"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in message
...

"Doug Brown" wrote in message
2) I do have some sympathy for the suppliers who feel forced to kowtow
to WalMart's demands but maybe it's time to tell them to go to hell.
Perhaps the manufacturer shoulkd be the one who sets quality and other
issues. Perhaps it is time that the consumer says to hell with cheap crap
and demands fair value for decent quality stuff.

OH! I gues I'm dreaming.



I have NO sympathy for suppliers to Wal Mart. The want the volume and they
willingly take a lot of crap from them. Thee is no obligation to sell to
any of the big tyrant stores. Do a Google search on Vlasic
pickles+WalMart and see how they were forced into bankruptcy because they
had no balls. The do a search on Snapper Mowers+WalMart and see how a
company can tell them to ****off and still be successful.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/...n_snapper.html

My company faced a similar situation. We supplied parts to a major
manufacturer of room air conditioners. They were our largest customer for
a few years. Tough to deal with, we still made a fair profit and they
always tried to squeeze us for more. Before the start of a season, they
sent us (and all their suppliers) a letter thanking us for past
performance. They then said for the next year they wanted a 25% price
reduction for the same parts. Then, if we agreed to that, they wanted a 6%
rebate on the past years sales to them.

We declined and asked where they wanted the tooling shipped. It went to a
hungry competitor that cheerfully took the business away from us. Two
years later, we had new and profitable customers, they had a bankruptcy
filing and the customer moved to Mexico and found new cheaper suppliers
there.



Snapper (lawnmower mfr) made a similar decision. Interesting article:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/...n_snapper.html