If you people think Kubota needs to step in with regional sale limits or caps on pricing you will be waiting a long time. If you think they will force pricing limits the ones that will suffer is the customer, not the dealer etc. [censored], the dealer would want it. More $$$ in their pocket for doing nothing. I do not mind a dealer making a profit but taking advantage is a different story.
All this talk about Wal-Mart (WM) is nothing new. It happens now and nothing changes. Plus it is not WM. Example, my wife works as a buyer for Agway for the Northeast, same thing there. This is retail. The good parts about Agway is we get items at cost or free items. I asked for a few bags of Pro-mix and the next day I had a truck full of broken bags for free. Don’t think that Agway lost money. They got full value back from the manufacture. So there are happy since they got paid and I am happy.
You could all be right but the manufacture that sells to WM does not care nor its distributors. They make more profit off one-sale then 50 sales on this little shops. It might not be right, but that is retail. Plus WM is not going any ware soon and is guaranteed sales while the little shop are in question.
Everyone whines about WM but when it puts dollars back in their pocket they are not complained then. Or these little cities complain about it but when it puts millions back in there state and local budget, where is all the complainers now?
Benefits and wages are always getting less-and-less. Again, that is nothing new. Welcome to the year 2004. This has been going on for over 5 years where I work (aerospace). The CEO’s etc want to meet their budget and the only way is layoff, lower wages or contract the work. You think they are going to take $$$ out of their pocket so some person can have a job, nope. That is corporate America and it is getting worse.
Back to topic here, In the end the ones that need to change there “old-time belief” is the local Kubota dealers that think they run the show. Remember you need customer to buy “your” product. No customer equals no money in. You need us [customers] more then I need you. Why pay some “MSRP” when I can call some friends of friends or go to another dealer (down the road or out of state) and get a favor for some % off? Plus it is just some numbers on paper. You can say you paid retail and then get a “owner loyalty” discount, “first time tractor” discount etc. Call it what you will. It is all fake money. As long as the dealer made a percentage there are happy.
If not, they will go online or down the road for a cheaper price for same product.
What I do not get is why is this warranty issue is such a big deal. I bring my cars in for repair, if I do not wish to do it, and Mercedes-Benz or Lexus never asks if this is warranty or where I bought it. When I used to bring my gsxr1100 for repair no one asked where I bought it. When I had my JD 3 dealers never asked about it.
So far I think some Kubota dealer need to get a wake up call.