| Title: | SAILING |
| Notice: | Please read Note 2.* before participating in this conference |
| Moderator: | UNIFIX::BERENS |
| Created: | Wed Jul 01 1992 |
| Last Modified: | Mon Jun 02 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 2299 |
| Total number of notes: | 20724 |
When we arrived in Shelburne N.S., we rafted up with a boat which had been sailed over from France. They sailed directly from the Caribbean to Bermuda to Nova Scotia. [Why bother with the U.S. since people there don't speak French?!] This 11.5M steel boat was built by the owner. He mentioned that he built it himself. Apparently there is an organization in France that is a sort of buyers/builders coop. He helped other people build their steel boats to learn the steps necessary before attempting to build his own. He mentioned that members of this organization purchased everything at wholesale prices. Apparently this organization is quite large. A few thoughts come to mind........... First does anyone know much about this organization? Its name, how long established, the number of members, the level of discounts they are able to obtain, how it is organized, other benefits it offers? Second, is there presently a similar organization anywhere in the U.S.? Boat U.S. seems to fall somewhere between this and regular retail, but it seems closer to a mail order or just another discount house. Third, would anyone be interested in forming a marine equipment buyers cooperative? We could join together and buy equipment at a wholesale level. This might be especially effective for more expensive items like LORAN, RADAR, etc. Would anyone have an idea of how many members would be required before this would become viable?
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1625.1 | Building Co-ops | MEMORY::LAZGIN | Thu Nov 15 1990 13:03 | 9 | |
The groups in France, form, and each member become 'an expert' in
a certain phase of boat building. Then the group will build a boat
for each member.
I have not heard of this type of 'Co-op' effort starting up
in New England.
Frank
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| 1625.2 | starting a cooperative | AIADM::SPENCER | Commuter from the other Cape | Wed Nov 21 1990 13:02 | 29 |
From having ventured into co-operative buying in the past, it's not the
number of members that will get suppliers' attention; it's how much
business you'll do. Starting is quite simple: you get some purchase
commitments lined up, then call/visit and ask, "What's the best price you
can give me on 15 12-mile radar sets?" Generally, the more vanilla and
"straight-out-of-the-box" your request is, the better the response. Once
you've placed and wrapped up one order, you can perhaps negotiate an
on-going discount, but it won't be as much as you may find by calling
around each time for specific item "clusters".
Sailors tend to be somewhat fussy about their choices ("I want a Furuno,
not an Raytheon!"), which makes collecting a critical mass of commitments
rather difficult unless you have easy access to a large body of potential
buyers. Polling members and then searching out best prices is quite a
job, and one quickly sees how it could become a full-time paid position...
...before you know it, either your headaches are huge and the whole thing
just isn't worth it, or your overhead is up and you're having to compete
with the best of the discount houses.
I did safety equipment mass purchasing for the Cape Ann Rowing Club and
friends, and after an awful lot of work one year (culminating in a 20-40%
discount from Survival Technologies Group on *anything* they sell), I gave
up. No one cared enough to justify the effort. And I was pretty committed
to contributing my time and energies upfront in order to put more safety
gear and training in the hands and minds of small craft users.
Dealers are there for a reason. :-)
J.
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