Jet Parallel Clamp Sale at Rockler

[vaking]

Perhaps it's a reward for us B&M customers that don't while away the day looking for great bargains on internet forums, and who also buy more merchandise at regular prices with each trip to the store than do those that are looking for a hot deal and free shipping, too.

I'm trying to be respectful, but the amount of crabbing in this forum about Rockler and how they do business when one of these emails or special coupons comes up is ridiculous. Woodcraft does the same thing. So do other chains around the country.

I'm not affiliated in any way with Rockler.

Firstly - sale is never a reward. Reward is a recognition of some past activity and stores don't care for the past. Sale is a way to create traffic. Most stores prefer B&M customers because if you come to the store you will usually end up buying something. Not many people go to store for the love of shopping - people need some insentive to get off the couch. If they make you come for a sale item they will usually end up selling something in addition to it at regular price. Internet shoppers are more logical, B&M customers are more prone to make purchases on emotions.

Driving 200 miles for a sale usually does not make much sense. My rule of thumb is that that driving a car costs me $0.2 per mile in gas and car usage not counting my time. That means coming from 200 miles away costs $80 round trip plus a full day wasted. I have yet to see a sale worth it.
I don't know of any Rockler stores nearby and I have never been to any. I have never bought anything from Rockler, on sale or off, in store or over Internet.

I do agree with you, however, on one thing. This forum has a "bargain alert" section where people have a chance to notify fellow woodworkers about attractive deals. To me that is the only place and reason on this forum where mentioning price of tools is justified. Discussion about discrimination of Internet customers belongs in the "coffee shop" where I wouldn't have read it.

[LCHIEN]

too much whining

Seems to me to be a little bit petty complaining about the terms of a sale.
They set the terms to be beneficial to them, they are after all making a living and earning money for stockholders as their principal goal.

They are not discriminating to make some people happy or not. They may or may not have separate lists for the retail and internet customers. If they don't they may not feel it worth the time to scan the zips to see if you are close to a store or not. If you are distant, you may still travel or alert your friends near the store to the sale item, it might still be to their interest to alert you to a sale or product offering.

If you don't like their approach, unsubscribe to their list. if I got mad at all the retailers whose sales terms were inconvenient to me to take advantage of then I'd have few stores left to shop. Maybe there's too much whining going on.

Lowes clearances at certain stores only...
Restaurants advertising nationally but don't have restaurants in my area...
Blue-bell Ice creams sold locally but not available all over the country.

Where are you going to draw the line? Don't like it, don't buy their stuff.

[woodturner]

It probably wouldn't be a big deal if the B&M Rockler stores were franchised operations but IIRC the stores are all corporate owned. To me, that makes this type of preferential treatment unacceptable.

That's probably the bigger issue - the B&M retail stores ARE franchises, which is why you will see different pricing and different sales at different stores (if you lived close enough to more than one store to visit them and compare).

It's possible that there are corporate owned B&M stores as well, but the ones I have visited were all franchises.

[woodturner]

Firstly - sale is never a reward.

To the contrary, many sales ARE rewards for good customers.

Rockler regularly sends out coupons and special sale notices to select customers, not the entire list. I asked the manager of the local franchise about this, and he said they (like every store these days) track purchases, so the special sale offers go to their best customers, and the ones who have participated in the special sales in the past.

Using your $0.20 per mile number, you could have driven up to 1,000 miles for the $200 savings on the jointer. Surely there is a Rockler within 1000 miles of you.

[woodturner]

On the other hand, I have never seen any kind of a sale at Rockler's that would make it attractive financially for most to go to that extreme.

$200 to $400 off the best internet prices on power tools are fairly regular sale items for Rockler. If it costs you $0.20 per mile, it's still a bargain if you drive 200 miles ($40), if you need the jointer, stock feeder, table saw, or whatever.

For that matter, at the recent router bit sale most people seemed to be buying 20 bits or so. 20 bits x $20 savings per bit is $400 - definitely worth some driving.

[cgallery]

the B&M retail stores ARE franchises

Not all of them. The older ones and some of the newer ones are company owned.

[woodturner]

Not all of them. The older ones and some of the newer ones are company owned.

I went to the website to find out more about this, and found that what they list on the website as "company owned" stores are the franchises. It does not appear there are any non-franchise company-owned stores, but I will have to investigate further to confirm this.

[sweensdv]

I went to the website to find out more about this, and found that what they list on the website as "company owned" stores are the franchises. It does not appear there are any non-franchise company-owned stores, but I will have to investigate further to confirm this.

Where on their website did you find that information, I couldn't find anything that said that? I'm not saying that it isn't there, I just didn't see it anywhere. If you're referring to what they call "affiliate stores", I think that is something completely different than a franchised Rockler store.

[woodturner]

Where on their website did you find that information, I couldn't find anything that said that? I'm not saying that it isn't there, I just didn't see it anywhere. If you're referring to what they call "affiliate stores", I think that is something completely different than a franchised Rockler store.

On this page
http://www.rockler.com/retail/retail.cfm
they list "Rockler Woodworking and Hardware Stores" and "Independent Rockler Resellers"

The independent resellers are other stores that carry some Rockler merchandise.

The "Rockler Woodworking and Hardware Stores" are the franchises - or at least, some of them are. That information is not on the webpage, but I know of 8 stores in the midwest that are all franchises and they are all listed under this category.

On this page
http://www.rockler.com/corporate/index.cfm
they say "Today, our retail chain stretches across the United States and includes over 30 Rockler stores and over 60 partner store locations."

The partner stores are the affiliates, and at least some, maybe all, of the "30 Rockler stores" are the franchises.

[Mr__Bill]

I sounds like some here feel that local customers should not get the benefit of Rockler in store sales for fear of offending non locals. The whole purpose of these sales is to get customers into the stores to buy other stuff. You're not going to do that on-line.

My local Rockler store is about a 7 hour drive. I'm not going to drive it for a sale but do stop there when going that way. However, being a customer there they will take an order over the phone and ship it from the store to me at the sale price, I do have to pay shipping. My local Woodcraft (5 hour drive) will do the same.

I find it ironic that so many complain the B&M stores don't match on-line prices and here the situation is reversed.

Bill,