Weaver Leather Wholesale Letter

[Russ]

16 hours ago, keplerts said:

  I figure if I am making and repairing leather goods AND collecting state sales tax AND reporting it on my tax returns as a business I should qualify for wholesale pricing no matter what my yearly purchase dollars amount to. JMO

I like doing business with Weaver, so I am going to give them a call.

I don't think I agree with this, from Weaver's (or any business) perspective.  I don't think it's unreasonable for Weaver to want a certain volume of sales to a customer in order to qualify for a reduced price. Why should Weaver make less on their product just because someone is going to take that product and manufacture something else?  Weaver can make up the less profit  by selling wholesale IF the customer buys at some volume.  Obviously Weaver has set that benchmark at $1200.

FWIW, I also like doing business with Weaver, and I mostly get over $1200/year.  I haven't this year because I bought in bulk last year.  So I got the letter too.  I wasn't offended, I see their point.

[cdthayer]

Wholesalers don't need Retailers any more with the internet.  Look for more of this coming......in a variety of markets.....

CD in Oklahoma

[Anubis78]

Are the accounts that you all have with them actual business accounts on their wholesale side or are these high volume discount based on signing in on their retail side?   I recently registered with them with a business account and there was only a minimum initial purchase on the opening order (see attached image snapshot of a portion of the email that I received). I am unsure if there are minimums for future orders, but they never mentioned anything about a yearly minimum order.  If you haven't registered for a business wholesale account, I'd say it's easy to do.  Just be sure you have any your FEIN number and any state related tax account numbers.   The savings have been better for me as a newbie as I did purchase items from them at retail price.  

 

Now if you guys have better suggestions on wholesalers, send them my way.   

[CaptQuirk]

I just started ordering from Weaver, but only because they were the only ones that had all the hardware I needed for an order. It was an added bonus, that they happened to have a free shipping promo on that day. I made a mistake with the order, and got the wrong sized ring. So I go back to their site, and have to wade through 10 pages of rings, with a really slow connection... again. Afterwards, I shot them an email asking for a catalogue, and received a response saying that only wholesale customers get a catalogue. I responded that their site was less than user friendly, the search function doesn't work well, and it takes forever to go through 10 pages to find one item. Long story slightly shortened, they are sending a catalogue.

Now, I have to give them a lot of credit, because most places won't give an inch. They did. I haven't got any chance of opening a wholesale account with them, but I will seriously consider them for whenever I have the time to wait for stuff.

[MADMAX22]

On 10/13/2016 at 5:10 PM, Russ said:

I don't think I agree with this, from Weaver's (or any business) perspective.  I don't think it's unreasonable for Weaver to want a certain volume of sales to a customer in order to qualify for a reduced price. Why should Weaver make less on their product just because someone is going to take that product and manufacture something else?  Weaver can make up the less profit  by selling wholesale IF the customer buys at some volume.  Obviously Weaver has set that benchmark at $1200.

FWIW, I also like doing business with Weaver, and I mostly get over $1200/year.  I haven't this year because I bought in bulk last year.  So I got the letter too.  I wasn't offended, I see their point.

The new era of super greed and continual increase in sales, walmart mentality, whatever ya wanna call it. Ofcourse I got to work with my parents in there small time business that had to deal with this very thing for a long time until they closed there doors. When they started out having a actual store front, business license, and wholesale accounts was enough. Then they had to start paying minimums, buying certain amounts. I think it was about the same time the big chinese import chains started showing up. 

Such is the way of things now a days. 

[Sonydaze]

While I understand the desire to always get the best price, I think some people could be a bit more fair on criticizing Weaver for their new policy.

Weaver's labour and material costs are not much different whether processing a $100 order or a $1000 order.  The only difference I see is a couple of more minutes taking the larger order and a few more minutes picking the larger order.  However, likely some of the smaller orders can eat up more time due to the buyers not being as well versed on what they are buying and being a lot more critical of what they receive.  Spending about ten times the labour and material costs to realize the same $1000 in sales as a larger order does not make good business sense (unless your pricing is inflated to make up for the extra cost).  

From my viewpoint, Weaver being efficient on their operating costs helps maintain lower costs to their customers.  Weaver is a family owned and operated business, I'm sure a lot of thought and discussion went into making the decision to implement this policy.   Suggesting them to be like Walmart is not reasonable.

Maybe the ones we should really be mad at is the tanneries for refusing to sell anybody that makes leather items for resale?  No minimum quantity AND at their very best price...

 

Love it or hate it, that's my .02 for Monday.

 

[Anubis78]

57 minutes ago, Sonydaze said:

Maybe the ones we should really be mad at is the tanneries for refusing to sell anybody that makes leather items for resale?  

Sonydaze,

Wow... which companies do this? I'm relatively new and would like to avoid any sellers that would do this.  You can pm me if you don't want to publicly post that information. 

 

Also I agree with what you said and my experience with them has been great.  No complaints here.

[JLSleather]

26 minutes ago, Anubis78 said:

Wow... which companies do this? I'm relatively new and would like to avoid any sellers that would do this.  You can pm me if you don't want to publicly post that information. 

Hermann Oak has a 10-side minimum order IF all teh same weight , 20 sides if mixing weights.  For me, it's worth the trouble to get the good stuff.

 

[Anubis78]

2 minutes ago, JLSleather said:

Hermann Oak has a 10-side minimum order IF all teh same weight , 20 sides if mixing weights.  For me, it's worth the trouble to get the good stuff.

I will definitely look into them.  How are their prices? 

[Sonydaze]

@Anubis78:  Sorry, I was being sarcastic, I was alluding to tanneries should ignore their scale of economics and sell directly to everyone.  Most tanneries have a significant minimum order that is beyond what I buy.  

Each of my orders with Weaver add up to well above the $1200 annual purchase requirement.  However I buy many different items (leathers/hardware) on each order... I can't justify buying any one specific leather by the pallet.  So Weaver is my most effective choice at one stop shopping.  If I was buying from many places instead, it would drive up my shipping and accounting costs as well as requiring more time.