Again . . . hold the shiny side so that it’s pointing at your face
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Screen names can belong to people who actually know what they are talking about .
Real names here can be so far wrong that it is hard to believe.
Michael Q go some where else and maybe you can find a more receptive audience .
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Silliness. One can avoid questions like did you go to St. Thomas. I could make up a real name but it would be no more believable. NAPA is still in business, and I use them, last year I was 500 miles from home, needed to have some ac work done, and called NAPA for a recommendation of a shop, got one and I was happy with the recommendation.
Enjoy yourselves guys. You don’t seem receptive to facts, but you do seem to like making ad hominem attacks rather than ever actually understanding what I write.
If its any consolation, it’s not only NAPA here in Canada, Canadian Tire is also oftentimes very expensive for better quality parts and you want to stay away from their cheapest stuff by and large.
I can only guess most of you have money invested in Napa or like to hang out there. Personally, I do not need them to remain in business. I just hope they will improve their pricing here on parts, BECAUSE I FIND THEIR MARKUPS TO BE WAY TOO HIGH.
It’s a little off topic but I just ordered OEM V belts for my lawn mower from the manufacturer. They cost $33 each compared to the $8 and $20 after-market belts from India sold at Menards and the farm store. Why? Because it appears the belts from India are out of spec by a half inch or so, and that’s enough to screw up the forward motion.
I thought I struck it rich discovering the $8 belts but it’s a 2 hour plus job changing belts laying on the ground and scrunching your hands where they were never meant to go. Then several hours of trouble-shooting, and another two hours putting another set of belts on.
So I’ve got about four brand new belts that will go in the trash. I’ll gladly pay the 400% mark-up for OEM belts made in the USA instead of off brands made in India. And I thought China was bad.
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Renegade you need to learn something about basic human character. I have the courage to stand by my postings and use my real name when I post here, on discus or elsewhere.
If and when you can come up with a good argument I will happily acknowledge and change my tune. The problem is so far is you have simply attacked my honesty, Its the old adage ‘‘one of us must be wrong and I know it’s not me’’. And I know because I actually verify information as opposed to making claims out of ignorance.
Look who’s talking . . .
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Stop being a troll. You have not posted a single fact, only pictures, and insults.
Way ahead of you
:
You are completely focused on price and think if one source it 300 % higher that another source that the difference is all profit.
You completely ignore the fact that a full service chain like Canadian Tire, or Napa will have costs much higher than a guy with a computer sitting in his house and drop shipping things to you. Another fact ,counterfeit auto parts are big business and the layman has no way of distinguishing them unless he has a genuine package in front of him to compare. Most of them are sold on Ebay. There is nothing Immoral or illegal about high prices unless you have created a monopoly or are taking advantage of an emergency situation.
I have seldom seen anyone so lacking in the ability to understand any other point of view than your own.
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Oldtimer, it is neither of our concerns what a particular businesses cost structure is. From an economic and societal perspective, we want them to compete and evolve. All I am saying is buyer beware, and there are benefits and some significant savings to shopping around.
I am not completely insensitive to where you are coming in terms of preserving main-street and small-town economies, but there are far larger factors at work, than my suggesting that people have options.
Profit and markup are related even if they aren’t the exact same thing. My comments here are really not for you but rather for someone seeking to stretch their limited funds who might find it beneficial to know that there can be some pretty vast differences in the price different sellers will charge and that it may be in that person’s interest to shop around.
I am sure that Amazon, Rock Auto, Parts Avatar, Autopartsway, etc all really appreciate your characterization of their business.
I think your last sentence should stand as a lesson for everybody, and that includes you stepping out of your comfort zone, and trying to understand.
You have proven yourself to be a troll. You are just making yourself look stupid at this point, and if it gives you some weird pleasure, get a life.
Have you ever taken a course in Economics?
@Michael_Quinlan. To me, time is money. When I began my career as a new faculty member at a state university, both time and money were limited. My salary in 1965 for the academic year was $6000 plus what I was paid for summer teaching. I also had to produce published results from my research. Now, we didn’t have the internet back then. We did have an independent auto parts store in our buying association that sold us parts at the same price the parts were sold to businesses. There was also J.C. Whitney mail order company where most parts sold at a somewhat lower price.
Here is how I made things work. If I could replace the part easily and the car would run until the part arrived from J.C. Whitney, I might go that route. If I needed the part immediately, I went to the auto parts store. If I thought it would take more than two hours to replace the part or it was beyond what I could do in the parking lot of my apartment building with my limited tools, I had a shop repair the car.
Even in retirement, I still guard my time. I was using my ancient lawnmower to mulch leaves. It was hard to start–took quite a few pulls–and sputtered along as I mulched the leaves. After I had finished the front yard and took a break, I figured that the spark plug might be fouled. I didn’t want to change clothes, get in the car, and drive to a store to buy a spark plug. I then remembered that I had bought a spark plug at a store called Ollie’s Cheap Stuff . The spark plug was a prop we used in a skit when the orchestra I play in performed Leroy Anderson’s “Typewriter”. We pretend to tune the typewriter. I hide the spark plug under the lid of the typewriter. The concertmaster comes over with a spark plug wrench and the conductor comes over with a gap gauge, resets the gap and we pretend to reinstall the spark plug in the typewriter. The spark plug I bought at Ollie’s Cheap Stuff wasn’t purchased to be used in anything. It had some brand name I didn’t recognize and cost 98¢. I installed that plug in my lawnmower and it ran beautifully. Apparently, Olympia typewriters and Briggs and Stratton engines run on the same type sparkplug. Now the correct spark plug for the mower is about $3. I don’t know how long this cheap plug will last, but it allowed me to finish the job.
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Yes. What you seem to not understand is how a free market works. Vendors can set their prices wherever they wish and buyers can choose or not choose to pay those prices. Econ 101.
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I have…One of the elective classes on my degree in Applied Mathematics. What’s your point? Looks like you only took the into class.
@Michael_Quinlan I have no opinion on the subject. folks have disagreed with your take on this question. Calling people trolls, or asking if they’ve taken economics, isn’t going to bring them to your side of the argument. Old timer and others have been polite in their disagreements—maybe it’s time to let the argument go. Thanks.
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Exactly-- buyers can choose to pay an elevated price or not. I choose not to, and in this Bizzaro discussion universe that is viewed negatively.
Bizzaro Pizza costs more than Little Caesars.
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