StickyMicky

Never been able to work this out, local car spares place wants 8quid a pop for the beggers, they cant be hard to make, probably even less work to make these new aero types!


Ordered some from eBay instead.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Demand vs. convenience, overheads and stocking costs.

Like I paid £4.50 from halfrauds for 1metre of fuel hose. The only other place I could get it from off the shelf sold it by the reel even if it worked out at 1.50p a metre the smallest amount I could buy was 10metres.

That fuel hose probably sat on that very shelf for over 12months before someone decided they needed it there and then, ASAP.

Its why our family business doesn't stock any parts and runs JIT on pretty much every part including basic servicing parts on cars. Our suppliers have a sub 1hr turn-around from order to delivery, so that in turn makes it much cheaper in overheads than having £5+K worth of stock gathering dust on the shelf, some of which would end up in the bin (discontinued, damaged etc) or "dissapears".

As a consequence (just looked) A standard wiper blade for a classic impreza at cost price to us is £3.29+vat, RRP is £9.95+vat. Or one with a spoiler is £4.03+vat, RRP for that is £12.19+vat!! Generally we'd split the difference and invoice at somewhere inbetween the cost price and RRP. Seeing we won't charge for fitting, ordering or delivery and we can get it fitted on your car within the hour, whereas you need to wait a few days if you ordered from an online retailer.

On balance, its how quickly you want that part; The longer you can wait, the cheaper it should be (depending on who ethical/greedy the retailer is to the consumer; Some will try and charge RRP and make you wait several weeks for the priviledge! ).

If we stocked it on the shelf, we would have no choice but to charge retail to cover the increased overheads

StickyMicky

JIT damn, not heard that term for a few years now


But seriously, wiper blades, they are just a simple strip of black rubber as far as i can tell, it amazes me what i can buy for a tenner these days, but wiper blades seam poor value in comparison.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Oh yeah, I agree; bit of metal, plastic and rubber. The latest single piece one are even more simple, yet cost more Even at £3.25+VAT a pop, a load of people make money from it:

The suppliers
The delivery company
The importers
The shipping company
The factory in China
The material suppliers
The management in various parts of the chain
The taxman
And finally the worker in that Chinese factory (by which time probably gets under 1 pence per blade ).

Maybe we should have fairtrade wiper blades?

Leslie

It is possible to get replacement rubber blades to replace the worn ones for a considerable saving.

Les

SunnySideUp

LIDL's do superb wiper blades a couple of times a year, in pairs - for £3:99 a pair!

The 'SETS' are also mixed lengths - so, for the Impreza I get a SET of 21" and 18" for £3:99.

They last 1 year before squeaking, which I feel is outstanding value for money - shame that some people are so snobby it costs them ££££££££££'s.

LC Geezer

JIT - more often known as JTL (just too late).

StickyMicky

JIT when i worked for nissan building the cars (actually very impressive how this is implemented on pretty much everything)

JNGTFTU when ordering chemicals for the carwash before the run out
I once had a chat with the MD of uk operations and made a point about how JIT when working properly saves money/stress and a hole load of ball ache.
His response "we are never going to be that good at it"

Kinda gave up on mentioning it from that part on.

Just about to run out of Tyre Dressing for the machine, never had any delivered for the past 3 deliverys, because apprently somebody told the girl who deals with chemical deliverys that we did not have the tyre dressing machine installed, which is strange when i kept adding onto the chemical sheet every month that i was running out.

Rang up and complained a few days back as i only have enough left for the week, and was promised that some would be delivered today by courier, but its not turned up

richieh

Halfords trade card
cost about 3 quid each then.
You should be able to get one no problem-big savings to be had on parts then
cheers Richie

danny c

iTrader: (6)

wiper blades are a rip off! we get them for £1.50 each at work and charge them out at around £6.00! if your in the trade it helps but still a rip off if you ask me!

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

£1.63 each where I work.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Not Randstad is it Lisa? They're based up your way and do loads of cheap whole sale stuff (and more stock of Renault parts than Renault themselves )

shaunywrx

I went to a Peugot dealer for a pair of wiper blades for a 307, guess how much
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£49.95, i honestly thought he was joking, went across the road to the car spares shop, and they still wanted £40.

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

Nope. I just work in a quite cheap shop.

Maybe I should go and work for them, they might pay better.

(I'd expect they'd want me to know what I'm talking about though. )

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I wouldn't let that stop you: Most people I've spoke to at various dealer's parts counters don't have a clue either

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

I can't even drive though.

StickyMicky

I have a maccess trade account, but i never even gave it thought to price them up, the local car shop is usually quite awesome, especially with it just being down the road and less hassle to just pop in, proper oldskool blokes who still fix knackered exhaust with a bit of metal coathanger and an exhaust bandage

A lost art!

StickyMicky

dohh



1.92 for a twinpack