The battle for commercial business doesn’t stop with fellow jobbers and retail chains. According to technicians who responded to our 2002 Do-It-For-Me study, warehouse clubs are getting a fair share of service dealer business. (See this year’s DIFM study, here.)
Forty percent of our survey respondents said they are warehouse club members and of those people 50 percent buy from clubs on a regular basis. As you might expect, many of the items they purchase are paper goods, cleaning supplies and office products, but that’s not all. Nearly 71 percent said they buy automotive chemicals, while roughly 44 percent purchase accessories. Tools are acquired by 35 percent of those shopping at warehouse clubs.
Now you may be asking yourself “Why are they buying from the warehouse clubs?” In a nutshell, it’s all about price. Sixty-eight percent of those shopping at the clubs do so because of lower prices. They also like the availability of parts (32 percent) and the proximity (33 percent).
Granted, warehouse clubs are not stealing major shares of your hard parts business, but they are getting business from your customers. Perhaps a quick poll of your service dealers can shed some light on new warehouse club-type products for your business. Why not dip into their market share for a change?
