alan_m wrote:
On 22/04/2021 20:32, newshound wrote:


Agreed. Forty plus years ago many "trade" counters would not serve the
general public at all. I worked for the CEGB and my site purchasing
department would, on request, give you a "trade note" that said
something like "Supply goods as requested for cash payment". The
discount on their "book" price was typically 35%. But their book price
was usually better than the sheds of the day too. More recently a mate
of mine had a Radiospares account for his business. IIRC his discount
was also 35% on their catalogue price.

I considered RS to be expensive in the first place but for a business
prompt next days delivery can be very important.

RS used to be stupidly expensive, especially for small quantities and
non-trade users (originally they wouldn't sell to retail customers).

However I think the likes of CPC, Rapid-Recall, Farnell (yes, I know
they own CPC) and even Maplin forced RS to become cheaper and more
'user friendly'.

They're still usually a bit more expensive than the others but not
always, for example they were cheapest for a Dymo Rhino label maker
(some years ago now).

--
Chris Green
·