Have knife retailers and distributors started dropping Benchmade knives?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Comeuppance said:
I doubt many retailers are going to drop Benchmade over this. As a sort of neutral synopsis: Benchmade assisted local authorities by providing tools to destroy confiscated firearms and this inspired some to dig and find out that Benchmade donated money ($33k over 5 years) to political entities that, while supporting local manufacturing, also support an apparently poorly-designed bill related to the legality of interstate travel and knives (and thus potentially affecting similar legislation regarding guns).

That seems to be the long and short of it. I'm sure I've oversimplified it in some fashion, but that's a side-effect of me quickly losing interest while trying to figure this out.
Click to expand...

Tsk. Logic and reason are not allowed in a knee-jerk reaction thread. If it continues, there might be a discussion on Aristotelian Logic, and those never end well.
 
Smash05 said:
I'm curious about BM distribution contracts and rules. I was under the impression that the distributor had to buy inventory - meaning that all the knives that the distributor or dealer has on the shelf the shop paid for, and would need to sell in order to cover the vig. If that is true I cannot fault a distributor or dealer from keeping their inventory on the floor until sold.
Click to expand...

Yes, I believe stores now have to buy inventory from Benchmade, so they'd have to sell out their stock before booting them. Though I imagine by the time that happens, people will have largely forgotten about this whole uproar and Benchmade will continue to make stores a pretty penny.
 
not2sharp said:
There is no need to rehash the same discussion. It is enough to know that a large number of people have decided they would rather not continue to patronize Benchmade, and many of us would appreciate working with like-minded retailers.

n2s
Click to expand...
What is a "large number of people" to you?
 
Imagine seeing photos of Ruger destroying a pile of Benchmade knives confiscated by TSA and later finding out they've been donating thousands of dollars to Anti Knife Politicians ? ;):eek:
ZgI9Q7g.jpg
 
John_0917 said:
In the past I have seen BM and sone other brands (ZT) sold at MSRP at cabelas and bass pro, good for them to get ignorant bubbas to spend $129.99 for a VG10 Endura!
Click to expand...
Most big retailers I’ve seen have adhered to BM and ZT MAP pretty closely. Spyderco is a different story. They are often heavily inflated.
 
John_0917 said:
In the past I have seen BM and sone other brands (ZT) sold at MSRP at cabelas and bass pro, good for them to get ignorant bubbas to spend $129.99 for a VG10 Endura!
Click to expand...

That's cheaper than what I can get from a UK shop. I would love to have a bass Pro shop where I could hold the knives, see different makes. You are lucky in the USA don't give that up just to save a few quid.
 
John_0917 said:
In the past I have seen BM and sone other brands (ZT) sold at MSRP at cabelas and bass pro, good for them to get ignorant bubbas to spend $129.99 for a VG10 Endura!
Click to expand...
I guess we don't have those stores in the bay area. We have REI, which has the knives listed for the correct MAP prices (and you can use REI coupons to lower prices, too).
 
Well... for Dick's and REI, this kerfuffle is probably a feature, not a bug.

I don't think any major dealers will stop stocking Benchmade. Benchmade has managed to get themselves a reputation as the only high-quality production knife company that is somewhat well known among people who by trade or hobby are adjacent to but not necessarily actually involved in the knife community, i.e. hunters, law enforcement, and military. A lot of military like them because they're sold in PXs and many models have NSNs, so whole units buy them. Benchmade aggressively targets those markets, and those markets tend to buy knives at the big sporting goods and LE/military supply stores.

Undoubtedly they probably lost a couple smaller mom-and-pop retailers, particularly those whose primary sales are firearms.

John_0917 said:
Remember that many of the big retailers that sell BM also do so at MSRP (Cabelas, BPS, Gander) so I doubt they’re selling to the most informed buyers to begin with.

If you don’t know that you can buy the same thing for 1/3 less online without tax I doubt they know about this story.
Click to expand...

Heh, true fact.
 
If retailers have not dropped other manufacturers for other incidents where the retailers actually had a mess to clean up, I doubt this will cause much harm to the retailers. If stock no longer moves, at some stage they will clearance deprecated product as per normal, and some retailers may have a little more than usual to move, but its not that big of a deal. Its not in the best interest of a retailer to limit their stock unless its a near unanimous call from the customer base. And in this case, not enough people care.
 
I semi hope my two LGS Benchmade dealers stop carrying them and mark them way down!

They are already crazy low priced and if they mark them down any more I'm going on a buying spree.
 
Not only do I not think most knife retailers will drop them I doubt most of the scores of guys who swore they will sell their Benchmade knives are actually going to sell them either. Lots of talk, little action.
 
not2sharp said:
Let's keep the political discussion out of this thread. I don't need to be convinced any further on the subject, I just think that we should help those who share our commitment towards protecting our rights.
Click to expand...
Without making a political statement, I just want to point out that you have started a thread in which you ask us to avoid political discussion...by making a political statement.
 
I'm going to guess zero companies will drop Benchmade knives.

I might never buy another one, but I'd guess Benchmade doesn't notice.

Let's hope however , that next time they remember the internet chatter and pass on destroying guns. Perhaps wishful thinking.
 
Lol, the free stuff voters in our knife community patiently waiting to get a Benchmade knife for next to nothing but it aint gonna happen.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top