arrogance company policy?

[sasquatch]

Things must be GREAT in the economy.

My daughter is comming up for a visit this weekend, so i asked her to stop into KBC tools in Toronto and pick up two cast iron knobs i need for a project.
She managed to get the knobs,,, BUT,,,,,the counter person was refusing to sell them to her as the order wasn,t over a Minimum of $25.00.
What kind of business ethics is that when one cannot walk into a store and pick up an item or two because the price is not over their minimum of $25.00?

(I can understand this if it,s a phone order, or credit card order, but this was a small simple cash sale over the counter.)

Anyone else ran into similar circumstances as this?

[BrassBuilder]

Yeah, we have a couple of businesses in town that have been doing that for years. I think one has a $5.00 minimum and the other is around $20.00.

Wish I could make so much money that I didn't need to worry about all those sub $20 sales.

Mike

[beanbag]

First you have to consider their profit margin on the parts, and then the cost of the secretary to write up the invoice and some guy to get off his ass and go shuffling thru their large warehouse and use the forklift to grab some big crate 20 feet up to take out two pieces.

[sasquatch]

Beanbag that never happened!!

The guy wasted more time yapping to my daughter about the $25.00 min. he simply went to a bin grabbed the knobs then totaled the bill with sales tax then put the sale through. DONE DEAL.

[macona]

Its not too uncommon. I know of at least one tool supply place in Portland is that way. Minimum $25 at the counter, but call in for will call, no minimum. There are quite a few mail order companies that are like that too.

[Gravy]

First you have to consider their profit margin on the parts, and then the cost of the secretary to write up the invoice and some guy to get off his ass and go shuffling thru their large warehouse and use the forklift to grab some big crate 20 feet up to take out two pieces.

Maybe it's just me, but if a vendor can't be bothered to sell me one $2.00 part when I need it, I won't come back when I need a $2000 part.

McMaster-Carr will sell you a $2.00 pack of screws and ship it within 20 minutes at a reasonable cost without complaining about profitability. Seems to work for them.

[Willy]

I can see a minimum for a shipment, but walk in?
Quite often I'll stop in at one of the local suppliers to pick up a 5-15 dollar order. But because I make a habit of building up a favorable rapport with a business I like, a week or a month later I'll be in to drop $650 plus at the counter.
I wouldn't be so inclined to spend that kind of money at a supplier that has a "cover charge". With most of my orders being small I would have no idea what they stock.

[lazlo]

I can see a minimum for a shipment, but walk in?

Agreed -- I can see that for an online order, but in the amount of time the counter person was arguing with you, they could have completed the sale.
Plus there's the customer satisfaction and reputation issue.

I've bought from KBC a couple of times, and while they seemed like nice folks, they definitely didn't have all their ducks in a row.

[Chester]

Had a local bearing supplier who would not accept cash for OTC pickups............had to use a C. Card for $10.

Seems the staff were not trustworthy...............guess he had a real problem.

Have moved on.

[gwilson]

I thought Seguin Machinery was pretty arrogant. They will never get my business. I tried to buy a DSG lathe from them.

[platypus2020]

Had a local bearing supplier who would not accept cash for OTC pickups............had to use a C. Card for $10.

Seems the staff were not trustworthy...............guess he had a real problem.

Have moved on.

There is quite a few suppliers I deal with, electrical, piping and industrial hardware suppliers, that no longer take cash, its either open account or credit card. They said it stops theft, no one has to go to the bank on a daily basis and makes their paperwork easier. Their stance is take it or leave it.


jack

[RussZHC]

that no longer take cash, its either open account or credit card

Interesting as I was in the local lumber supplier (non-chain store) a couple of times the last few days who are encouraging their customers to use cash as companies get charged a percentage by the credit card company for each purchase with a card. Their logic: an attempt to hold prices down.

[Paul Alciatore]

It used to be that people would look at you as if you were crazy if you tried to use a CC for a purchase under $5 or $10. Now, CCs and debit cards are so common that almost no merchant can afford to reject a sale, no matter how small, if you want to pay by CC. Plastic money.

Personally, I switched over to CCs some years ago. The company I worked for urged me to pay with the company card as much as I could. I first thought it was strange as we had worked long and hard to get open credit with many vendors. Then I realized that almost every card provided a minimum of 1% cash back on EVERY purchase. Or airline miles. Many cards offer bigger rebates. So they were getting a discount on every purchase made via CC. They made thousands of dollars back just on the purchases I made.

So I switched my personal spending to CC and now I rarely carry any significant amount of cash. I get 1.25% back on most purchases I make. I applied for $100 in rebates from two cards just a couple of nights ago. In a year I will get $400 or more back.

I am concerned about an uncontrolled CC bill and so I keep an Excel spreadsheet of all expenses. Projected numbers for future expenses and I enter the actual numbers when the purchase is made. So it is actually budgeted and I know exactly what I owe at any time. Separate Excel sheets are used for each CC account. Any bill I can pay by CC I do pay that way. Best system I have ever used for personal expenses. And for my business expenses too.

[Iraiam]

Yep, maybe they will learn the hard way like others have, I can think of 2 local suppliers right off the top of my head that went this route, a bearing supply house that had several outlets here went to a $50.00 minimum on all sales, less than 1 year later they were gone. I did hear that the minimum did not last but a few months, but I/we and many others had already taken our money elsewhere, where it was cheerfully accepted, even if you just wanted a $10 bearing.

[saltmine]

I've seen a lot of businesses pull the same crap, and not be there the next time I drive by. I deal with several suppliers and NONE of them ever asked me for a "minimum purchase", no matter how little I spend. These clowns have got to remember it's all of those little "nickel & dime" purchases that make up a day's wages, pay the taxes, and keep the lights on.

Just call the business owner and tell him....

Start refusing to sell to the "little guy" and you'll find yourself on some street corner selling oranges.

Some money is better than NO money.