Simms Waders and Sage Rods .... At Costco?!

[fredaevans]

Ran into this thread on one of our PNW local boards. Long, but a darned interesting read:

Sage and Simms at Costco?

[russellb]

No surprise, they sold some Rolex watches at Costco a while back. Your shopping cart features a 50 roll pack of toilet paper, one gallon jar of peanut butter, one of those 3ft pepperonis and a 8 thousand dollar sports watch.... oh and now a Sage....

[the_infidel]

i dident see if the explination was in your link, but here is what happened:

Big Box Wholesaler Costco Plays Dirty ? Aiming Low Prices on Top Brands to Lure Fly Fishermen | Angling Trade

[TAT]

I have mixed feeling on this whole thing. I like free markets but also believe in brand integrity and the manufacturers right to protect it. The whole issue of the manufacturer not honoring their warranty if sold through an unauthorized outlet becomes a non-issue with Costco's liberal no time limit return policy.

[troutdoorsman]

I hope the freight forwarder in question is found and taken care of properly. Unfortunately it is happening alot in other industries as well.

[FlyBum]

In my opinion most of the big name fly fishing gear manufacturers gouge their customers and by customers I'm not just referring ot the end users, but the shops too. From conversations I've had with people in the know about what it costs them to manufacturer most everything IMO the profits they make are obscene. I feel badly for the fly shops, but in this case I have no simpathy for SIMMS or Sage.

[gt05254]

LOL, well, if you think the fly fishing manufacturer's profits are obscene, have you looked at Exxon et. al.'s P&L's lately? Now that, my friend, is obscene.
Not to change the subject, of course.
Gary

[fredaevans]

Profit's are not as repetitious as they would seem at first glance. A barrel of crude has 42 US gallons, after they're all through refining the hell out of this you'll get about 19 gallons of raw gas. This will give you a pretty good breakdown of here's where you start, here what you end up with:

WHAT A BARREL OF CRUDE OIL MAKES

And depending upon where the crude came from you may well get less. Interesting thing is "The sum of the parts can exceed the whole." But you're pricing your end product(s) and you know the price of your next 5 million barrels is going to cost you 5% more. Do you wait for delivery, or do you factor that into 'today's prices' for the expected cost of deliveries.

World price of oil goes up another 2%, do you wait until the Tanker is tied to the dock to take that into consideration?

I think "now" if you've got your head screwed on tight. But in the interim the Tanker hasn't hit the dock yet, but you're collecting what you KNOW you're going to have to write the check. So, TEMPORARILY, Exxon's bank balance goes up .... temporarily.

Now lets look at the above from another angle. You have/control major producing oil fields vs. having to buy the bulk of what you get off the World Market. Now if you price what you're paying 'pennies' to get out of the ground at world market prices ..

KACHING! KACHING!! Now we're talking real money Boys and Girls.

But that still begs the question of given how much oil exists in the US why aren't we drilling for same? Clue: It's not because the oil companies don't want to.

[gt05254]

Fred, I was merely mentioning REPORTED annual profits. Day to day, I'm sure there are ups and downs, risks and chances. But the year-end bottom line is the year-end bottom line no matter how you slice it. 'nuff said by me.
Gary

[TAT]

Before this gets off track and turns into a political thread I'll just weigh in.

Same thing has happened to several market segments. Cameras, PC's, Bicycles, Wine....just to name a few. Most of the gear we have overpaid for in past years was manufactured by pipe smoking, basket creel carrying, tweed wearing, snobby elitists in a secret US location in the backwoods of Maine, Oregon, Montana or in some quaint hamlet in England. Now its all manufactured in Taiwan, Japan, sometimes England, China etc. Very little gear any more is actually manufactured in the US. It night be assembled here but the parts and pieces are from elsewhere. Problem is that many manufacturers have not passed on these savings to the consumer. The market is evolving away from the pipe smoking, basket creel carrying, tweed wearing, snobby elitists in the mold of Henning Hale-Orviston (H2O). With alternative sources of distribution and the internet just about anyone with the desire can now get into the manufacturing business if they have the desire and drive. Allen Reels is a great example. Face it folks. The mystique of Orvis, Sage, Winston etc is slowly eroding.