The dealers are getting killed by the internet. Customers come in wanting to "try on" helmets, jackets, etc so they can go buy online and save a few bucks. Tires used to be a big part of a dealers business, but now half the tires out there are bought off the internet. When a dealer mounts an internet tire, the internet seller gets to make the profit on the tire and the dealer gets 100% of the liability. My insurance agent told me if I didn't touch tires, wheels or brakes my annual rates would be cut in half. I know that at my shop over the counter sales of parts and accessories are down over 50% from what they were just a few years ago.Sierra1 said:I get a dealer charging more to install tires you bought somewhere else. But to flat refuse to provide a common service?! ??? And y'all say this is common?! ??? So much for bikers helping bikers. Assuming that the dealer employees actually ride bikes.
Dealers are asked to match internet prices and 90% of the time it is impossible to do. Take tires for example, take any brand of tire you want and lets say my wholesale price is $100. My actual cost will be $110 because it takes 10% of every sale just to pay the bills (lights, water, heat, ins, etc) and keep the doors open. At a 30% markup I'll need to sell the tire for $140. The internet seller buys tires by the thousands and gets the same tire for $80. They cut a deal with FedEx or UPS for cheap shipping, works out of a low rent warehouse with minimum wage help and sells the tire for $105 making a $10 profit. Selling several thousand a week. Your dealer cannot compete in price with the internet. Some of the large oem parts house like Rocky Mountain and Babbitts are selling at 10-15 percent over their cost and moving $millions in parts. The small dealer can't do this.
Dealers are going out of business at a rate never seen before. Even wholesale parts distributors are closing at a high rate. In the last couple of years the two oldest parts houses in the country went belly up, KK Motorcycle Supply and Dixie Distributing. Right before them Marshall Distributing along with Motorcycle Stuff bit the dust, These were major players in the motorcycle industry. A lot of smaller regional parts houses are long gone too. The three big hitters left in the business are Tucker Rocky, Parts Unlimited and Western Power Sports. Of the big three that are left, TR and PU have closed warehouses and lets sales reps go.
The real ironic part of all this is that the three big parts houses left got to where they are by the hundreds of MC dealers in the country buying from them and the big three have bought most all of the internet sites that are killing the dealers off.
Another example of how bad the MC business has gotten is the Dealer Expo. The Dealer Expo has been held the middle of Feb. in Indianapolis every year for years. There were always several hundred manufacturers and distributors there and thousands of dealers attended. Guess what, no more Dealer Expo. It went the way of the dinosaur three years ago.
Anyway if your local dealer huffs up a little when you pack in a mail order tire and you just want to "try on" a helmet, try and understand he wants to eat a steak every once in a while and take his kids to Disney World too. Also, the only way a dealer will be able to survive in the future is to have massive volume or charge a small fortune for everything they do.