OT-NAPA price disparity

[ray french]

Went to NAPA today to buy a 99207 bearing with double shields.The salesperson comes back with a nonshielded bearing even though I'd already told him it had to be double shielded or double sealed.I ask if he can order it.Sure he says.It'll be $48.?? plus tax and shipping.I told him,no way.I can get a dbl. shielded or sealed for a third of that from McMaster-Carr.He goes back to his computer then disappears into the shelves.Comes back with a double sealed then says,"you're not going to beleive the price".Okay what's the price?Less than ten bucks,tax included.WTF gives here?Was he trying to rip me off and thinking I'd fall for it?I want to think he wouldn't take advantage of me since I've delt with him for over 30 years at NAPA and somewhat socially but now I'm wondering about past purchases.What do you guys think?

[Tonytn36]

The markup on auto parts is about 300% or more.... I used to help a friend run a store. Big ticket items don't have much of a markup, like a computer for your car, they may only make 1-2%. But for everyday things like brake pads....it's in the 200-400% range.
Think High Dollar CNC Machine Tool Builder pricing....about the same thing.

[deadend]

I have a 15" Bridgeport Rotory table with a bad bearing I know they are a precision bearing BUt the price Harding has is $570.00 WOW ONLY IN AMERICA

[67Cuda]

Were you paying cash or credit?

[alcosteam]

I was needing a set of rotors for the 1 ton Dodge truck. I went to the usual places and had pretty much made up my mind I was going to order them online, although not the cheapest they were supposedly extra duty type rotors. I just happened to be all the way on the other side of town and stopped into NAPA and asked about the rotors and was instantly given the pitch about their rotors were extra beefy and all that jazz so I asked what kind of $$ for them. NAPA's price was almost 80 bucks each more than online and I told the counter person that and that I would just have to order online. After some computer work the sales person came back and said they could beat the online price by about 5 bucks a rotor and I ended up ordering them 2 or 3 weeks later from NAPA. I also asked before ordering where the rotors were made and was told most of the larger rotors are USA made and I was happy to see they were correct.

tim

[Bobw]

Napa is a fricken' rip, unless you are a garage or you know somebody. I used to know somebody, the prices were great(got the commercial/garage price). The somebody died(that sucked), still got the good prices for a while, and then it all went to hell.

For a walk in customer, they just stick it up your hoo-hoo, and hard, I don't even know why they bother advertising. Why bother to try and get customers when the first time they step foot in your door, you're just going to piss 'em off??

Back in college I was fighting a bit of a driveline problem in my Bronco. Needed yet another set of u-bolts that held in the u-joints when I was up at school. At the Napa back at home, it was like $6. Up at school, they wanted $10, no problem, I need 'em. Then the owner of that particular Napa came by and opened the package, "oh there are two in here, so 2 * $10", and then "oh there are 4 nuts, 4 washers and 4 lockwashers in here". It took them about 15 minutes to look up the part #s for washers and nuts and bring the total to about $40 for a $6 part.

The sale concluded with a "you can shove those u-bolts up your a@@".

That was when I realized that NAPA sucks giant monkey balls.

Ray, if you "knew" somebody you probably could have walked out of there with a $3 bearing. The $40 price was just their standard "ensure no repeat customers" price. The $10 price was the discount/200% mark up price.

[kb0thn]

A similar experience: I went to an Oreilly's to get a 26R starting battery. My wholesale battery supplier quoted $42, but couldn't deliver on time. Oreilly's quoted $126 and had it in stock. I told them they were nuts. The counterman punched in the name of the biggest independent repair shop in town and the price dropped to about $60. I asked the manager, who I know about it, and he said it helps get the repair shop a better price (due to higher volume) and it gets some margin from me.

What I hate the worst is when you put in a RFQ on something and the vendor quotes a sky high price. So you go somewhere else and buy it for half of the sky-high price. Then a week later the vendor calls and asks why you didn't buy it from them ... and agrees to drop the price 1/3 of their original quote.

Or the sheet metal shop I used to use that was very competitive on 9 out of 10 quotes. And then on the 10th they would be 10x or more than anyone else. I think they hoped you wouldn't competitive quote and they could sneak one by.

[metlmunchr]

Ray, one possible answer is that the guy looked up some variation of the bearing. A $10 bearing can have a -2 or /A or some innocuous looking suffix that indicates some variation from standard, and suddenly become a $50 bearing. The variation may be as simple as a different radius at the bore entrance, or any number of similar but minor differences from the basic bearing and they'll most always be significantly more expensive unless the variation is widely used and generates big sales.

Napa stores are independently owned, so the price breaks from one to another can (and does) vary a lot.

The ones here were a part of the original company, Genuine Parts, headquartered in Atlanta. They've changed hands once, sometime during the 70's when Genuine Parts divested itself of the retail outlets and concentrated solely on being the big daddy of Napa. For a long time the stores here did protect the prices garages got to a healthy extent, but the gap in those prices shrunk a lot over the years to the point where the garage gets maybe 10% less than the guy off the street. Their counter tickets still print out a "list" price as well as selling price.

Around here, they remain the best auto parts supplier to deal with, as they have been for more than 50 years. They have quite a few stores plus their own central warehouse and trucks making nightly deliveries to all their locations, so they move a lot of parts. But, I've heard from multiple sources over the years that a lot of the ones that are more like a single franchise location may have good prices, but may just as likely have the highest prices in 5 counties for the walk in customer. Just depends on who owns the store.

Interesting to look up Genuine Parts sometime to see all the things they own today in addition to the NAPA name, and consider they started as a small chain of auto parts stores. Most everyone knows the NAPA name, but most of those same people have never even heard of Genuine Parts.

[Hemiracer]

Originally Posted by ray french

.What do you guys think?

Was the bearing you bought Chinese? Perhaps the one he priced was not. Getting bearings that aren't made in China has become my biggest headache in the past year. When I order, I specify that I won't accept a Chinese bearing, and when they arrive, guess what? I recently grabbed the last twenty SKF 308 bearings used in the Mopar four speed transmission after a big rebuilder told me he had bought all the remaining supply and doubled his price. He missed a few.

Interesting thing is that the price spread between the Chinese and other bearings is narrowing. I recently had a supply house try to sell me a pair of Chinese tapered roller bearings and cups for only ten dollars less than I ended paying for Timkens. I guess so many people are buying the junk bearings that there is no need to discount them anymore.

Roger

[jackal]

I always think of the Steve Martin skit on "hat shopping". Steve walks in to a hat store. From behind the counter you can see the shelves underneath.

He asks to see a few different hats. There is one in particular that he likes, so he asks " How Much". The guys tells him $5 or something. He says " I never pay less than $50 for a hat." The guy put the hat under the counter and says " How about this one?" pulling out the same hat. Steve Martin asks the price and the guy tells him $75. Steve says "I'll take it".

It seems that some of the parts stores start high and go down to what you are willing to pay.

I worked at a carburetor shop while in my late teens. When XYZ parts store would call and ask for an oddball carb. for say a 1951 Studebaker, and we only had one, they would usually take it, and hold onto it. This way other parts stores couldn't quote it cheaper, because now we didn't have one.

This would pretty much force the customer to buy the high priced one from XYZ or the other parts store had to send in the old carb for rebuild ( that is if the customer had a good one to rebuild).

It was a big scam. Then if the deal fell through XYZ would return the unused carb before the 90 day refund period was up. After 90 days all you could get was a replacement carb.

JAckal

[mjk]

Before you go to NAPA, go to their web site napaonline.com and find the price of what your looking for.
Sometimes there are several levels of quality to chose from depending on the type of part.
If the price is in line with what your willing to pay, start your conversation at the NAPA store with "I just checked your web site and the price of part....is $..."
The last couple times I've done this, I've paid "shop" prices or less for parts
May not work with your local NAPA, but it gets mine razelled when I mention I've done some research

mike

[TonyOW31]

Originally Posted by deadend

I have a 15" Bridgeport Rotory table with a bad bearing I know they are a precision bearing BUt the price Harding has is $570.00 WOW ONLY IN AMERICA

You don't know how lucky you are regarding prices, having lived in various European countries, and now Australia, I would say you enjoyed the lowest retail prices anywhere in the western world.

[Perry Harrington]

Today one of the guys in the shop replaced the front CV axle on a Toyota Tundra. Our cost was $95, list is $500. That's screwin' the pooch.

[metlmunchr]

A man who was my boss at Michelin for a few years had previously worked in shock absorber manufacture for Ford and later for Gabriel. At Gabriel they were selling shocks to automakers (first half of the 70's) for about 70 cents for a front shock and about 85 cents for a rear shock. The rear was more expensive due to the dust tube. He was the production manager in that plant so he knew the costs, and said they were making very good money at those prices.

At that time, those shocks were selling as replacements to the end user for $18 to $25.

[Perry Harrington]

Seems silly to me, sell 1 million shocks and make less than 1 million bucks? They don't make THAT many cars to leave money on the floor.

[paul39]

I need to replace the out of limit rear brake drums on my 1967 Chevy 1 Ton.

Prices I've been quoted gave me the impression they were machined from billet sterling silver.

I bought the front ones at NAPA, phone quoted $110 each, later went in person and bought for around $80 each.

Thanks for the information.

Paul

[ray french]

67Cuda,

I always pay cash even though some suppliers frown on it.

Bobw,

Re-read the original post.I've known the guy 30 plus years.

mjk,

I've used their web site and I find it frustrating at best.It's bad enough jumping through hoops in their store.I shant do it on a web site.

[metlmunchr]

Originally Posted by Perry Harrington

Seems silly to me, sell 1 million shocks and make less than 1 million bucks? They don't make THAT many cars to leave money on the floor.

Perry, anyone who's never quoted any sort of part for a carmaker has no idea just how cheap the parts go, or how high the level of competition really is. You also have to remember this was at a time when your competitiors were other domestic producers with similar cost rather than some third world plant with dirt floors and dime an hour labor. Prices were determined based on a more evenly based set of competition factors than exists today.

Gabriel also produced shocks for Sears in the same plant. Boss said they loved Sears because they were willing to pay about 25% more for a shock than a carmaker. Obviously, the additional money was mostly all profit, but the additional volume also helped profitability on their OE sales as well.

This level of competition exists in any sort of truly high volume manufacturing. One of my uncles was over the production of pressure switches as used on air compressors in a Square D plant for a number of years. There's quite a few screw machine parts in these switches, and all the screw machine parts were quoted by suppliers to a hundredth of a cent per piece. IOW the winning bidder's price might be $.0322 each while the #2 guy was at $.0325 each. Orders typically issued for a year, for maybe a million pieces, with release schedule of 80K pcs/month.

[MICK 1958]

Ok, I have a commercial account, and I have been there for 10 years....even with my discount and no tax......it is still generally more expensive for the parts....I talked with the owner and explained to him that I can walk into a competitor with no knowledge of my business and get a better price....

so he cuts the price for me to his cost and then he explains to me that alot of the parts he sells to commercial accounts he cuts to the bare minimum and for me he does at cost and NAPA reimburses him on select parts....how he stays in business is beyond me....unless there is a fox in the hen house...

BTW......if you need bearings I have a very large selection and I can get you that 207 bearing much cheaper than NAPA.....and with shields or seals....you tell me what you need and I can quote you ....PM me with a list or get back to me on here

Mick

[67Cuda]

Originally Posted by ray french

67Cuda,

I always pay cash even though some suppliers frown on it.

Bobw,

If you've know him 30 yrs, does he seem like the type that would sandbag the price on something?
The reason I asked cash or credit is if your paying cash, he charges list then changes it down to something else after you leave. Pockets the difference.
You call him on the price, now he needs to throw you off and gives you a deal.
I don't know, I'm very suspicious when it comes to cash transactions.

Kind of like "back in the day" when gas was pumped for you, and the attendant would reset the pump before you saw it and put a few more bucks on the total.



Tom