The rep for these bright fluffy pens said they were selling well. Since this was a new relationship for us we trusted them and placed an order. A few weeks later we found the same product in a discount shop for what we paid the wholesaler. Ours are not selling and I doubt they would in any store buying from this wholesaler. The buy price is not good. Based on our experience, we are less likely to trust this rep.
There are some extraordinary reps out there that can blind you with enthusiasm so much so it could almost be called an art form.
My MO is to ask them for a trial of it first and see how it goes – you never know, with the above product you just need one kid to take it to school the result being 30 kids coming in to the store to get one.
I think in some way the rep should be accountable for the above result.
Reps are full of it ,they will always say it is selling well ,they are hardly going to say it hasn’t been selling well for others but it might sell in your store .The trial run should be 100% returnable ,i am always willing to try something new and having the opportunity to return something if it doesn’t work would be a good thing .
On a separate note;
We paid Coca Cola $50 extra by accident on one of their invoices. I simply wrote the wrong amount on the cheque.
We did not pick up the error until 2 months later when we were reconciling end of month.
Coca Cola did not notify us, even though we order weekly; a credit did not appear on the next invoice.
Interestingly, you have to ring Coca Cola to let them know of the error, they subsequently tell you that you have a $50.00 credit awaiting collection (??).
You then have to tell the driver the next time he comes in; he then rings Coca Cola and we then short pay the next invoice $50.00.
Not only is the process ridiculous; it is geared to rip you off unless you ring Coke chasing up the over payment.
It is wrong and Coke know it!
Ditto. We copped a broken carton of bottles. Between the repintheflesh and the reponthephone and the driver, it took more than two months to reconcile this issue (i.e. replace or credit the items).
Coke are similar to publishers and distributors in terms of the attitude whereby they don’t give a toss about your cashflow or anything else.
They charge exorbitant prices for low volumes – cheaper to source their product from woollies et al. Our rep is a control freak and trusts no retailer. He will check the backs of our fridges to ensure we’re not hiding non-CCA products behind faced coke products. He lies about shelf lives of products. He wordlessly removes non-CCA promotional material from the fridge. He knows the fridge is so old it’s costing a bomb to run, but is still obsessively possessive of it.
He must be their star employee.
He does not like being reminded of whose business he’s standing in when he behaves like it’s his.
Oh I yearn for the day that we can afford to get our own damn fridge!
try your local dairy man, i have a fridge from a dairy company and dont pay anything, and have just had a new one dropped off after a couple of phone calls to say the old one was making a few rattles and was annoying. the local man does not make a fuss about what i put in it, so long as he has room for his products. i get my coke from a local supermarket when thy have a special on (which is often)
works well for me
Thanks, Rick. Yep, our milk fridge and our other softdrink-supplier’s fridges are no dramas at all. Those reps are lovely.
We also get a lot of our coke products from supermarkets etc.
Drivers also complain about restrictions on them – like only being allowed to be seen to purchase CCA products on the job. Very few do so!
We had a coke rep like that Y & G, we kicked him out, I’m fed up with coke’s arrogance. There is a law that allows us to have 20% of the fridge to stock it with what ever we want, but the coke rep doesn’t like this, so we told him to pick it up and we don’t want to see his face again, when he knew we were serious, he changed his tone, we rang up and asked to have another rep who would call on us on our terms and conditions and not touch our other products or otherwise pick up the fridge, they still were didn’t like that, so now have a fridge from the water company that supplies us our bottled water and keep very little coke in it.
We were in much the same boat R&A in that the Coke rep didn’t like us having other product which we were supposedly allowed so we simply gave them their fridge the flick. Then we went to Schweppes who were more than happy to supply their fridge and all was going fine for a year or so, but then we copped the same crap from them in regards to having our quota of other drinks so we got rid of them as well.
We then decided to buy our own drinks fridge and we haven’t looked back since. Sure we had to outlay the initial purchase price for it (around $1200 which with more than paid off now and then some) but it’s so good not to be dictated to by either company as to what you can and can’t have in your fridge and you can stock what you damn well please. Not to mention being able to source your own drink prices which is more often than not cheaper than the 2 companies anyway.
We still order from coke occasionally for the couple of products we can’t find cheaper but it’s not a great deal. Also as an added bonus of not having either companies fridge, you don’t have to have to put up with annoying reps who always come at the most opportune time and when you don’t even have to see them in the first place. That’s probably the biggest plus of all!
Hi, Bought a Newsagency from some hicks and they didn’t give me any suppliers names. Taking me ages to source cheap suppliers for books, giftware, souvenirs etc. Most of the sites on the net aren’t that much cheaper than retail. I figure I need at least a 30% markup. Any suggestions appreciated.
By the way, got V in and the rep doesn’t care what I put in his fridge. Nice people to deal with.
JW yes the “v” man is the way to go as long as we have a shelf or 2 he is not really fussed . Books- Australian book wholesalers or herron books .
Thanks Shaun, need tips badly, only owned the Newsagency for 6 months. Still getting the hang of it.
i have been in it for 3 years now and still getting the hang of it . we buy a lot of our gifts from the states when the dollar is good , basically a lot of searching involved and a few bad decisisions mixed in with some good ones .
I am not a supplier but I have enough cards to last a newsagent for a long time! I have over 1,100 cards I am wanting to get rid of, all are John Sands with RRP at the back. A rough spreadsheet has been drafted and shows RRP at $6.6k+.
If you are interested please email steven_soh7@hotmail.com
did they fall off the back of a truck? 😛