Supply House Prices

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jeff43222

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Location
Minneapolis, Minnesota
So I was at the supply house today, because
  1. I hate shopping at the box stores
  2. Good luck getting 4/0 XHHW at Orange Cheapo
Anyway, I'm doing a service upgrade tomorrow, so I needed a new 200A panelboard. The counter guy told me the price of a Siemens 40/40 Cu was around $170. I told him the exact same panelboard at Home Despot was $124. Counter guy says he can't do much on the price. So I wander over to my inside sales guy's office and tell him how much I like shopping at his supply house and tell him why I'm having a hard time continuing to do so. Apparently Siemens recently changed their prices and somehow the computers at the supply house weren't updated. I got the panelboard for $122.

Moral of the story: Talk to your inside sales guy. He can hook you up.
 
We get a very good competitive price at a local employee owned supply chain here. They have about a dozen electrical, plumbing, a/c combo locations in our metro, as well as through out the state. They also have branched into Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri. The big box stores can beat their price on fast moving stuff like 12/2 rx, but not regular things. For some reason though, even their rx is cheaper now.
 
Minuteman said:
The big box stores can beat their price on fast moving stuff like 12/2 rx, but not regular things. For some reason though, even their rx is cheaper now.
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We also had a chat about NM. The supply house price is about the same as the box store price at the moment.
 
I pay $89 dollars for 200 amp 40 circuit Siemens panels with main

$79 for 30 circuit with main

$59 for outdoor 200 amp 8 circuit with main and feed thru lugs

$59 for outdoor 200 amp breaker disconnect
 
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Square D seems to use one of the worse pricing matrixes possible. They look at what the big boxes buy chainwide, but when it comes to the supply house they look at how much each contractor buys.
 
Supply house prices

Supply house prices

I always go to my salesman and get the best prices. Sometimes they don't beat lowes or home depot but overall they do. We all try to stick togeather.Semper Fi.
 
I haven't been able to find anything cheaper at Orange Cheapo or RobMeLow - their NM is about 1.5 times what I can get it at local supply houses. I did find an interesting thing though, on a recent purchase of 12/2 NM. I picked up a roll for $99.89 at my "preferred" spot, and I had my son run to another supply house because they didn't have a NailEater bit. He just happened to ask what their 12/2 was going for, as I had just told him what I just paid - answer was $82 even. You know what I did with the $100 roll.

When I approached my "preferred" guy he went on to tell me that the "other guys" must have bought it a while ago - and I also proceeded to learn that he adjusts the price to the market - not based on his cost. Well, don't you know I'll be having them all quote NM before I buy it.

I think I'll be like the oil companies - I'll adjust my material that I have in stock up when the price goes up - but I'll continue to "soak" the customer by not adjusting back down.

Oh - and I can buy UF by the foot at one supply house - and the landscaper tells me "the post it only 6' overall length" - so I's buy me a chunk of UF based on a measurement I took. Well show up to run the UF up the chunk-a-granite and guess what - the overall length is just over 8'. Well, guess who's open when this gets found out - you guessed it RobMeLow. Had to buy a 50' coil when I only needed 22'. To top it off, the price per foot was twice what I got from the Supply House. Lesson learned on that one, don't ya know.



Ladah,

Brett
 
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bjp_ne_elec said:
I think I'll be like the oil companies - I'll adjust my material that I have in stock up when the price goes up - but I'll continue to "soak" the customer by not adjusting back down.
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two thoughts on that.
1) isn't that what the supply house does, till you question them?
2) most customers don't have a clue on what your materials cost are. So how much does it really matter what your material charges are based on your cost?
 
77401 - I wish my customers were more like yours - but mine seem to be very price savy. I've had several of them hint that they'll buyt the material - and I'm always looking for the best value to the customer. Shopping to get a 20% savings on a bunch of NM can make a difference on whether you win a job or not.
 
bjp_ne_elec said:
77401 - I wish my customers were more like yours - but mine seem to be very price savy. I've had several of them hint that they'll buyt the material - and I'm always looking for the best value to the customer. Shopping to get a 20% savings on a bunch of NM can make a difference on whether you win a job or not.
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BJP, based on your post, I strongly feel it is time you had some real savvy business training on customer relations, so I would like to prescribe the following. Go to Blockbuster and rent a DVD entitled " The Money Pit". Watch the movie at least 3 times, paying careful attention to the plumber and how well he handles his customers. With this type of good training, you will find you can handle the customer much better and more deftly.
 
I think 12/2 now is around $82.00 a roll. I would not know really because we are still working off the 800 rolls we bought several month back when we got it for $44.00. We just bought some more MC cable though and I thought it was a tad pricey. I am thinking around $100.00 a roll for a 250' roll of 12/2 MC.
 
dduffee260 said:
I I am thinking around $100.00 a roll for a 250' roll of 12/2 MC.
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I just got in the office. The price on the 12/2 MC was 39 cents a foot for a 12,000ft order of 12/2 MC. The rest of the MC was inline also.
 
bjp_ne_elec said:
- I wish my customers were more like yours - but mine seem to be very price savy. I've had several of them hint that they'll buyt the material - and I'm always looking for the best value to the customer. Shopping to get a 20% savings on a bunch of NM can make a difference on whether you win a job or not.
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Good customers want exceptional service, they want the job done right, with good workmanship, these are your golden eggs, the customer that brings his own spark plugs to the mechanic, is not the customer you want, and usually, any price, is too much for these customers.

What you pay for the material, is not an issue, your price should be based on your overhead cost, labor cost, and material with mark-up, then add whatever profit you decide you need, this is what your bid should be, if you want to trim the bid, you can cut your profit, but then why are you in business, or you can drop the mark-up on material, and loose, some more of your profit.

If your business is dependent, on cutting material costs, your working your way out of business, in a slow and costly way.
 
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