Sadly though, some companies, like some people, never learn. Snapper,
now owned by Simplicity, a division of Briggs and Stratton Corp., who
also owns the bankrupt remains of Murray, will be selling Murray based
products labeled with the Snapper name through Sears ( KMart ) this
year. They are also offering this crap to their dealers, for about the
same price that KMart will be selling it. (Remember, though the took on
the Sears name, KMart bought Sears, not vice versa.)

Personally, I hope it costs Briggs a bundle.

And anyone who bought a Toro in the last year who didn't get one of the
last "Wheel Horse Classic" tractors, got a relabeled MTD. Much like
anyone who bought a Troybilt the last few years before they went
bankrupt and were bought outright by MTD.

All these companies want is to line the pockets of the upper management
and make enough profits to keep their stock price climbing so the
shareholders won't catch on to how they and their customers are being
ripped off.


Edwin Pawlowski wrote:

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.