Musgraves

Recessionbust

Anyone else think these completely price themselves out of the market with regards to value for the independent retailer? Not to mention the annoying fact that they allow children in there.

MOH

They're insane for some things. Went there to check out prices for some stuff, stopped in Tesco on the way home, retail price there was almost as low.

Probably depends on what you're buying though.

Recessionbust

MOH wrote: »

They're insane for some things. Went there to check out prices for some stuff, stopped in Tesco on the way home, retail price there was almost as low.


Probably depends on what you're buying though.

How do they justify that with the buying power they have? Small cash an carry up the road is more or less 25% cheaper

ScouseMouse

I swear by Jr Byrnes in Robinhood Ind Est. They are on the corner, just down from Musgraves.

Recessionbust

superscouse wrote: »

I swear by Jr Byrnes in Robinhood Ind Est. They are on the corner, just down from Musgraves.

That's who I was talkin about problem is they don't have the greatest selection.

sandin

Again, you're not understanding the 2 different operations. Musgraves have 2 pricing systems - one for the likes of me who buy office supplies and a few bits and pay the price on thw shelf. The other is a fairly complicated rebate system which can give as much as 20% back depending on the categories of goods bought - but you need to put a fair bit of trade through them.

Jr byrnes on the other hand have a straight price but don't permit the type of semi retail accounts that musgrave allow.

Go to some of the larger UK specialists such as rayburn trading or UK sweets and see a further 20-30% difference - bug minimum orders are 3k +

Recessionbust

sandin wrote: »

Again, you're not understanding the 2 different operations. Musgraves have 2 pricing systems - one for the likes of me who buy office supplies and a few bits and pay the price on thw shelf. The other is a fairly complicated rebate system which can give as much as 20% back depending on the categories of goods bought - but you need to put a fair bit of trade through them.

Jr byrnes on the other hand have a straight price but don't permit the type of semi retail accounts that musgrave allow.

Go to some of the larger UK specialists such as rayburn trading or UK sweets and see a further 20-30% difference - bug minimum orders are 3k +

I do understand it. I have a friend who runs a Centra an gets a decent rebate through them however he still buys some stock outside of the central billing allowance as he is of the opinion that even with a rebate the margin is poor.
I personally don't use them because of these prices. Maybe I came across wrong but what I am sayin is that regardless of how much you buy their prices are high.
I just don't agree with the rebate system as its like a ransom I think more retailers would appreciate no rebate and lower prices.
Also I don't think its about understanding its more about peoples opinion.

Bandara

Are you actively speaking to the manager and doing deals with him? the price on the shelf is a starting point. same as anywhere else. Tell him to call you if he has stock with a month left on it that he wants to shift on bogof or better (obviously only take stuff that sells well)

As an example of a deal : Everytime I buy 50 cases of mixed confectionery I get 15 cases of any contours I want from either coke/britvic/lucozade for free.

I wouldn't mind centra too much, there pricing structure is very high, far higher than bwg or londis, as much as 2% in a lot of cases, its stupidly difficult to make money in Centra compared to the others.

Recessionbust

Hammertime wrote: »

Are you actively speaking to the manager and doing deals with him? the price on the shelf is a starting point. same as anywhere else. Tell him to call you if he has stock with a month left on it that he wants to shift on bogof or better (obviously only take stuff that sells well)

As an example of a deal : Everytime I buy 50 cases of mixed confectionery I get 15 cases of any contours I want from either coke/britvic/lucozade for free.

I wouldn't mind centra too much, there pricing structure is very high, far higher than bwg or londis, as much as 2% in a lot of cases, its stupidly difficult to make money in Centra compared to the others.

Thanks Hammertime, I don't deal in perishbles so its alot harder to get deals. I have a few good suppliers who are reasonably priced, Cheers for the heads up. On a seperate note I have just sent you a pm

sandin

Recessionbust wrote: »

I do understand it. I have a friend who runs a Centra an gets a decent rebate through them however he still buys some stock outside of the central billing allowance as he is of the opinion that even with a rebate the margin is poor.
I personally don't use them because of these prices. Maybe I came across wrong but what I am sayin is that regardless of how much you buy their prices are high.
I just don't agree with the rebate system as its like a ransom I think more retailers would appreciate no rebate and lower prices.
Also I don't think its about understanding its more about peoples opinion.

You don't seem to understand it and from other posts you ahve a huge learning curve in front of you.

In your friends case, you have to add in the value of the "Centra Brand", the national advertising, the heavily discounted offers, the store design, the IT back-up etc etc.

By switching a normal store to the Centra brand (or other well know franchise), you can increase your business by 50% + if you do it right.

Understanding the local market and understanding your supplier and merging both together is where you cna create best value / best profit.

My guess is you operate a discount store in the Lucan area - you probably do a lot of your "shopping" in robinhood area. Try the UK - go the the shows, (Autumn fair is noext one) link up with one or 2 of the biggie suppliers such as rayburn trading (all big name products, but £3000 min order value). I presume you already use Budget Greetings in Parkwest and JR byrne in Robinhood. Possibly Sean Fagan & Fitzpatricks too? Musgraves is not for you - they supply convenience stores, not discount stores.

Above all - NEVER EVER be negative against a competitor. Do your own business as well as you can do, carve your own niche and never ever try and attack another store or supplier. Simply understand your business, understand your customer and find the right suppliers for you and stop this continued negativity against suppliers you just don't understand.

Then you have a chance of success.

Recessionbust

sandin wrote: »

You don't seem to understand it and from other posts you ahve a huge learning curve in front of you.

In your friends case, you have to add in the value of the "Centra Brand", the national advertising, the heavily discounted offers, the store design, the IT back-up etc etc.

By switching a normal store to the Centra brand (or other well know franchise), you can increase your business by 50% + if you do it right.

Understanding the local market and understanding your supplier and merging both together is where you cna create best value / best profit.

My guess is you operate a discount store in the Lucan area - you probably do a lot of your "shopping" in robinhood area. Try the UK - go the the shows, (Autumn fair is noext one) link up with one or 2 of the biggie suppliers such as rayburn trading (all big name products, but £3000 min order value). I presume you already use Budget Greetings in Parkwest and JR byrne in Robinhood. Possibly Sean Fagan & Fitzpatricks too? Musgraves is not for you - they supply convenience stores, not discount stores.

Above all - NEVER EVER be negative against a competitor. Do your own business as well as you can do, carve your own niche and never ever try and attack another store or supplier. Simply understand your business, understand your customer and find the right suppliers for you and stop this continued negativity against suppliers you just don't understand.

Then you have a chance of success.

Firstly previous posts were regarding my view as past employee and customer I was ranting from both angles , I have no intention of shooting down the competitor, They are succesfull and I feel no hatred towards them , I am still on good terms with alot of them and in a way they have assisted me anyway as I said lets leave previous posts aside.

You make some valid points here and regardless of what differences we have ill give credit where its due. Your guess is however wrong, I dont operate in Lucan, I shop there as its my area of residence , I operate my business in a North Dublin Shopping Centre and while I say Discount store I would class it as a completely different model to say that of Euro 2 or Dealz as they have this market cornered so no point in trying to go up against these guys on a business level.

JR Byrnes yes I do buy a small amount from them every now and then, I do the same with Musgraves (drop in every now and then) as they can to be fair have the odd good special offer that works to my advantage, My OP was again just a customer opinion that there prices are high and wanted to see what other people thought of their prices.

Budget, Sean Fagan, Fitzpatricks, 50B no I dont use them, I did look at there range but did not find it matched the need of my business, Rayburn Trading - I order small amounts often so while I appreciate you giving me the info I find them of no use. I have quite a few suppliers , well 7 to be honest and I have a good relationship with them so much so that with 6 out of the 7 I can make a call today and have stock dropped on Tuesday.

Anyway as I said Im not dishing musgraves, sometimes they have good offers and for this reason I drop in once a month to see what they have but I still think there prices are a tad high and yes they have there reasons but I just thought I would rant about it.

As for Centra - Well No I dont know the full ins and outs of how they operate and what I mentioned was based on hear say from a friend who is operating one the last 10years and he just said that he sometimes plays outside the rules in order to get a healthy margin.

I have no intention of dishing other peoples business and none of my posts was meant in that way , Its hard enough to survive these days and no one knows that better then me. Anything I said in the OP was purely from a customer perspective

TheInquisitor

Recessionbust 7 suppliers seems awfully low. Our business over in the UK has over 150 .

What kind of products do you stock?

If its toiletries etc give DCS central a check. They also do a selection of 30 lines of confectionery and about 50 lines of grocery.

Yorkies are going for £10.99 for 36. Toblerone Milk £9.25 for 20. Coca cola cans £6.29 for 24 which is cheaper than we can buy direct from coke ourselves.

Below is a list of their normal lines. DCS are the manufactures of the Enliven brand.

http://www.dcscentral.com/Default.aspx?id=552066

The reason we have pushed to deal direct with so many manufacturers direct is not only will you get product cheaper you can also get a decent bit of free stock etc with a bit of negotiating skill.

Recessionbust

TheInquisitor wrote: »

Recessionbust 7 suppliers seems awfully low. Our business over in the UK has over 150 .

What kind of products do you stock?

If its toiletries etc give DCS central a check. They also do a selection of 30 lines of confectionery and about 50 lines of grocery.

Yorkies are going for £10.99 for 36. Toblerone Milk £9.25 for 20. Coca cola cans £6.29 for 24 which is cheaper than we can buy direct from coke ourselves.

Below is a list of their normal lines. DCS are the manufactures of the Enliven brand.

http://www.dcscentral.com/Default.aspx?id=552066

The reason we have pushed to deal direct with so many manufacturers direct is not only will you get product cheaper you can also get a decent bit of free stock etc with a bit of negotiating skill.

Many thanks for the info. Never heard of these before and will look them up. I know 7 may seem low however I have a good relationship with them an one of them is probably the biggest supplier of the lines I stock. They are reasonably priced and they allow splits. Like others they offer discounts on spend but even without they are good value an they deliver the smallest of orders for free.
Problem with me goin direct is that you need to buy in bulk with most of them. A pallet of this and a pallet of that while I would like to do it I can't as I have limited floor space an I would loose so much space to one or two lines. Again cheers for the advice much appreciated