Pole cost
Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 7:01 pm
by Bonevt
I was talking to my coach and he was saying some about pole distributors getting poles for around $200 and they re-sell them with a huge profit. I was wondering if anyone knew anything about this.
Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 7:23 pm
by rainbowgirl28
It just depends on the length of the pole. The pole companies do sell poles to dealers at reduced cost and the dealers can then mark them up to sell to people. It's definitely not a HUGE PROFIT though
Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 7:32 pm
by souleman
Here's one I can add something to. It was all explained to me in my econ 101 class. The cost to a dealer is just what the dealer has to pay for the product. If that was all he had to pay out to sell the pole to you and me for what he sells it for, then you're right, that is a very big profit. But once he sells you or me the product, out of that huge profit comes things like, a) cost of sale,which are commissions,salaries, advertising,etc. b) fixed ops, which is his rent for his store front, heat and electric for the store front, vehicle cost for business operations, phone lines (for a business they're huge!) garbage removal etc c) taxes, permits, dues to commerce organizations, window washing things like that. To put this in perspective let's take a look at a UCS carbon 16' pole. I think I saw someone selling that for about $425. Now if he bought it for half of that we're looking at a gross pofit of $212.50. That would look pretty good for him,right? At the last retail store I worked at (and granted it was pretty big) but our monthly rent, now just the rent mind you, was $15,000 per month, with business insurance costs of around $12,000 per month. Do the math, how many poles would a guy have to sell for a 212.50 gross profit just to pay the rent and business insurance? A LOT! So don't look so much at what the cost vs. profit is but instead look at it as a "is it worth that much (what a guy is selling it for) to me" perspective. If it is, then buy it. If it's not, then keep looking. Thanks for letting me go on and on and on, but I hope this shines a different light on your question for you. Later..............Mike.