Benchmade Comment at SMKW

U

Ultrastick

Joined
Nov 9, 2003
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89
I stopped by SMKW (Smokey Mountain Knife Works) near Sevierville, TN on my way back from vacation--just a couple of days ago. Had a nice look around at all the knives but wasn't finding anything I had to have. I asked a clerk where the Benchmades were. He showed me one section of a free standing display case and said "This is all we have left. We're dropping the line. They're too hard to get along with." He then turned and left.

Does anyone here know anything about this? I figure money must be involved in some way.

Anyway, there were no closeout prices on the pieces in the display case, and no Grips either, which is what I wanted to see. My minigrip has me spoiled for that design. Looking to get the large one or Rittergrip soon.
U
 
I figure money must be involved in some way.
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I would bet that's it.

Interpretation: Benchmade doesn't give us enough discount when we buy from them.
 
DaveH said:
I would bet that's it.

Interpretation: Benchmade doesn't give us enough discount when we buy from them.
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Right.

Benchmade has been hard to get product from lately though.
 
SMKW never had much of a Benchmade selection. In fact, for a long time they did not have any, then they had a few. The last time I was there (a couple of weeks ago) there were only a few left.

If your return route went through Knoxville, you could have stopped at Greene's Military, not too far off I-40. They have a large Benchmade selection, and prices are a little lower than MSRP.
 
This is interesting...I was at a small knife shop in Pennsylvania yesterday and purchased a BM690...I was inquiring about other BM products and the owner stated that he rarely keeps Benchmades in stock because the company is "very hard to deal with"...I personally enjoy and own many Benchmade products...it would be ashame for them to lose business due to a poor attitude. I would be interested in knowing if this is truly a problem or not...
 
This is nothing new. I remember when I first was introduced to the line in '96, I remember a few dealers told me that they would special order models, etc... but not to expect them fast or at all. They made it sound like ordering from BenchMade was a big pain in the neck.

They seem(ed) to have a love/hate thing going on with a lot of the people in the business.
 
I've been going to SMKW a couple of times a year since the 80s. They have never carried a lot of BM products. Their overall lineup has changed gradually over time to more and more cheap stuff. I guess that's what the tourists mostly buy. I can see that, along with BM's policies for authorized dealers, being plenty of reason to drop what little they carried.
I wouldn't be surprised if they dropped Spyderco, too, just because people don't seem to buy quality any more. The same 440V plain edge Military has been sitting on display for a couple of years, though they finally had a S30V fully serrated version under the counter this spring.
I used to love going in there to handle the newest knives, but now they just have an increasing amount of junk, and high prices on their name brand products (they do seem to keep up to date on Camillus and Ka-bar, though).
I still enjoy going through there, but my visits seem to get shorter and shorter.
 
While Benchmade is very popular with consumers, the company has very few friends within the industry. I won't go into the reasons but I know of not a single person within the industry that really likes Benchmade as a company so they don't get much help from insiders.

The products are almost impossible to get. I have a warning on every Benchmade knife on the site that they are unavailable most of the time. I've been criticized for it but it's the truth and it saves me a some customer service problems. On an average day, less than 15% of the current Benchmade line is available to me. I continue to offer the line for my own reasons but I sell so few Benchmade products any more because of availability that it doesn't impact our business at all. Several years ago, Benchmade was very important to our product mix.

I understand perfectly why SMKW would drop the line. I understand why people would say they are a hard company with which to deal and that products are hard to get. Those things are quite true. It's too bad because it is one of the few companies left in the industry making high quality knives in the U.S and I, personally, wouldn't want to see them fail.
 
This strikes me as kinda weird, if no one can easily get their products to sell, where are they all going to? Or is it just demand so far exceeds supply?

Also as I recall Mike Turber was threatening to sue them because they wouldn't give the same deals to pure web based retailers. That si they where trying to protect their brick and motar resellers profit.
 
I think Mike was gonna sue them too at one time. :p

I've just heard that fixes on returns take forever.
 
DaveH said:
This strikes me as kinda weird, if no one can easily get their products to sell, where are they all going to? Or is it just demand so far exceeds supply?
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I don't know anybody personally at Benchmade (at least anybody with whom I would have a conversation) but I've heard business hasn't been as good there as it was in the past. I think demand is lower than it once was.

I think part of the reason for the availability problem is that they have a lot of sku's to deal with and that gets harder to manage when business gets tough. And it has been tough for the past couple of years in the knife industry. The broader the product line, the more expensive it is to manufacture as well. I have seen this problem in a few other knife manufacturers and it almost put one of them under. Adding sku's normally isn't a good way to add sales unless the current sku's are producing at potential. Usually one should clean up and adjust the product mix before enlarging it. Whether or not this is at the root of Benchmade's problems is a guess on my part but I've certainly seen it before. It's really a shame to have orders and not be able to fill them for whatever reason. You need to be able fill orders to make everything else in the company happen as it should. It's as basic for a manufacturer as walking is for all of us.
 
I know several persons in the knife business who say the same thing. Benchmade has great customer support, but they treat their dealers like crap. They have rules about advertising certain knives below their minimum prices, fairly large minimum orders, and numerous other quirks that some dealers can't stand.

Ask someone who actually sells knives for a living and they will probably tell you the same thing.
 
This is an interesting topic to me so far. I have just really gotten into only buying higher quality knives lately and have been primarilly interested in collecting folders (with the exception of multiblades and some traditional patterns) from only Spyderco or Benchmade. I consider both of these to be quality companies who make good users and produce a good product at a fairly affordable price.

That said, I do think that Benchmade is kind-of a mixed bag. I really like their designs. They excel at lock design. I think that Spyderco has better steel choice though.

I have experienced mixed sales presence lately from Benchmade. I have experienced the situation at SMKW. I really am saddened by the abundence of cheap crap there and the dearth of quality products. I looked for some Benchmades the last time I was there and found only the aforementioned standing display. It seems sad that one of the largest retail knife stores in the USA would drop one of the few quality production knife lines still made largely in the USA. I can understand if they had problems with the company but still sad. One has to look harder for quality lately at SMKW, however I still like going there. Knives like Spyderco and Benchmade are not as likely to do well in that type of environment because many of those who shop SMKW seem to be not the knife nut type. They are looking for something pretty, flashy, or mean looking, or they collect traditionals, an area where SMKW seems to excel. They can not see paying top dollar for a tactical that looks and performs (to them) the same as another with a price point two-thirds lower.

On the other hand, my local knife dealer seems to be getting heavily into Benchmades. They are one of the few knife companies he seems to have increased his stock of in the past few months. He even expressed to me his interest in buying himself a Benchmade Apparition folder the last time I was in his shop. So Benchmade-dealer relations must not be universally bad.
 
...and SMKW is going to increase their floor space. It makes me wonder what kind of merchandise they will have there. The past trend is not encouraging.

I stop by fairly often, as it is on the way to hikes in the Smokies. But of late I spend less and less time there, heading straight to a few brands (Buck, Spyderco, Queen) or to look at sharpening supplies. They have a large selection of Swiss Army, but I have the ones I care to have. Most of the rest in the store is cheap stuff.

Perhaps part of the issue with BM is the large ego involved.
 
Edited after I reread my post. Sometimes best to keep mouth shut.
 
DaveH said:
Or is it just demand so far exceeds supply?
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I know this is true for the projects we were involved in. We have seen entire runs of several hundred knives to be sold in one or two days.
 
I have talked to dealers who have said that Benchmade can be difficult. I don't want to get into specifics because I would be betraying confidences and I only have one side of the story. BM has been extremely slow getting out their new products. I have seen that first hand when I go by local dealers.
 
Very interesting discussion points.

I have been trying very unsuccessfully to get hold of a BM 630 - and yes I have been told of all the reasons why they aren't available, back orders volumes, etc.. etc...

Trying to get one internationally though is even tougher - I went through our local importer - and funny enough he echoed a lot of the sentiments mentioned here. Being the impatient type, I popped off a email to BM themselves - and got a response ( unfortunate not the knife ) the very same day - they seemed very professional and sincere in their email.

Is it not all about supply and demand - try getting a brand new ferrari the same day ;)
 
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