"Lowell Holmes" wrote in message
...



That's why I seldom buy anything from Rockler. Their sales are not much to
talk about. My preferred store, The Cutting Edge is closing. :-(


I hate to say this about Steve and his son's but the business model there
was fatally flawed. He was absolutely competitive with Woodcraft and of all
the wood working stores in Houston, Woodcraft is probably the most
expensive.
I bought my fair share of equipment from him and tried to do so to support
him. I appreciated having a local supplier.

Having said that however, I always found that if I asked the price of an
unmarked piece of equipment that the price checked and quoted was never the
price at the cash register and then I would have to question the charges,
a big and uncomfortable hassle. Additionally Steve knew that the price he
quoted was what pushed me over the threshold to make the purchase. "Very
Often' I had to wait "months" for an ordered part. I needed a 3 pack of
Fein cut off blades, the price quoted was about $90. 8 weeks later and
after calling about the order a couple of times the blades arrived and the
price quoted increased by $20. Every time that I had to have something
ordered I was told 10 to 14 days. I later deducted that if he could not
order it on a stock order and get the advantages of doing so he would wait
to order the item until he could make up a stock order. My son ordered and
prepaid with his credit card a Festool Vac Garage for $40, he was told 2
weeks maximum. This was going to be a fathers day gift for me, he ordered
in April, about a week before fathers day my son returned to the store for
credit and to cancel the order as the item had not yet arrived. He received
grief from the salesman when asking for credit on his credit card. The
salesman claimed that it was going to cost them another 2% to do so.

After being a customer since the store opened in Sharpstown I eventually
learned that if the store did not have the item in stock, order it from some
one else. If the item was not marked with a price be prepared to cancel the
purchase at the register.

I am sorry to see the store go but I cannot say that I am at all surprised,
whether Woodcraft had moved in across the street or not. Woodcraft always
has more customers that The Cutting Edge ever did.

If I had to make a guess as to why the store failed it would be because
merchandise simply was not sold if a certain percentage of GP was not
obtained on each and every item. While this is a common way to determine in
general what to charge, not deviating from that rule to keep the customer
coming back was the big problem. You simply don't penalize the customer
because you are out of stock or have to order an item special order. Any
retailer can afford to special order and sell for a smaller GP when the item
is prepaid by the customer and does not figure into the overhead. It's
basically an unexpected sale with no cost.