread yesterday that apperas to have upset some on so it got clipped.
#5
reynoldston
reynoldston
I really don't see the need for everybody to see how much they can spend on a mower. In my neighborhood there are many houses with small lawns that a person can get many years out of a cheaper big box store mower. That I call spending their money wisely. The big thing for me is that I lost a good close source to buy parts from when this dealer closed. This will mean for me a lot more mail orders and longer turn around times being a small shop with a very low parts stock.
#6
B
bertsmobile1
B
bertsmobile1
Unfortunately weather we like it or not there are consequences every time we open out wallets.
And you are bemoaning one of them. We can recognise our "social responsibality" and weigh it against our ability to pay or selfishly ignore it.
So yes everyone in the region got a mower possibly good enough to do the job on thier lawns which made the billionaires who own the big box more profit so they can drink more expensive champane benefiting no one but themselves.
The customers may have saved a few $ by doing so which made them feel good and because they looked no further than their own personnal gain, the local dealer who can not compete on price has closed down.
Now no one intentionally tried to close the Toro dealer but collectively their selfish greed has had just that effect.
In time if Joe Public does not wake up to this then there will be no small shops and thousands more people with no jobs.
And for you, the only source of parts will be the big on line shops and eventually they will stop selling unpopular parts because it is not economic to do so.
The trouble with pushing the "free Market" idology to it limit is that it is based on a false assumption that every one in a market are equal and have equal access to resources but the "level playing field" is a myth.
The big box store does not pay for the stock on their floor untill 30 days after they sell it.
The Toro dealer who closed down has to pay for all his floor stock some where between 30 to 120 days after he has ordered it.
The big box stores force the factories to supply mowers at a substantially lower price than the regular wholesale price the local Toro dealer has to pay.
Thus the big boxes can make genuine claims "to beat any price by 10%" because they are buying at anything up to 50% less than the local Toro dealer and only selling the high volume sales mowers.
This also puts great pressure on the factory as they sell more & more to big box stores at uneconomic profit margins which peversely they can afford to do because of the higher margins paid buy the larger number of small shops.
Eventually the factory becomes uneconomic as greater percentages of their output goes to the big box stores so they move production to a lower cost region and hundreds more are thrown out of work.
And the real tragedy of this is most of the people buying from the big box at the cheapest possible price could easily afford to have bought their mower from the local Toro dealer but they are brainwashed into believing that they have to buy everything at the cheapest price and that some how this is good for the country when in fact it is slowly destroying it. Applies just as much down here as it does up there.
I buy a range of parts from the same supplier as one of our local big boxes.
Because of my annual spend I get a 5% discount off full wholesale, Based on the same scale the big box should get them at 30% discount where as I know they get them at a 50% discount ( I go riding with a buyer ).
I have 30 days to pay for each & every part I buy at the end of the month , the big boxes got their par stock for free and only pay for what they sell when they reorder but still have 60 days to pay end of month.
So that is nothing like the "level playing field" that the whole "free market" idology falsely assumes we are all trading within.
And if you have not gotten bored yet, I resell these parts on a 2% margin so I can come in under the big box price and when one of my customers brought this to the attention of the big box they got told I was not a retail shop so the guarantee to beat any ones "Advertised price on the same product" did not apply to me.
And you are bemoaning one of them. We can recognise our "social responsibality" and weigh it against our ability to pay or selfishly ignore it.
So yes everyone in the region got a mower possibly good enough to do the job on thier lawns which made the billionaires who own the big box more profit so they can drink more expensive champane benefiting no one but themselves.
The customers may have saved a few $ by doing so which made them feel good and because they looked no further than their own personnal gain, the local dealer who can not compete on price has closed down.
Now no one intentionally tried to close the Toro dealer but collectively their selfish greed has had just that effect.
In time if Joe Public does not wake up to this then there will be no small shops and thousands more people with no jobs.
And for you, the only source of parts will be the big on line shops and eventually they will stop selling unpopular parts because it is not economic to do so.
The trouble with pushing the "free Market" idology to it limit is that it is based on a false assumption that every one in a market are equal and have equal access to resources but the "level playing field" is a myth.
The big box store does not pay for the stock on their floor untill 30 days after they sell it.
The Toro dealer who closed down has to pay for all his floor stock some where between 30 to 120 days after he has ordered it.
The big box stores force the factories to supply mowers at a substantially lower price than the regular wholesale price the local Toro dealer has to pay.
Thus the big boxes can make genuine claims "to beat any price by 10%" because they are buying at anything up to 50% less than the local Toro dealer and only selling the high volume sales mowers.
This also puts great pressure on the factory as they sell more & more to big box stores at uneconomic profit margins which peversely they can afford to do because of the higher margins paid buy the larger number of small shops.
Eventually the factory becomes uneconomic as greater percentages of their output goes to the big box stores so they move production to a lower cost region and hundreds more are thrown out of work.
And the real tragedy of this is most of the people buying from the big box at the cheapest possible price could easily afford to have bought their mower from the local Toro dealer but they are brainwashed into believing that they have to buy everything at the cheapest price and that some how this is good for the country when in fact it is slowly destroying it. Applies just as much down here as it does up there.
I buy a range of parts from the same supplier as one of our local big boxes.
Because of my annual spend I get a 5% discount off full wholesale, Based on the same scale the big box should get them at 30% discount where as I know they get them at a 50% discount ( I go riding with a buyer ).
I have 30 days to pay for each & every part I buy at the end of the month , the big boxes got their par stock for free and only pay for what they sell when they reorder but still have 60 days to pay end of month.
So that is nothing like the "level playing field" that the whole "free market" idology falsely assumes we are all trading within.
And if you have not gotten bored yet, I resell these parts on a 2% margin so I can come in under the big box price and when one of my customers brought this to the attention of the big box they got told I was not a retail shop so the guarantee to beat any ones "Advertised price on the same product" did not apply to me.
#7
Ric
Ric
The problem with your theory about the BBS being at fault is the fact that that's what people want today. They want to use Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes etc. People today are not interested in quality for items you use around the house. If I wanted a lawnmower to cut my lawn personally I wouldn't go to a dealer because I couldn't find the $100 mower I want from them but I can find it at HD. Buy it for $100 keep it two years and trash it, buy another.
People buy throw away items that they can trash in a couple of years and replace it cheap. Things like TV's computers, cameras, cell phones. I mean why spend a ton of money 7 or $800 on say an iPhone 6 down town at the store when I can get one for half the cost from Verizon with a two year contract and be able to upgrade at the end of the contract. Throw away is the norm, just like TV's. Where did the TV repair go? He out lived his purpose when you can buy 50 and 60" HD Smart TV's from Walmart for $348 and the thing is it's cheaper to replace the stuff in a couple of years than fix it.
Yeah I'm not liking the idea of all of it either but I've accepted that's the way it is and I'm going with it because I know there isn't a whole lot I or you can do about it. Guess you could vote Donald Trump for president.:smile:
People buy throw away items that they can trash in a couple of years and replace it cheap. Things like TV's computers, cameras, cell phones. I mean why spend a ton of money 7 or $800 on say an iPhone 6 down town at the store when I can get one for half the cost from Verizon with a two year contract and be able to upgrade at the end of the contract. Throw away is the norm, just like TV's. Where did the TV repair go? He out lived his purpose when you can buy 50 and 60" HD Smart TV's from Walmart for $348 and the thing is it's cheaper to replace the stuff in a couple of years than fix it.
Yeah I'm not liking the idea of all of it either but I've accepted that's the way it is and I'm going with it because I know there isn't a whole lot I or you can do about it. Guess you could vote Donald Trump for president.:smile:
#8
RhettWS
RhettWS
Against my better judgement I decided to way in on this subject,
I see both sides of the fence. Standing way back with my experience I'm generally pleased with the free market system. However, it is not because I can buy things cheaper at Walmart, Lowes, etc.. In the long run I have seen the big box groups come in and dominate, then start to lose their market share due to entrepreneurs realizing what the failures are of these megastores and then capitalizing on their weaknesses. Frankly, I do everything I can to support local vendors but I do enjoy going to Walmart late at night if I need a loaf of bread.
From the movie Heart Break Ridge, "Improvise, adapt, overcome". Words to live by.
I see both sides of the fence. Standing way back with my experience I'm generally pleased with the free market system. However, it is not because I can buy things cheaper at Walmart, Lowes, etc.. In the long run I have seen the big box groups come in and dominate, then start to lose their market share due to entrepreneurs realizing what the failures are of these megastores and then capitalizing on their weaknesses. Frankly, I do everything I can to support local vendors but I do enjoy going to Walmart late at night if I need a loaf of bread.
From the movie Heart Break Ridge, "Improvise, adapt, overcome". Words to live by.
#9
B
bertsmobile1
B
bertsmobile1
Sometimes Ric I feel like Australians should be voting in the USA elections as we get more coverage of them down here than you do up there.
As for bucking the tred, it is worthwile, if you value the world you live in and the life you lead.
The world has finite resources and wasteing these for very short term goods because some one can do it for you cheaply is a false economy.
Don't get me wrong, I am not a tree hugging leftie, I just hate to see waste and resources being squandered is the worst waste you can get.
It takes only a small amount more resources to make a top quality product that will give you many years of good service, or some one else many years should you like to upgrade, than it does to make junk that will only just outlive warranttee.
In most cases there is little to no tangiable benefit to having the lattest piece of kit. I am responding to you on a 15 year old Mac. It may have cost $ 1,000 more than the my wife's PC but it has lasted 3 times as long as any of her PC's and to date actually cost about 1/2 as much when looked at the annualised costs. I use an I phone 3 that I inherited with the business when I bought it from Bert. I can not see any reason to spend $ 700+ on an I phone 7 that will not make me 1 cent more than the 3 I am currently using. My principal work vehicle is a 1994 L 300 so its annual cost is about $ 2000 in maintanance which is less than the interest others pay on the lease of their new trucks and again a new truck will not generate a single cent of extra income and cost substantially more.
I am not ant-technology. I bought a cheap bore-o-scope to see it it might be a usefull piece of kit, it was and I upgraded to a USB one that cost near $ 1000 and am currently looking at some in the $ 5000 range because it will make me more income and am also debating weather to allocate $ 5000 to some new battery kit or a new wider trailer as more of my cusomers are going to 60" + decks which currently get serviced on site.
At some point in time this squandering( and at times I have been just as guilty ) will start to cost you, me and every one else real money as some form of carbon tax is introduced globally.
And if the scare mongers are 1/2 right, it will cost thousands of people their homes if not their lives.
If you remember back to your schol days and if you economics or commerse you might remember that when free market & capatilism was taught there were a lot of assumptions it got based upon, like a level playing field and an informed market, neither of these have existed for a very very very long time if at all they ever did.
Which gets us back to where we started from.
Every time you & I open the wallet, there are consequences weather we are aware of them or not, but it would be a lot better if we thought about just a little.
As for bucking the tred, it is worthwile, if you value the world you live in and the life you lead.
The world has finite resources and wasteing these for very short term goods because some one can do it for you cheaply is a false economy.
Don't get me wrong, I am not a tree hugging leftie, I just hate to see waste and resources being squandered is the worst waste you can get.
It takes only a small amount more resources to make a top quality product that will give you many years of good service, or some one else many years should you like to upgrade, than it does to make junk that will only just outlive warranttee.
In most cases there is little to no tangiable benefit to having the lattest piece of kit. I am responding to you on a 15 year old Mac. It may have cost $ 1,000 more than the my wife's PC but it has lasted 3 times as long as any of her PC's and to date actually cost about 1/2 as much when looked at the annualised costs. I use an I phone 3 that I inherited with the business when I bought it from Bert. I can not see any reason to spend $ 700+ on an I phone 7 that will not make me 1 cent more than the 3 I am currently using. My principal work vehicle is a 1994 L 300 so its annual cost is about $ 2000 in maintanance which is less than the interest others pay on the lease of their new trucks and again a new truck will not generate a single cent of extra income and cost substantially more.
I am not ant-technology. I bought a cheap bore-o-scope to see it it might be a usefull piece of kit, it was and I upgraded to a USB one that cost near $ 1000 and am currently looking at some in the $ 5000 range because it will make me more income and am also debating weather to allocate $ 5000 to some new battery kit or a new wider trailer as more of my cusomers are going to 60" + decks which currently get serviced on site.
At some point in time this squandering( and at times I have been just as guilty ) will start to cost you, me and every one else real money as some form of carbon tax is introduced globally.
And if the scare mongers are 1/2 right, it will cost thousands of people their homes if not their lives.
If you remember back to your schol days and if you economics or commerse you might remember that when free market & capatilism was taught there were a lot of assumptions it got based upon, like a level playing field and an informed market, neither of these have existed for a very very very long time if at all they ever did.
Which gets us back to where we started from.
Every time you & I open the wallet, there are consequences weather we are aware of them or not, but it would be a lot better if we thought about just a little.
#10
Ric
Thank goodness Australians don't vote in the USA elections, we'd be more screwed up than we already are. :smile: As for bucking the trend, and it being worth while, to value the world you live in and the life you lead you first need to get a life in the present day and age and stop living in the past with a 15 year old Mac that can't cut it anymore cause apparently it doesn't have a spell check. I mean really an iPhone 3?? You really need to bring yourself up to date and stop living like a hermit.
Oh and BTW there's no such thing as the iPhone 7 yet. It's not do for its introduction until late this fall or early next year. There still promoting the 6 and 6S. Yeah you can drive your 1994 and it was probably a great vehicle in it's time but it's time is past, it's not an efficient running vehicle? Not to today's standards. It will cost you more in maintenance and fuel than a new truck would cost. That savings alone could make your payments on a new truck.
Same with your Mac, it's just not efficient to today's standards and with a new up to date computer you could be running programs that are faster and that would improve your business and probably make you more money. I mean if you like the Apple try an Ipad it will blow that 15 year old make away. I'd almost bet an iPhone 6 would do more than your Mac and would be better for your business and could very well make you more money because the more efficient your business is the more money you make.
Really don't get me wrong if you like living in the past by all means stay there but don't fault someone who lives in the present and looks to the future and doesn't make money there entire life.
Ric
Sometimes Ric I feel like Australians should be voting in the USA elections as we get more coverage of them down here than you do up there.
As for bucking the trend, it is worth while, if you value the world you live in and the life you lead.
The world has finite resources and wasting these for very short term goods because some one can do it for you cheaply is a false economy.
Don't get me wrong, I am not a tree hugging lefties, I just hate to see waste and resources being squandered is the worst waste you can get.
It takes only a small amount more resources to make a top quality product that will give you many years of good service, or some one else many years should you like to upgrade, than it does to make junk that will only just outlive warranty
In most cases there is little to no tangible benefit to having the latest piece of kit. I am responding to you on a 15 year old Mac. It may have cost $ 1,000 more than the my wife's PC but it has lasted 3 times as long as any of her PC's and to date actually cost about 1/2 as much when looked at the annualized costs. I use an I phone 3 that I inherited with the business when I bought it from Bert. I can not see any reason to spend $ 700+ on an I phone 7 that will not make me 1 cent more than the 3 I am currently using. My principal work vehicle is a 1994 L 300 so its annual cost is about $ 2000 in maintenance which is less than the interest others pay on the lease of their new trucks and again a new truck will not generate a single cent of extra income and cost substantially more.
I am not ant-technology. I bought a cheap bore-o-scope to see it it might be a useful piece of kit, it was and I upgraded to a USB one that cost near $ 1000 and am currently looking at some in the $ 5000 range because it will make me more income and am also debating weather to allocate $ 5000 to some new battery kit or a new wider trailer as more of my customers are going to 60" + decks which currently get serviced on site.
At some point in time this squandering( and at times I have been just as guilty ) will start to cost you, me and every one else real money as some form of carbon tax is introduced globally.
And if the scare mongers are 1/2 right, it will cost thousands of people their homes if not their lives.
If you remember back to your school days and if you economics or commerce you might remember that when free market & capitalism was taught there were a lot of assumptions it got based upon, like a level playing field and an informed market, neither of these have existed for a very very very long time if at all they ever did.
Which gets us back to where we started from.
Every time you & I open the wallet, there are consequences weather we are aware of them or not, but it would be a lot better if we thought about just a little.
Thank goodness Australians don't vote in the USA elections, we'd be more screwed up than we already are. :smile: As for bucking the trend, and it being worth while, to value the world you live in and the life you lead you first need to get a life in the present day and age and stop living in the past with a 15 year old Mac that can't cut it anymore cause apparently it doesn't have a spell check. I mean really an iPhone 3?? You really need to bring yourself up to date and stop living like a hermit.
Oh and BTW there's no such thing as the iPhone 7 yet. It's not do for its introduction until late this fall or early next year. There still promoting the 6 and 6S. Yeah you can drive your 1994 and it was probably a great vehicle in it's time but it's time is past, it's not an efficient running vehicle? Not to today's standards. It will cost you more in maintenance and fuel than a new truck would cost. That savings alone could make your payments on a new truck.
Same with your Mac, it's just not efficient to today's standards and with a new up to date computer you could be running programs that are faster and that would improve your business and probably make you more money. I mean if you like the Apple try an Ipad it will blow that 15 year old make away. I'd almost bet an iPhone 6 would do more than your Mac and would be better for your business and could very well make you more money because the more efficient your business is the more money you make.
Really don't get me wrong if you like living in the past by all means stay there but don't fault someone who lives in the present and looks to the future and doesn't make money there entire life.
#11
B
bertsmobile1
Well it does have spell cheque but I turned it off as it slows my typing down and changes words according to what it thinks I wanted to type which means that I have to go back and check word by word rather than a whole page scan.
I can do things better but this is a free forum. The articles I get paid to write get done a lot better. They get written on the 1990 Mac Quadra using Great Works and funny enough it word process a lot faster than the worlds best typist can type so well above my capability. I save the document in word 4 format then drop it into Quark to lay out the pages & get quark to do the spell & grammar check as it does it in a way that I find easier to work with. They then get printed out on a color lazer printer set to the color gammut of the press being used to print the journals and finally emailed to the publisher no I am not a Luddite or hermit.
I am on several help syndicates where I get paid for assisting people and around 18 motorcycle forums 3 of which I moderate, so unlike you I understand exactly how forum software works and why it works the way it does.
As for upgrading equipment. I have a funny idea about that, it has to pass 5 important tests
1) is it intuitive or will I have to spend a long time modifying how I think in order to fit into the machine ?
2) Do I want or need what it is offering ?
3) Is it easier to use that what it is replacing ?
4) Will it generate some tangible benefit to me or my organization ?
5) is it cost effective compared to what I am using now ?
If the answer is no to any one of them it doesn't get acquired.
As for tablets I bought 82 of them.
We fitted them to the forklifts, pallet trollies & gave them to the pickers , receivers & dispatchers
These were all fitted with state of the art photo recognition software so the pickers take a photo of what they pick and the local server processes that information & told them if it was the correct stock in 4 micro seconds which was actually faster than the new PDT's that the company was going to buy at $ 3500 each could read a bar code. The system also sends large visual alerts if the product is commonly miss picked, warns the forkie if there is already a pallet of these goods open on the pick face or an older pallet elsewhere and then triple checks at dispatch that the goods to be sent match the original order, generates the invoice. sends a print command to the packing slip printer and an email to the customer of the pick report so they know what was picked & roughly when it will arrive. All useful applications of better technology. Annoyed the hell out of head office who had just stumped up $ 4,500,000 for a new Microsoft Navs system to find my system was cheaper, worked faster, better, ended all warehouse errors, saved over $ 500,000 /pa and that is not counting customer & staff frustrations. The state manager finally saw the light and ran all the local warehouses on this system and then read the whole report, introduced the smart pick software that works out the most efficient way to pick orders , combines several small picks into one big pick and times them so they arrive at the dispatch in the reverse delivery order so the drivers can literally arrives and push the whole load directly into their vans. This took 3 hours off the morning load up, eliminated driver frustrations and overtime.
Now back to stuff relevant to here.
My vans need to gobble up 2 gallons of fuel per mile before it is cheaper to buy a new van by which time they should have some decent solar / battery electric vans that will meet my requirements.
I can live without chilled drink containers and 3 zone air conditioning, my average trip is 15 minutes so I rarely turn on the air at all unless I need to demist in the early morning or heavy rain.
Forward control means I sit high so don't need fancy cameras to see a tiny image of what I can see for real, full size and turning your neck is good for body mobility.
Everything has to get a proper cost benefit analysis as it is easy to get caught up in the new is better then find that 72" deck on the 20 mph air ride mower actually does less work in a day than the 30"on the 10 year old 10Hp RER.And every cent it makes is profit to you not profit to the leasing company & insurance company. Old equipment has a low resale value so it does not become a prime target for the thieves that follow a contractor to a job, wait till you have gone around the back then snatch everything that is not locked down on your trailer / truck.
After that then I decide who I will buy it from. With a piece of kit that will make me an extra $ 100 /week I don't need nor have the time to scan the entire world to find the cheapest possible price and in the long term a saving of $ 500 on something that will make me and extra $ 5000 / year , every year becomes insignificant and this is before the "feel good" factor of buying from the little bloke down the road, so locally Trev is a good bloke and my work comes from the local community so local reputation is important. The local bloke employs 6 people and if I do the right thing by them, they do the right thing by me, we all make a quid and all live good lives.
Keeping money local is good for you and good for the whole community as it circulates around and around and keeps local people in work, some of which will be your customers, while they have a job and can afford to pay you.
The population of the local town is around 2000. There are around 50 lawn / property care contractors here now. There was 5 when I started here ( all my customers ) 4 years ago .The other 40 or so are all men over 40 who have been retrenched and have almost zero chance of being re-employed so either kicked off a company or bought a franchise. Thus the local area and the surrounding suburbs are all over serviced but as all these men have families and mortgages, they will all lower their rates rather than loose a customer and this is partially due to local small business closing down because they can not compete with no service big box shop advertised "cheaper prices".
Having a smaller population we see this effect earlier and to a greater extent than the USA will.
Australia is California population , GDP and budget wise, spread out a land mass equivalent to continental USA.
As for living in the past, noway I live in the future but I want to have a future with trees & birds and water
B
bertsmobile1
Thank goodness Australians don't vote in the USA elections, we'd be more screwed up than we already are. :smile: As for bucking the trend, and it being worth while, to value the world you live in and the life you lead you first need to get a life in the present day and age and stop living in the past with a 15 year old Mac that can't cut it anymore cause apparently it doesn't have a spell check. I mean really an iPhone 3?? You really need to bring yourself up to date and stop living like a hermit.
Oh and BTW there's no such thing as the iPhone 7 yet. It's not do for its introduction until late this fall or early next year. There still promoting the 6 and 6S. Yeah you can drive your 1994 and it was probably a great vehicle in it's time but it's time is past, it's not an efficient running vehicle? Not to today's standards. It will cost you more in maintenance and fuel than a new truck would cost. That savings alone could make your payments on a new truck.
Same with your Mac, it's just not efficient to today's standards and with a new up to date computer you could be running programs that are faster and that would improve your business and probably make you more money. I mean if you like the Apple try an Ipad it will blow that 15 year old make away. I'd almost bet an iPhone 6 would do more than your Mac and would be better for your business and could very well make you more money because the more efficient your business is the more money you make.
Really don't get me wrong if you like living in the past by all means stay there but don't fault someone who lives in the present and looks to the future and doesn't make money there entire life.
Well it does have spell cheque but I turned it off as it slows my typing down and changes words according to what it thinks I wanted to type which means that I have to go back and check word by word rather than a whole page scan.
I can do things better but this is a free forum. The articles I get paid to write get done a lot better. They get written on the 1990 Mac Quadra using Great Works and funny enough it word process a lot faster than the worlds best typist can type so well above my capability. I save the document in word 4 format then drop it into Quark to lay out the pages & get quark to do the spell & grammar check as it does it in a way that I find easier to work with. They then get printed out on a color lazer printer set to the color gammut of the press being used to print the journals and finally emailed to the publisher no I am not a Luddite or hermit.
I am on several help syndicates where I get paid for assisting people and around 18 motorcycle forums 3 of which I moderate, so unlike you I understand exactly how forum software works and why it works the way it does.
As for upgrading equipment. I have a funny idea about that, it has to pass 5 important tests
1) is it intuitive or will I have to spend a long time modifying how I think in order to fit into the machine ?
2) Do I want or need what it is offering ?
3) Is it easier to use that what it is replacing ?
4) Will it generate some tangible benefit to me or my organization ?
5) is it cost effective compared to what I am using now ?
If the answer is no to any one of them it doesn't get acquired.
As for tablets I bought 82 of them.
We fitted them to the forklifts, pallet trollies & gave them to the pickers , receivers & dispatchers
These were all fitted with state of the art photo recognition software so the pickers take a photo of what they pick and the local server processes that information & told them if it was the correct stock in 4 micro seconds which was actually faster than the new PDT's that the company was going to buy at $ 3500 each could read a bar code. The system also sends large visual alerts if the product is commonly miss picked, warns the forkie if there is already a pallet of these goods open on the pick face or an older pallet elsewhere and then triple checks at dispatch that the goods to be sent match the original order, generates the invoice. sends a print command to the packing slip printer and an email to the customer of the pick report so they know what was picked & roughly when it will arrive. All useful applications of better technology. Annoyed the hell out of head office who had just stumped up $ 4,500,000 for a new Microsoft Navs system to find my system was cheaper, worked faster, better, ended all warehouse errors, saved over $ 500,000 /pa and that is not counting customer & staff frustrations. The state manager finally saw the light and ran all the local warehouses on this system and then read the whole report, introduced the smart pick software that works out the most efficient way to pick orders , combines several small picks into one big pick and times them so they arrive at the dispatch in the reverse delivery order so the drivers can literally arrives and push the whole load directly into their vans. This took 3 hours off the morning load up, eliminated driver frustrations and overtime.
Now back to stuff relevant to here.
My vans need to gobble up 2 gallons of fuel per mile before it is cheaper to buy a new van by which time they should have some decent solar / battery electric vans that will meet my requirements.
I can live without chilled drink containers and 3 zone air conditioning, my average trip is 15 minutes so I rarely turn on the air at all unless I need to demist in the early morning or heavy rain.
Forward control means I sit high so don't need fancy cameras to see a tiny image of what I can see for real, full size and turning your neck is good for body mobility.
Everything has to get a proper cost benefit analysis as it is easy to get caught up in the new is better then find that 72" deck on the 20 mph air ride mower actually does less work in a day than the 30"on the 10 year old 10Hp RER.And every cent it makes is profit to you not profit to the leasing company & insurance company. Old equipment has a low resale value so it does not become a prime target for the thieves that follow a contractor to a job, wait till you have gone around the back then snatch everything that is not locked down on your trailer / truck.
After that then I decide who I will buy it from. With a piece of kit that will make me an extra $ 100 /week I don't need nor have the time to scan the entire world to find the cheapest possible price and in the long term a saving of $ 500 on something that will make me and extra $ 5000 / year , every year becomes insignificant and this is before the "feel good" factor of buying from the little bloke down the road, so locally Trev is a good bloke and my work comes from the local community so local reputation is important. The local bloke employs 6 people and if I do the right thing by them, they do the right thing by me, we all make a quid and all live good lives.
Keeping money local is good for you and good for the whole community as it circulates around and around and keeps local people in work, some of which will be your customers, while they have a job and can afford to pay you.
The population of the local town is around 2000. There are around 50 lawn / property care contractors here now. There was 5 when I started here ( all my customers ) 4 years ago .The other 40 or so are all men over 40 who have been retrenched and have almost zero chance of being re-employed so either kicked off a company or bought a franchise. Thus the local area and the surrounding suburbs are all over serviced but as all these men have families and mortgages, they will all lower their rates rather than loose a customer and this is partially due to local small business closing down because they can not compete with no service big box shop advertised "cheaper prices".
Having a smaller population we see this effect earlier and to a greater extent than the USA will.
Australia is California population , GDP and budget wise, spread out a land mass equivalent to continental USA.
As for living in the past, noway I live in the future but I want to have a future with trees & birds and water
#12
Lawnboy18
Lawnboy18
This thread took quite a turn around...
That isn't good news Reynoldson. I hope you will find a way to keep that turn around time low. Maybe stock on parts that you mostly need for mowers that come in often like MTD? A lot of parts are probably interchangeable.
That isn't good news Reynoldson. I hope you will find a way to keep that turn around time low. Maybe stock on parts that you mostly need for mowers that come in often like MTD? A lot of parts are probably interchangeable.
#13
Ric
Yeah that's what happens when Joe Public gets involved. Things tend to get all turned around.
Ric
This thread took quite a turn around...
That isn't good news Reynoldson. I hope you will find a way to keep that turn around time low. Maybe stock on parts that you mostly need for mowers that come in often like MTD? A lot of parts are probably interchangeable.
Yeah that's what happens when Joe Public gets involved. Things tend to get all turned around.
#14
reynoldston
This would be good if I was doing this work for a living, but I am not. Being retired and not paying taxes, I keep things on the low side. I try to only take in one job at a time and when that one is done I do the next one. The slower the parts come in the slower the jobs go out. I don't want the investment of getting much of any parts in my own stock for this very reason. This is why I will miss this dealer because he stocked a lot of parts. Oh by the way buying retail from a dealer isn't very business wise. The only reason anybody knows I do this work is word of mouth and I don't park any work out side of my shop and if I have to its hidden.
reynoldston
This thread took quite a turn around...
That isn't good news Reynoldson. I hope you will find a way to keep that turn around time low. Maybe stock on parts that you mostly need for mowers that come in often like MTD? A lot of parts are probably interchangeable.
This would be good if I was doing this work for a living, but I am not. Being retired and not paying taxes, I keep things on the low side. I try to only take in one job at a time and when that one is done I do the next one. The slower the parts come in the slower the jobs go out. I don't want the investment of getting much of any parts in my own stock for this very reason. This is why I will miss this dealer because he stocked a lot of parts. Oh by the way buying retail from a dealer isn't very business wise. The only reason anybody knows I do this work is word of mouth and I don't park any work out side of my shop and if I have to its hidden.
#15
Lawnboy18
Lawnboy18
Ahh I understand. Well, atleast you have Internet! Parts tree seems good!
#16
M
Mikel1
M
Mikel1
Well the big box stores actually have stuff in stock. I live in a small town and it can be very difficult to get what you want or need. Nearest Walmart is 30 miles away, Lowes and HD are an hour away. I like to buy local when I can but I get tired of telling people to get me certain items(hardware related usually). Then takes a month to get it when I can drive and get it now.
I hate antigun liberals so go Trump.
I hate antigun liberals so go Trump.
#17
B
bertsmobile1
It is always interesting to get into the heads of other list members.
OTOH as was pointed out to me on a few occasions, the porch is the place where going off topc is tolerated
On technical threads it is not.
B
bertsmobile1
Yeah that's what happens when Joe Public gets involved. Things tend to get all turned around.
It is always interesting to get into the heads of other list members.
OTOH as was pointed out to me on a few occasions, the porch is the place where going off topc is tolerated
On technical threads it is not.
#18
Ric
Going off topic here on the Front Porch is tolerated here, that's what it's for but high jacking threads is another thing.
Ric
It is always interesting to get into the heads of other list members.
OTOH as was pointed out to me on a few occasions, the porch is the place where going off topc is tolerated
On technical threads it is not.
Going off topic here on the Front Porch is tolerated here, that's what it's for but high jacking threads is another thing.
#19
John R
John R
I like to support my local guy whenever I can, if I need him to order a part and he's going to charge me for shipping I may as well order it on line and save myself 2 trips to his store.
Sometimes the shops are their own worst enemy.
Sometimes the shops are their own worst enemy.
#20
R
Rivets
R
Rivets
Yeah, I know I'm supposed to keep $100,000 in parts for all you guys, so I can keep your business. You probably bought the unit at the Big Box Store anyway, so I'm also supposed to be a mind reader to know which parts I would need for your unit. I know you'll come see me when you have a problem you can't handle. Then you'll complain I charge too much and don't get the job done, because you need your unit as this is your business.
#21
B
bertsmobile1
Yes I know exactly where you are coming from.
My predecessor held no new stock other than oils & filters.
Job came in he assesed it ordered the parts then moved on to the next one, put another order in and so on.
I tried that but it just did not work. He had space for 20 mowers, I do not so I just started doubling the orders so I keep in stock what existing customers actually use.
It seems t be working as regular commercial customers can usually get overnight services and most times overnight repairs which is why I now have almost all the local contractors on my books.
Down side is I also have $ 85,000 in parts sitting on the shelves but the upside is all the commercial customers were happy to forgo the 25% discount Bert gave them in favour of overnight servicing and the ability to drop off after 5pm and pick up at 4 am on their way to the first job so it is sort of paying for itself.
Down here parts can easily take 6 months because most dealers keep very little stock other than filters belts & blades.
That was wher jacks became a godsend, I can get parts faster from Jacks than I can from the locall franchises.
Oddly enough the old school shops that have been in the family for several generations do keep good inventories and I have a few that I can call on and do so at every oppertunity.
B
bertsmobile1
Yeah, I know I'm supposed to keep $100,000 in parts for all you guys, so I can keep your business. You probably bought the unit at the Big Box Store anyway, so I'm also supposed to be a mind reader to know which parts I would need for your unit. I know you'll come see me when you have a problem you can't handle. Then you'll complain I charge too much and don't get the job done, because you need your unit as this is your business.
Yes I know exactly where you are coming from.
My predecessor held no new stock other than oils & filters.
Job came in he assesed it ordered the parts then moved on to the next one, put another order in and so on.
I tried that but it just did not work. He had space for 20 mowers, I do not so I just started doubling the orders so I keep in stock what existing customers actually use.
It seems t be working as regular commercial customers can usually get overnight services and most times overnight repairs which is why I now have almost all the local contractors on my books.
Down side is I also have $ 85,000 in parts sitting on the shelves but the upside is all the commercial customers were happy to forgo the 25% discount Bert gave them in favour of overnight servicing and the ability to drop off after 5pm and pick up at 4 am on their way to the first job so it is sort of paying for itself.
Down here parts can easily take 6 months because most dealers keep very little stock other than filters belts & blades.
That was wher jacks became a godsend, I can get parts faster from Jacks than I can from the locall franchises.
Oddly enough the old school shops that have been in the family for several generations do keep good inventories and I have a few that I can call on and do so at every oppertunity.