As a bussiness owner (not bow shop) i apreiciate a customer who is upfront about his or her concerns about my pricing. With loyal customers I,as an owner, have to weigh many factors when pricing big ticket items but on the other hand I also have to be as fair with my prices as i can to a customer that i have never met before. So imo tell the shop owner your concerns and let him make you a deal or explain why he cant , if you are the loyal customer as u have stated he would be a fool to lose you.

Well now that's a different story than just being a customer.

You guys have to remember that these small pro shops are not making huge ammounts of money. Many only "take home" 40,000 to 60,000 per year.

Like I said earlier he may have to pay a lot more that the cheaper guy does. Depending on how many he sells and how he has to pay for them when he gets them one shop could get them for as little as $512 and the other shop may have to pay as much as $602. You don't know the whole story behind his pricing. Also the MSRP on the swotchback is $769. So he is discounting it at least some and it may be as much as he can afford to discount it.

That's what you get to deal with when you buy a Mathews. They do not treat all the dealers as equals and therefore the dealers can't treat all the customes as equals.

Many bow companies will give the dealers set prices that they must sell the bows for so everyone gets the same fair treatment. Mathews does not do this.

BigJ12 by all means I don't want him to lose a penny I understand he needs to make money and I support that. I agree he needs to keep the customers he has happy.

Bigbulls that is why I am a little upset. When he is busy I offer to help and get behind the counter and work on bows or help customers decide on a bow or help with cutting arrows.

Have you given an oath to the proshop to only buy there? Have they given one to you to always give you the lowest price? If one of you cheats and does the other wrong it hurts feelings and causes trouble. You might need that proshop later and he will not want to service your bow bought at another shop.
What kind of commitments are in between you and the proshop? Does the guy at the proshop give breaks in price to others and not you? Just because you buy there every year does not mean you are entitled to a price break. Talk to the guy and tell him the price at another shop. All major bow makers have prices they can not allow dealers to sell below. If one dealer can do it so can another. Talk to the guy. Don't cheat on your local proshop... unless they are unfaithful to you.

Do you really know that? Coming from a shop owning family, not archery but sewing supplies, it wasn't unusual for my mother to sell a machine for very close to cost in order to gain a permanent customer for fabrics and trimming. We've all heard of this in many ventures; "I'd just about give you one of these just to get your parts business". The other shop may not be making much at all.

I would still be very up front but friendly with your original shop, and let them know you need some latitude. Don't expect them to give you a $120 break, but a little more than half that would start into the reasonable range.

Jones123, I guess I should not have said "I know" the other shop is making money. I just assumed since the tag hanging on the bow said 599.00 he would be making a little. If he is not making anything then he should put a higher price on the bow.

The very most he is making is $87.00 on that bow for that price.

I know some shops will drasticly undercut another shop just to get people in the door and sell the bows because they can't get them in any other way and they can't keep them coming back.

Is there any bad blood between these two shops?

I know of one shop that sold Bowtech AT COST just to take business fron a new shop about 25 miles away from him. Why would he do this you ask. Because owner of the new shop down the road use to work for the first shop but decided to open up his own. The first shop didn't like that too much so he tried to take as much business as possible from the new shop and hopefully force him to close.

It didn't work and now the first shop does not carry Bowtech any more.

As much as possible I like to give my business to the same shop. I am just getting back into archery so I have not settled on "MY" pro shop yet. But I have been a firearms junkie for many years dealing mostly with one shop. I have on occasion knowingly spent more because of the ongoing give and take. If you are that close to this guy and actually help around the shop then you should give him another kick at the can, show him what the other price was. You will likely get another quote which might fly for you. I would definitely try to keep a customer like you ( 6 bows in 5 years, geeez man) happy. If this guy is a business man he will adjust his price. Better to make a small margin on a big ticket item than lose a bunch of high margin ( accesssories etc) sales.

Well said.

Alot of money can be made on accessories for bows, often more is spent on sights, arrows, strings, rests, etc... than the bow itself. Good buisness move is to discount the bow and then sell all of those accessories you can't live without for that sharp new bow.

In my business, it makes no sence if I charge company "A" too much for my services and get no more work. But If I cut my bill for company "A" especially if I know he wants and or needs a discount, it will make him feel he is getting a deal (and he is) then he will come to me for more work in the future. Classic win-win situation, and in busness that's what you want. Good customers are hard to get and very easy to loose. And i'm not just talking about individual people, (although in this case it is) my customers are corporations and even they want or sometimes need discounts.

That's a pretty naive statement. It's done in most all businesses most every day. If someone buys from you in mass quantities you give them price breaks. The fact that I am putting $500 - $1000 of profit in his pocket every year is what seperates the two of us. That doesn't make me any better but it means if the Pro Shop owner wants my hard earned money that I should be treated in such a manner. It's a service industry just like any other. You may not like it but that's how it works all over this world. So let's say that you own a Pro Shop and you have all this overhead and bills etc. and I spend about $2500 -$3000 a year in your shop and Joe spends $250 - $300 a year. You can only have one of us as a customer. Which one is it going to be? Guess what, if you picked Joe you aren't going to be in business long. I am not saying that you shouldn't give Joe great service also but if I am taking care of you by patronizing your store exclusively then you better take care of me as well or I will excercise my right to take my business elsewhere. Afterall, I am the one who's business and dollars you can't on year in and year out. In a highly cyclical market place I am the type of customer that you have to rely on to sty in business. I am also the type of customer that will send everyone that I know to your shop if you treat me well.