Crazy Sebenza Prices (long, sorry)

B

Bulldawg

Joined
Sep 4, 2002
Messages
103
I was at a shopping mall today and I went to a very popular knife store. I won't say the name but I will tell you the initals are CKT. Anyway, I am on a CRK Sebenza kick so I went in to see if they had any. Sure enough they did. I asked to see the large aztech sebenza, didn't really like the design too much for my taste, but hey who am I. Anyway, I turned the tag over and it said it was $600.00. I asked them why $600, they said if I can find it cheaper they will sell it to me at that cheaper price as long as it isn't more than 25% off their price. So I told them the knife is $415 from CRK direct. The guy went and got the manager and the manager said they couldn't go as low as $415 but 25% off makes the knife $450 plus tax. Even though I didn't like it I thought I should know why it was so much as a consumer. So I told them "No thank you", and started to walk out, and the manager said softly (but I still heard him) to the employee that even if it was $415 I wasn't prepared to pay that. As you know me from the first night I came on the scene I don't take that sh!t lightly. I went back and told him for a manager he should not tell employees to treat customers that way. So to prove my point I pulled out BOTH my solar wind (my edc) and stars and stripes (had that one on me as well to show someone that I met at the mall) and laid them on the counter. His mouth opened pretty wide and he said, "Um give me one minute, I may be able to sell you the knife for $415". I told him if it was free I wouldn't take it from him. That really turned me off about that store that they would have an a$$h@le like that working (no less the manager). I always make it a point to go in no matter what mall I am at to see the gadgets and stuff. I will not let that guy stop me though, I will still support CKT. Sorry so long, bye!


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You should have bought it, then came back 5 minutes later, said you wanted to exchange it for another knife there, then came back 10 minutes later and returned that knife for a refund:)
 
...and when you buy from online or mail-order dealers with decent prices, you're still supporting good, American companies. To Hell with YKW, their prices, and their cheeseball salespeople trying to tell me how ATS34 is the newest, most all-around incredible steel available today.

It's pretty much widely accepted that wholesale prices on manufactured knives is around 50% of MSRP. That means that your Spyderco with an MSRP of $129.00 at YKW (or likely even higher--YKW likes to jack stuff up beyond MSRP) cost them $75.00. I'm not giving away any industry secrets here either.

So while there may be a YKW employee who frequents the forums may try and justify their prices, I say, hey, just keep doing what you do. There's always going to be people who have no idea that they're paying a ridiculous amount of money for something, and there's always going to be the people that sell them stuff. I'm sure Dr. Death makes similar effort to justify his actions over at www.HemlockForums.com.

Professor.
 
Mall knife store are like wine stores......

How the hell do they know how the wine tastes...
TO YOU!!

:mad: :mad: :mad:
 
As if the prices weren't bad enough at mall stores, the one here is manned by DA's.

(not District Attorney's)

If you work in a specialty shop do your homework.:grumpy:
 
The mall stores here stock very little of interest, and even when they do have something, the price is usually double what one can find online with little effort. I've seen their cost for a few things, and it's about equal to what I can order it for myself... It seems these stores exist by preying on the uninformed...
 
Anyway, I turned the tag over and it said it was $600.00.
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Exactly the situation at the Blade show in Atlanta this year. I was very disappointed. Every production knife I looked at was at MSRP or more. Anyway, lesson learned. I shop online for production knives with just one exception. Whenever we pass by Sunrise, Florida on our way to Port Everglades I stop by Guns and Knives and walk out with at least one knife. It balances out my wife's obsession with Festival Flea Market in the same area. The staff at G&K know how to treat customers.
 
There is an old large sporting goods store in San Antonio, Tx that has a pretty broad selection of brands. The only thing, I think most of the people who buy knives from them, actually don't know much about knives. The reason I say this is because I was visiting in the area a couple of months ago and we stopped by this shop and happened to overhear two different sales persons talking to two different customers. Man, you wouldn't believe the BS these two people were slinging at the customers. The two guys must have believed most of the BS that was being slung their way, because each one of them bought a knife and paid too much for them. I started talking to one of the sales persons and asking him some questions about different steels and I found out real quick that he didn't know as much about steels as he gave people the impression he did. He went on a rant about how AUS8A was the hottest and newest steel around and would hold an edge longer than most of the other "great" stailess steels). Don't get me wrong, when properly heat treated and tempered, it is a good steel, but not the latest and greatest. I happened to have a couple of handmades on me at the time, a Dozier and a Duncan, which I took out one at a time and showed them to him, just to see his reaction. Now it got funny, I guess he thought that I might know a little about the different steels, because he sure started talking differently. All of their knives, including CRK and Microtechs were priced at, but mostly above MSRP. I really hate to see sales people slinging sh*t at people who they think don't know any difference and some people actually swallow that stuff. Sorry for the long rant.
 
You should be careful how broad a brush you paint with. Not all mall cutlery shops are bad. The ones here in Colorado Springs charge full retail, but the folks working there are helpful, knowledgeable knife people.
 
It is very difficult to run a successful Brick and Mortar retail store of any kind.

If the market is willing to pay prices over MSRP, then I don't blame them for raising prices.

That's the joy of a free market. After all, the purpose of a business is to make money. If you don't like the prices, you can always buy someplace else.

Just my $.02
-- Rob
 

Make a profit sure, double the proce give me a break. A decorated sebbie large is $415 msrp, cost is $290.50. Isn't $124.50 enough profit on just one item? Gove me a break...
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Double the cost is pretty standard in most retail items.

A good retailer, under ideal conditions, can make a 6-10% profit at "keystone" (double wholesale price).

Profit can be affected by a number of things, for example, the speed at which an item sells.

A $100 item that sells 100 times a year is more profitable than a $1000 item that sells 10 times a year, because it spends less time sitting on the shelf, taking up resources. A good example of this are grocery stores, which sell items at lower margins by selling items very quickly.

If the sebenza sells every few days, then yes, $124.50 might be a good enough profit. But, if it takes months, or even years to sell, then no, it's a big waste of space, time, and money.

On items at lower profit margins than keystone (oversimplifying a bit) the store is either:
A) Not making money on that item/Making money on something else
B) Making money by turning the item quickly
C) Cutting corners somewhere (employee pay, taxes, etc)
D) Going out of business

I can go more into detail about the costs assosiated with running a standard brick and mortar retail store, if you'd like. I'm not the worlds foremost expert, but I've run a retail store or two in my time.

A recent statistic I saw stated that 90% of all small retail stores fail in their first year. Retail is a very, very tough business. If you're not willing to pay the prices of specialty stores, don't be suprised when they cease to exist. Walmart doesn't sell sebenzas.

-- Rob

PS - Oops - I also forgot to say: I'm not assosiated with any knife shop, blah blah blah.. :)
 
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