Posted: 2/4/2014 7:42:53 PM EDT
|
Probably the second most complained about subject with PSA, shipping being #1. Why can't the store match the websites price? Let me try to explain this to some with my business knowledge and some insight to the operations of PSA. The #1 reason is PSA treats each of its' divisions as separate entities. The web site is separate from the Fernandina Store as they are both separate of the Greenville store. Each range is separate from the retail location it is located at.
These separate businesses are each expected to be profitable and given sales goals. Just like Walmart or McDonalds, if store A has a $1m in profit and store B has $400k in debt the corporate people don't see it as $600k in profit. They see it as one location performing well and the other location failing. For each entity to be profitable and thus successful a certain amount of profit must be made. Consideration is also given to the competition and their price points. The website does way more transactions per day than the physical stores. For instance lets say the goal for a day is $1000 profit. Website does a thousand transactions and only needs to make $1 profit per sale. Retail store does 100 transactions and needs to make $10 per sale. With PSA inventory is also entity specific. When they add new stores they purchase the latest POS/inventory system. Thus each store has a different inventory system and a store can not see what another store has. I know everyone thinks the CSR is lying when they tell you they don't know what Farrow Rd. has. They really don't. Back to our topic though, PSA doesn't have 1000 Glock 19's. The Website has 900 and Greenville has 40 while Fernandina has 60. With the volume the stores and website do that inventory has to be gone before the next shipment that was ordered months ago arrives. Unlike small shops PSA can't wait till they are down to the last pistol before they order 5 more. Greenvile knows they will sell 40 in a week. The website knows they wont sell 900 so they make it a daily deal. Also as of the last year or so pricing from distributors has fluctuated greatly on firearms and ammo. Depending on when PSA placed an order for product can dictate the price point placed on it. Ammo ordered in Apr. of 2013 is going to cost more than ammo ordered in Nov. of 2013. Unlike small shops that order a case at a time PSA is ordering pallets and containers of product at one time and has to order months in advance to keep up with demand. For example the Greenville store that opened in July of 2013. PSA started ordering product almost 8 months in advance for that location to have it fully stocked for opening. Ammo that was ordered in January and arrived in March was still there in July when they opened the doors. That January ammo was purchased at a premium due to the Ammo Crunch that occurred after Sandy Hook. Website ammo that was ordered in January and delivered in March was sold in March when people had no problem paying 90 cent a round for 5.56. Lets now discuss the actual overhead and staffing required to run each entity. When you walk into a retail location you expect to speak to a CSR in a timely fashion and leave with the product as fast as possible. That requires a certain level of staffing to achieve. The website is all computerized ordering and it takes several days for the limited staff (limited because people on the inter webs want the best deal possible) to get to last weeks orders. Woodruff Rd and I-26 Frontage space are way more expensive to lease than an industrial park parcel. It's not like PSA wont let SC residents order from the website. The retail locations couldn't afford to keep the doors open if they provided retail level service and web site prices. I could go on and on with more reasons why PSA can't price match retail versus web but that are some of the main ones. |
|
Quoted:
This is, hands down, the best 1st post I've ever read. +1 You'll see these price discrepancies with many other online versions of stores vs. their brick and mortar counterparts. Advance Auto Parts comes to mind. They should post this explanation in the PSA retail store. |
|
Quoted:
Probably the second most complained about subject with PSA, shipping being #1. Why can't the store match the websites price? Let me try to explain this to some with my business knowledge and some insight to the operations of PSA. The #1 reason is PSA treats each of its' divisions as separate entities. The web site is separate from the Fernandina Store as they are both separate of the Greenville store. Each range is separate from the retail location it is located at. These separate businesses are each expected to be profitable and given sales goals. Just like Walmart or McDonalds, if store A has a $1m in profit and store B has $400k in debt the corporate people don't see it as $600k in profit. They see it as one location performing well and the other location failing. For each entity to be profitable and thus successful a certain amount of profit must be made. Consideration is also given to the competition and their price points. The website does way more transactions per day than the physical stores. For instance lets say the goal for a day is $1000 profit. Website does a thousand transactions and only needs to make $1 profit per sale. Retail store does 100 transactions and needs to make $10 per sale. With PSA inventory is also entity specific. When they add new stores they purchase the latest POS/inventory system. Thus each store has a different inventory system and a store can not see what another store has. I know everyone thinks the CSR is lying when they tell you they don't know what Farrow Rd. has. They really don't. Back to our topic though, PSA doesn't have 1000 Glock 19's. The Website has 900 and Greenville has 40 while Fernandina has 60. With the volume the stores and website do that inventory has to be gone before the next shipment that was ordered months ago arrives. Unlike small shops PSA can't wait till they are down to the last pistol before they order 5 more. Greenvile knows they will sell 40 in a week. The website knows they wont sell 900 so they make it a daily deal. Also as of the last year or so pricing from distributors has fluctuated greatly on firearms and ammo. Depending on when PSA placed an order for product can dictate the price point placed on it. Ammo ordered in Apr. of 2013 is going to cost more than ammo ordered in Nov. of 2013. Unlike small shops that order a case at a time PSA is ordering pallets and containers of product at one time and has to order months in advance to keep up with demand. For example the Greenville store that opened in July of 2013. PSA started ordering product almost 8 months in advance for that location to have it fully stocked for opening. Ammo that was ordered in January and arrived in March was still there in July when they opened the doors. That January ammo was purchased at a premium due to the Ammo Crunch that occurred after Sandy Hook. Website ammo that was ordered in January and delivered in March was sold in March when people had no problem paying 90 cent a round for 5.56. Lets now discuss the actual overhead and staffing required to run each entity. When you walk into a retail location you expect to speak to a CSR in a timely fashion and leave with the product as fast as possible. That requires a certain level of staffing to achieve. The website is all computerized ordering and it takes several days for the limited staff (limited because people on the inter webs want the best deal possible) to get to last weeks orders. Woodruff Rd and I-26 Frontage space are way more expensive to lease than an industrial park parcel. It's not like PSA wont let SC residents order from the website. The retail locations couldn't afford to keep the doors open if they provided retail level service and web site prices. I could go on and on with more reasons why PSA can't price match retail versus web but that are some of the main ones. Great insight, thanks for the post. I have questions/comments, about the reasoning on going with a system like this however. Take advance auto parts for instance. They can not only match web pricing of their own company in store, but also match competitors prices as well, and can also tell you what each store near by is supposed to have( I say supposed to have because as a manager we knew that the inventory is not always accurate), all via their POS system. (granted advance is much larger company than PSA is, and can afford to take a loss here and there because it is made up due to volume, repeat happy customers, and word of mouth.) Also, Advance auto has folks in store, just as psa does, and folks in warehouses, just as psa does, and even stocks folks for delivery (as psa does not), and has a fleet of vehicles that they provide for their store use for delivery, not including their 18 wheeler fleet or their warehouse shuttle van system as well. one of the problems that this comparison doesnt account for is the Firearm Transfers. Advance inherently does not have to do FFL transfers between website to store, psa would have to obviously. However, PSA probably is doing this already, as theyre probably haveing the actual storefronts order from their web entity to stock the store. Which is why if they dont have something say at farrow road on the shelf, sometimes and i mean very rarely *SOMETIMES* one of the employees goes above and beyond to go to the warehouse behind them, look for the parts, and pull them and transfer them to the store entity for that customer. or at least that has been some of my experience. what about web sales that are asked for in store pickup? Are those credited to the store? I ask because i will specificaly buy online instead of in store if i dont get the same price in store. And sometimes, yes, i think about it on the drive home and decide to not purchase it at all, which in the end costs PSA more sales. I get that fernandia has a higher overhead due to location and space than farrow has. Farrow is just 1 building, in an industrial park with very limited walk in visibility. if you didnt know it was there, you wouldnt turn down industrial park drive to go there. Fernandina does tons more volume than Farrow just due to location, not including the fact that fernandina also houses in a seperate building the corporate offices, conference center, and a warehouse that last i knew did double duty as a build location for PSA's AR's and also limited stock storage. In todays technological bar coded inventory, computerized accounting of said inventory, being able to have one inventory system that syncs each day once or twice for pricing is not unheard of, nor that rare, furthermore, in regards to the sales needing to make more per sale, the increased volume in store should in fact drop the amount needed to make per sale. Being able to transfer from web/warehouse to store, and credit any "in store pickups" to the store that they're picked up from, be it greenville, fernandina, farrow, or beaufort, would only help add to the sales of that said store. ive been saying it for a while, Logistics. Its not a simple or cheap proposition, but it is do-able, it would control inventory better, and it would in the end in my opinion make the system function smoother. It would also help keep the shelves in the stores from being empty. Fernandina itself has a horrid problem with empty shelves. Furthermore, if the web sales are doing as well as your post leads us to believe our expectation of being able to speak with a person on the phone within a reasonable amount of time should apply just as it does with our expectation to speak with someone in store. We are already experiencing 15-30 minute wait times as it is.. your right, they let us order from the website, and are kind enough to offer in store pickup to those of us that can. these above are just some of my opinions, and ideas as to what i think would help make psa less complained about.. and we havent even touched the shipping packing, pulling, testing QC side of things.. and of course, take it for what everyone paid for it, as i dont work for psa (  ) and dont really know how they operate from the inside, such as your post leads us to believe you do. (not being confrontational, just clarifying your insight into PSA's operations)
|
|
Let me see if I can hit some of your points Gamecock. In store pickup, the sales are given to the web site. Farrow road probably kinda gets a pass because they are located at the same physical location as the web store and employees probably pull double duty, retail and internet.
Not sure what you are referring to specifically as far as FFL transfers go. Stores do the transfers for the website free of charge as a courtesy. As far as transfers from other FFLs goes is that transfers require a lot of man time to complete paperwork and such. As a business decision it was probably decided that it wasn't worth the time it took an hourly employee to complete said transfer (there is way more to a transfer than just the 4473 and NICS check) when that employee could be helping customers wanting to buy PSA inventory. There is no employee down time at PSA for CSR's like there is at the small shops where the guy behind the counter is just sitting there shooting the breeze with their friends. The website is not restocking the stores. One of the most common things heard out of a store CSR's mouth is "Why does the website have product X and we do not?" You not ordering a product does not deny PSA any money. I guarantee whatever it was that you wanted ends up being a blank spot on the stores shelf or "Temporarily Out Of Stock" on the website. If you don't buy it in an effort to show PSA who's boss will be bought by someone else. The biggest single expense that eats into profit for the website is manpower. Hiring CSR's to handle the level of calls for the web store would require a significant increase in price. Maybe hiring a call center in India would make people happy. :) Most calls are in regards to shipping anyways. "I ordered yesterday and I still haven't received a shipping notification." It clearly states on the website how long to wait till inquiring about shipping. As far as the slow shipping goes, I would theorize PSA sells product before they actually have it on hand. "Hey we got 10,000 mags inbound". "Put them on the site maybe we can sell half of them before the shipment arrives in 3 days." If it was me I would do that. Comparing PSA to Advance is like comparing Taco Bell to Yo Burrito. Keep in mind PSA did it backwards. Most businesses start out as brick and mortar then delve into web sales. Web sales POS/inventory systems and retail POS/inventory systems are different and it costs money to integrate the two. Things that cost money increase the cost of products, plain and simple. Would you rather have $59 lower sales and "Blemish" (has anyone ever really found a blemish considering the quality of finish on some of the full price lowers?) sales or accurate inventory management across locations? What you think would make more sense as a consumer does not always make sense from the business end of things. Pissing of a small percentage of your consumer base rather than giving a significant percentage of your consumer base a 20% discount because they figured out how to work the system makes business sense. You may not like it but at the end of the day it is all about money. There is not a lot of profit made on firearms in the retail locations once you take into account overhead. The profit made in store is the add-ons. Selling a firearm at a loss in hopes that you will buy a holster and bring the transaction back to break even then hoping you buy ammo so the transaction becomes profitable makes no business sense. From a business standpoint you are better off not selling the firearm and waiting till you get full retail for it. Keep in mind I am only theorizing or maybe I have inside knowledge but am holding back additional info so as not to divulge my identity. Which ever one makes you feel better. |
|
Quoted:
ITT GCO talks to one of his alternate accounts. http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_2_301/244061_Store_vs_Web_Site_.html |
|
Quoted:
That's a negative. I been a long time lurker here. I created this, my only account, in December to respond to the thread about this same subject that was on the first page at that time. I just got around to typing it all out and decided to start a new thread instead of tacking it onto the end of this one. http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_2_301/244061_Store_vs_Web_Site_.html Quoted:
Quoted:
ITT GCO talks to one of his alternate accounts. http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_2_301/244061_Store_vs_Web_Site_.html Welcome to the board. I hope you stick around. I lurk this board for entertainment and we could use a few new characters. Especially ones with inside information or who aren't afraid to post their opinions and engage in a meaningful discussion. The web pricing thing used to bug me a little but you are absolutely about PSA needing to do what is best for their business. I enjoy their products and the convince of being able to purchase what I want locally. |
|
Quoted:
Let me see if I can hit some of your points Gamecock. In store pickup, the sales are given to the web site. Farrow road probably kinda gets a pass because they are located at the same physical location as the web store and employees probably pull double duty, retail and Internet. Not sure what you are referring to specifically as far as FFL transfers go. Stores do the transfers for the website free of charge as a courtesy. As far as transfers from other FFLs goes is that transfers require a lot of man time to complete paperwork and such. As a business decision it was probably decided that it wasn't worth the time it took an hourly employee to complete said transfer (there is way more to a transfer than just the 4473 and NICS check) when that employee could be helping customers wanting to buy PSA inventory. There is no employee down time at PSA for CSR's like there is at the small shops where the guy behind the counter is just sitting there shooting the breeze with their friends. The website is not restocking the stores. One of the most common things heard out of a store CSR's mouth is "Why does the website have product X and we do not?" You not ordering a product does not deny PSA any money. I guarantee whatever it was that you wanted ends up being a blank spot on the stores shelf or "Temporarily Out Of Stock" on the website. If you don't buy it in an effort to show PSA who's boss will be bought by someone else. The biggest single expense that eats into profit for the website is manpower. Hiring CSR's to handle the level of calls for the web store would require a significant increase in price. Maybe hiring a call center in India would make people happy. :) Most calls are in regards to shipping anyways. "I ordered yesterday and I still haven't received a shipping notification." It clearly states on the website how long to wait till inquiring about shipping. As far as the slow shipping goes, I would theorize PSA sells product before they actually have it on hand. "Hey we got 10,000 mags inbound". "Put them on the site maybe we can sell half of them before the shipment arrives in 3 days." If it was me I would do that. Comparing PSA to Advance is like comparing Taco Bell to Yo Burrito. Keep in mind PSA did it backwards. Most businesses start out as brick and mortar then delve into web sales. Web sales POS/inventory systems and retail POS/inventory systems are different and it costs money to integrate the two. Things that cost money increase the cost of products, plain and simple. Would you rather have $59 lower sales and "Blemish" (has anyone ever really found a blemish considering the quality of finish on some of the full price lowers?) sales or accurate inventory management across locations? What you think would make more sense as a consumer does not always make sense from the business end of things. Pissing of a small percentage of your consumer base rather than giving a significant percentage of your consumer base a 20% discount because they figured out how to work the system makes business sense. You may not like it but at the end of the day it is all about money. There is not a lot of profit made on firearms in the retail locations once you take into account overhead. The profit made in store is the add-ons. Selling a firearm at a loss in hopes that you will buy a holster and bring the transaction back to break even then hoping you buy ammo so the transaction becomes profitable makes no business sense. From a business standpoint you are better off not selling the firearm and waiting till you get full retail for it. Keep in mind I am only theorizing or maybe I have inside knowledge but am holding back additional info so as not to divulge my identity. Which ever one makes you feel better. Again thanks for taking the time to reply in a clear and concise manner. I can see how Farrow gets the pass there. As it was the first store and still currently houses the web side of things. I apologize for not being clearer about the FFL transfers. What I had meant was that it had been stated to me and others before that the stores are for all intents and purposes different companies than the website/warehouse. Thus the warehouse has to transfer the firearms to the stores, and having to log the FFL transfers among PSA website to PSA store... just as it would have to as well with the inventory for any other item, but without having to go through the FFL bookkeeping transfers. I didn't mean about PSA not accepting other ffl shippers to them for customers like smaller stores do. As far as the Warehouse/Web stocking the stores, it was an inference on my part, as i have no clue how PSA stocks the stores, versus the web sites. From what your saying PSA Farrow Orders their own stock, PSA Fernandia Orders their own stock, and PSA Web/Warehouse orders its own stock. All from their suppliers. What i had thought happened was PSA Web/Warehouse Orders the Items in quantinty, and then PSA Farrow, Fernandina, Greenville, and Beaufort order from the PSA Web\warehouse as their own distributor. To me that makes more sense. You get the bulk pricing as the large entity, and thus get to pass on the savings to the local customers while turning enough profit to cover the overhead of the brick and mortar. This would also facilitate one database Point Of Sale and inventory system, spread across the entity as a whole, with the ability of real time inventory numbers as well as real time price changes and when you tie that into your web mailing Daily Sales, would in my opinion not only ensure good web sales, but also drum up local foot traffic in stores. It would also facilitate matching sales in store versus online, if for example in the store managers meetings they were briefed a week or so in advance of the upcoming sales, along with the web/warehouse distributing the items that are going to be on sale that week it would ensure there would be product in the stores as well as online for that said foot traffic for the daily deals. The items being temporarily out of stock on the website is expected, but lets be honest, the website leaves a LOT to be desired. To clarify further my statement about me leaving a store and not buying an item because the store had none in stock, or had a different price than what the web has, and i not buying it even after leaving the store with intentions of buying when i got home was meant to illustrate that if I do this, how many others are doing the same? How many sales is PSA missing due to this triviality? Us older customers feel more strongly about the failure to match pricing in store to web, perhaps because the stores used to do it, and now dont. That is a point of contention im sure among many of us. I realize that if i dont buy it someone else will. PSA has no lack of customers. That is for sure, that being said, they're in business for a reason, and that is to sell more everything.. . Manpower is always your highest expense. But much like parts, you get what you pay for. PSA is a value leader, thus they dont have many CSR's in order to keep the price low is what your basically telling me.. I get that.. I think everyone gets that weather or not they wanna admit it. With that being the case, PSA needs QUALITY over quantity to keep that price down. However as their sales multiply, which im sure they have these past 5 years.. their staffing should as well. I get that their call volume about where is my order is the highest part they have to deal with, but that could be fixed some if (again) the Website didnt suck so much. I mean for example i still have orders from 2012 "PENDING" in my dashboard, orders that I had either picked up in store, or had shipped to me. (in all honesty i usually just shop in store more than web) Orders dont always have emails sent stating they have shipped. Orders show up missing parts, orders show up repeatedly even though customers have already received the order once, twice, three times... orders arrive with the right style parts, but the wrong type... these all can be fixed easily with QC, but you have to have QUALITY QC... Training, Logistics, barcoding inventory dimensional scanners etc. I know it costs money. Look at Ellet brothers and how they move product in their warehouse if you want a local example. Talk to UPS Sales team, get involved with them with their logistics group, and you can integrate scanning in warehouse as well as in store. barcodes are yoru friend once you get the database setup. Again i get it costs money, but if PSA has enough petty cash to buy that PSA BUS, they have enough to invest in a serious inventory/Point of Sale/ Web site system. As for selling products before you get them. I get its a practice that happens. Would I do it. NO. reason, because folks wanna know when their stuff ships. Today is all about instant gratification. Look at Amazon, look at Ebay.. people even pay more for next day shipping for things. A lot of the complaints ive seen here is I ordered this online from PSA, two weeks ago. I just got a call or an email that its out of stock and my moneys being refunded. Again, Inventory control. Dont sell it till it hits your incoming shipping docks and is scanned into inventory as being on hand. PSA isnt hurting bad enough to need to sell stuff before they have it financially, or again, they wouldnt have the PSA Bus parked outside the Fernandina office, much less be developing a 308, and 2k dollar 1911s. I get the Advance Auto comparison was very different from what PSA has done. But you see my point. They have the technology, we can make him faster, stronger, better.. 6 million dollar man style. PSA has the luxary that they dont need to invent the wheel here. they can go off of the failures and successes of others (think budsgunshop if you wish) and take the best of it all and be stellar. Yes it costs money.. again see the Bus. Remind me to take a pic of my worst blem upper for you. It looks like its anodization was done by a paint brush.. its a PSA special of winter 2012. Im planning on painting that upper so it doesnt matter. I get most of PSA's blems dont even look like blems.. but there are those that definately are. Another thing PSA im surprised doesnt do, is mark blems like the Umbrella HUCCR or the Noveske chainsaws... I get things cost money and the prices would go up if things were done this way or that way.. but what yoru failing to mention is the amount of savings you get from a proper inventory system. How much your saving from things walking out the back door so to speak. from the man hours you have to spend correcting orders, reshipping, issuing call labels, paying for that shipping, paying for the labor for folks to pull, pack and ship the items again and again on the same order, cause ive seen that happen many times, that they "fixed" the order only to have it go to the third and fourth time "fixing " the order that should have been right the first time. Yes, i agree, what you think would make more sense as a consumer does not always make sense from the business end of things... Its the business's place to bridge that gap as best they can. I agree in the end it is all about money. they're in business for a reason (as long as this current administration lets businesses be private still LOL, I digress thats another topic) And im sure your right, firearms arent where the money is at.. its like cell phones, the holsters, ammo, cleaning kits, etc are where the money is at.. as is the range eventually. The investment for the range is high yes, but it will begin turning profits with little expense after a while. Especially when you think of the brass reselling, and the range time alone. Having your CSR's Upsell holsters for the pistols you carry to customers when they buy the pistol is a good starting point. As is 30 min free range time or an hour free range time per sale of the firearm, the customers gonna need targets, ammo, spare mags, cleaning kits, oils, rags, goggles, etc.. product pairing is essential. as is marketing layout of the stores.. (fernandina needs help btw. Farrows renovation has been a blessing even with it being so small of a store. the ability to browse the AR parts without having to ask a counter clerk is a godsend there and a big reason i go to farrow more than fernandina for parts.) Im no marketing agent, but ive done enough retail to know to always try to pair items to the customer. you do it at the gun counter. example : glad you are gonna buy the sig mk25, would you like a holster to go with that? we have a blackhawk serpa, a leather galco, a inside teh waist band Crossbreed, no? how about extra magazines? we have these for 29.99 each.. no? ok.. well let me walk your pistol to the cashier, they'll have it ready for you when you wanna check out.. until then feel free to look around some more. Once the customer gets to the checkout counter the cashier should offer ok one sig mk25, would you like some 9mm defensive with that? or maybe a box of FMJ's for your next range visit that you got the one hour free card here for? yes great, let me go grab you that box of fiocci 9 we've got a special on it this week. not once have i had that happen in any PSA store. and this is basics in any retail settings from advance auto to CVS pharmacy. I will keep in mind theorizing if your just connected or employed.. It's half the fun right? besides if you ask me, i think you are an employee. Middle to upper management if i'd have to guess. |
|
Some things just don't make sense and the web store is one of them. I have more theories on how the retail side works. I think the two don't mix and don't communicate with each other. Ordering is did as a whole but think of the warehouse as its' own entity who decides who gets what. The retail stores all carry different product also. Greenville has a huge archery section with hunting gear. This is all theory, okay. I did meet a guy who works out of the Greenville store who said his job was to call manufacturers and distributors and find ammo for the Greenville store.
As far as the QC of internet orders I think it is more of a product availability issue and the need to ship staged partial orders out the door. Cheaper to try and get an order right 3 times then get a charge back. Shipping the same order twice is signs of an archaic ordering system. All the changes you suggest will save a business money in the long term but cost millions in short term investments. A no brainer for a business in it for the long haul. What if your business is one that can go away with one political vote? This time last year many Americans believed firearms sales where going to be a thing of the past, how do you think manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers felt? What if this firearms buying bubble bursts? What if the next administration decides Americans do not need firearms any more? Would you invest millions in a business that is already making stupid profit when you could be out of business in a year. |
|
Quoted:
Some things just don't make sense and the web store is one of them. I have more theories on how the retail side works. I think the two don't mix and don't communicate with each other. Ordering is did as a whole but think of the warehouse as its' own entity who decides who gets what. The retail stores all carry different product also. Greenville has a huge archery section with hunting gear. This is all theory, okay. I did meet a guy who works out of the Greenville store who said his job was to call manufacturers and distributors and find ammo for the Greenville store. As far as the QC of internet orders I think it is more of a product availability issue and the need to ship staged partial orders out the door. Cheaper to try and get an order right 3 times then get a charge back. Shipping the same order twice is signs of an archaic ordering system. All the changes you suggest will save a business money in the long term but cost millions in short term investments. A no brainer for a business in it for the long haul. What if your business is one that can go away with one political vote? This time last year many Americans believed firearms sales where going to be a thing of the past, how do you think manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers felt? What if this firearms buying bubble bursts? What if the next administration decides Americans do not need firearms any more? Would you invest millions in a business that is already making stupid profit when you could be out of business in a year. I can understand that it doesnt make sense.. what im saying is make it make sense. It will streamline the business, save money, make customers more happy, which in turn generates more sales, and more money and etc. communication from web/warehouse to storefront is essential to ensure all fronts are fighting the same battles, and selling the same things, etc. IF ordering is done as a whole, then there has to be transfers from warehouse to storefronts, thus there has to be communication and meetings there.. although seeing how some of the stores are out of this or that often and the web not being out of it, does in fact explain how theres not really alot of communication. yes i get the storefronts carry different products... especially for their regions, but that being said, the website should still stock all of it, if all ordering is done from one location then disbursed from that location to the store sites. Also, folks online are a broader audience than the storefronts, so having that item available online only increases your ability to sell more instead of detract.. sadly the stores space themselves are Finite.. and there is only so much stock you can put into a store and still make it work. Woodruff road ive heard does a good bit in making this work, as does beaufort and farrow. Fernandina, i think due to the volume of sales, has a hard time keeping up, as im sure woodruff will eventually run into due to their volume as well. Fernandina i'd wager has a larger hunting section than Woodruff with their new add on section that is nothing but hunting cameo, etc. (to me it seems a waste of space, as there is only so much drake gear you can sell to a public as every time im in there there is NO ONE in that side / section other than a walk thru of hey whats in here) If greenville has a guy calling distributors looking for ammo, it makes me think they dont all order everything from one central office/warehouse. Which is counter productive.. why have 5 guys doing the same thing in 5 different locations when you could have 2 guys doing it at the central location, and the store managers ordering from that one location? Poor planning and manpower usage there in my opinion. Availability should not be an issue if they have the product in their hands in the warehouse. If they dont, they should not be selling it as available. maybe with a new Web/inventory/pos system they can accomodate for back orders. I whole heartedly disagree with your statement of trying to get orders right 3 times on the same order... Chargebacks still happen, and largely because the customer gets pissed and stops trying to let PSA fix it when they screwed up twice already or more. In a customer service role your goal should be 100% accuracy the first time, not the second or third.. and if you have to have a do-over on the second time, you should have 150% positivity that the order is right before it leaves the warehouse, with PSA swag decals in the box or a patch or something to show to the customer theyre important to your business and that you went above and beyond to fix the first mistake. by the third time, the customer shouldnt even have to ask for free upgrades, and tshirts stickers, patches whatever should be a no brainer. Yes shipping the same order more than once (but not billing for it more than once) is signs of an archaic ordering system.. again back to how much teh website / pos/ inventory system needs revamped. Yes it would save the business loads of money in the long run, make customers more happy, which in turn makes the business more money. Agreed, its a No Brainer for a business in it for the long haul. Are you suggestting that PSA just wanted to be in business for 5 to 10 to 20 years but not beyond that? Or that Jamin et al., was just trying to make a quick buck? Chances are taken by businesses every day. PSA is taking one now with the 1911 theyre going to introduce. PSA also had the capital to buy that Bus, so they have capital to buy an invetnory /pos/web integration equipment as well. The larger PSA gets the more of a voice they have in our state, and in the Firearms industry as well. They already have had the Ear of many state senator and congressman and local politicians as well, that voice and grasp on the political side will only grow with the business, and thus help to ensure that PSA keeps their field of business open to the public. Lets be honest here. If anyone really thinks that with one political vote, that we can no longer buy firearms, buying firearms is the least of our worries, and voting wont be mattering either. We'll be loading the weapons we have, to fight like our forefathers. I think last year the manufacturers and wholesalers and retialers were estatic and nervous. it was a bubble, it was supply and demand. its broke sense then yes. but also sales have returned to pre crisis states, (minus .22 ammo of course) for the most part and we carry on. To answer your question of whether or not i'd invest millions in a business that already is making stupid profit when i could be put out of business in a year, the simple answer is yes. The very nature of business is risk, those who do, become the rockefeller, trump, etc of their age. Hell look how many times trumps claimed bankrupcy to only come back more and stronger. |
|
Quoted:
Overhead for a storefront is more than a website. Quoted:
Quoted:
TL;DR Overhead for a storefront is more than a website. it is, but the company is still the company....the explanation that they are two separate businesses is weak... the objective is to sell things and make profit....if its in stock in both the store AND online, they should match prices....if not let the prices differ people in the state get hammered either way, they go in and pay tax so the price is vastly different from online....or they stay home, buy it online, pay tax and shipping the company makes a nice profit, no one is asking them to lower prices....just match prices or at least be competitive with the sales in store vs online |
|
Quoted:
it is, but the company is still the company....the explanation that they are two separate businesses is weak... the objective is to sell things and make profit....if its in stock in both the store AND online, they should match prices....if not let the prices differ people in the state get hammered either way, they go in and pay tax so the price is vastly different from online....or they stay home, buy it online, pay tax and shipping the company makes a nice profit, no one is asking them to lower prices....just match prices or at least be competitive with the sales in store vs online Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
TL;DR Overhead for a storefront is more than a website. it is, but the company is still the company....the explanation that they are two separate businesses is weak... the objective is to sell things and make profit....if its in stock in both the store AND online, they should match prices....if not let the prices differ people in the state get hammered either way, they go in and pay tax so the price is vastly different from online....or they stay home, buy it online, pay tax and shipping the company makes a nice profit, no one is asking them to lower prices....just match prices or at least be competitive with the sales in store vs online QFT. |
|
Quoted:
Probably the second most complained about subject with PSA, shipping being #1. Why can't the store match the websites price? Let me try to explain this to some with my business knowledge and some insight to the operations of PSA. The #1 reason is PSA treats each of its' divisions as separate entities. The web site is separate from the Fernandina Store as they are both separate of the Greenville store. Each range is separate from the retail location it is located at. These separate businesses are each expected to be profitable and given sales goals. Just like Walmart or McDonalds, if store A has a $1m in profit and store B has $400k in debt the corporate people don't see it as $600k in profit. They see it as one location performing well and the other location failing. For each entity to be profitable and thus successful a certain amount of profit must be made. Consideration is also given to the competition and their price points. The website does way more transactions per day than the physical stores. For instance lets say the goal for a day is $1000 profit. Website does a thousand transactions and only needs to make $1 profit per sale. Retail store does 100 transactions and needs to make $10 per sale. With PSA inventory is also entity specific. When they add new stores they purchase the latest POS/inventory system. Thus each store has a different inventory system and a store can not see what another store has. I know everyone thinks the CSR is lying when they tell you they don't know what Farrow Rd. has. They really don't. Back to our topic though, PSA doesn't have 1000 Glock 19's. The Website has 900 and Greenville has 40 while Fernandina has 60. With the volume the stores and website do that inventory has to be gone before the next shipment that was ordered months ago arrives. Unlike small shops PSA can't wait till they are down to the last pistol before they order 5 more. Greenvile knows they will sell 40 in a week. The website knows they wont sell 900 so they make it a daily deal. Also as of the last year or so pricing from distributors has fluctuated greatly on firearms and ammo. Depending on when PSA placed an order for product can dictate the price point placed on it. Ammo ordered in Apr. of 2013 is going to cost more than ammo ordered in Nov. of 2013. Unlike small shops that order a case at a time PSA is ordering pallets and containers of product at one time and has to order months in advance to keep up with demand. For example the Greenville store that opened in July of 2013. PSA started ordering product almost 8 months in advance for that location to have it fully stocked for opening. Ammo that was ordered in January and arrived in March was still there in July when they opened the doors. That January ammo was purchased at a premium due to the Ammo Crunch that occurred after Sandy Hook. Website ammo that was ordered in January and delivered in March was sold in March when people had no problem paying 90 cent a round for 5.56. Lets now discuss the actual overhead and staffing required to run each entity. When you walk into a retail location you expect to speak to a CSR in a timely fashion and leave with the product as fast as possible. That requires a certain level of staffing to achieve. The website is all computerized ordering and it takes several days for the limited staff (limited because people on the inter webs want the best deal possible) to get to last weeks orders. Woodruff Rd and I-26 Frontage space are way more expensive to lease than an industrial park parcel. It's not like PSA wont let SC residents order from the website. The retail locations couldn't afford to keep the doors open if they provided retail level service and web site prices. I could go on and on with more reasons why PSA can't price match retail versus web but that are some of the main ones. This is a very informed and well thought out post that clears up a lot of common misconceptions. It was definitely worth the read! Great work! |