San Diego Businesses

[JonKerr]

I thought I'd give a couple of local businesses a little plug on here for those of you in the San Diego area. I haven't actually bought from either of these places yet but they've been very helpful as far as getting pricing and deciding where and what tires to buy.

Full Throttle Powersports in Santee. Mike is a one man show and he has by far the best prices in town for tires. I'm going to be buying tires from him in about a month when it's time. I'm talking $30-$40 cheaper than any local Stealerships or most online stores. And his labor for mounting is very reasonable. $30 for a front tire and $35 for a rear. House of Motorcycles wants $100 a tire to mount them. :rant: We need to help keep the small guys like him in business.

And if you'd like to mount them yourself, you can buy them from Mike and take them to Privateers Garage and learn to mount them yourself. As well as do pretty much any other work you need to on your bike. $25 an hour, $70 for 4 hours, and they'll teach you how to use their mounting and balancing equipment on a practice tire and wheel before your time even starts. They have a full garage, tools, bike stands, even lifts. All for you to use for any job you could possibly need to do.

I think it's really important to try and give smaller local companies our business. Especially if they are willing to match prices that you can get online. I know as well as anyone it's hard to justify buying something locally when you can save 20% or more buying online. But when I can afford it or they'll do what they can to help with the pricing, I buy from them. I'm planning seeing if Full Throttle can get me the TBR exhaust. I checked pricing from some of the Stealerships for tires and the exhaust. Most of them charge full retail. Especially for the exhaust system. San Diego House of Motorcycles (where I bought the bike incidentally) wanted $1100 for the TBR system. I asked them why they're quoting full list price when I can buy it online all day $250-$300 less, they just said, "that's the difference between an online store and us." I asked if they would be willing to drop it to $900. He laughed.

So I'd suggest giving these companies some business if you're in the area. They'll treat you well and give you some of the best deals around.

 

[dart1963]

In online infancy, local stores could honestly claim the price difference just because of convenience if there were any issues, add a little knowledge if you were installing parts yourself and just that personal face-face knowing it wasn't and overnight online rip-off.

Today though, the local stores just don't have a leg to stand on. Their price difference is necessary for them due to overhead, but what do consumers care about supporting someones business when the customer service is not as good as it used to be(if any) and it's the EXACT same parts they can order with shipping at a fraction of the cost. Support is coming from online forums, blogs, etc. and is usually spot on. And most online stores have superior customer service (even on this forum, a few have been pointed out that have no hassle return policies).

Personally I'd like to see small businesses survive, but they have to adapt, be willing to cut the price when someone points out that it's %40 cheaper online and get rid of the punk kids who have no social skills, let alone knowledge about the products they are selling.

When I find a local store, as you have, I point people to them. I have an awesome hardware store down the road that will have any small part needed. I can walk in with a screw, sheer-pin, or anything and the old guys there will know exactly where it's at on the shelf, offer advice based on where it's used (the social skills to know what questions to ask without making me or them feel like an idiot) and I don't have any doubt when I leave.

Sorry for long post...

 

[JonKerr]

I know exactly what you mean. I'm a sales rep myself. I don't deny anyone a fair 30-35% gross profit. If you can't net 7-9% profit with 30-35% GP, you're expenses are way out of hand. I have a hard time believing that most of these dealership shops can't buy from their distributors better than I can buy from from an online store. I understand they have more overhead with more staff, insurance, etc... But not that much more. Like I said, 30% is more than fair GP on any product. So if they're only getting 30% off list and having to sell at full list price, they're buying about the same as I can from an online store. I just don't see that happening. They're either just bad business people or they're just greedy looking for more profit thinking they deserve it. I'm a sales rep for an industrial plastics company. I average about 30% GP every month. We have overhead like you wouldn't believe. 90 outside sales reps with company cars, cell phones, expense accounts, travel, inside sales staff, warehouse staff, 130 people in our corporate office supporting 40 branches across the country. As a company we average about 29% GP and with all that overhead, we usually net around 6-7% profit. There's no way these dealership stores have that kind of overhead. Not paying their parts guys $10 an hour and minimal if any benefits etc... like I know they do.

That's why when I came across Full Throttle and saw that he has reasonable prices and he's willing to let you watch him mount up your tires and he'll explain what he's doing and why certain things are important, I felt the need to do what I could to help get his name out there. He sponsors our San Diego SportBike Meetup Group and a lot of the guys use him for a lot of different work. He does pretty much any work you need done. Tires, oil changes, suspension setup, dyno tuning, etc... He seems to know that being a one man show and having a small shop, he's got the ability to just kill them on pricing and service.

 

[ej'sfz]

not to bring back a dead thread but i gotta agree even a few years after you posted this..
i bought a rear angel gt from him about 4months ago and i had to do a double take after he said the price. atleast $30 cheaper than anyone else in town or online...(figured they were stealing them from somewhere haha) im going to buy a set from him of the angel gt's for basically $260 otd ere in a couple days but i mount them my self since i have a machine at the shop

any body in so-cal need work or tires done, go see these guys.

 

[latony007]

i like to see guys promoting small business but i agree with the above. If they are trying to wring extra profits because they have a nice building for them to have lunch in i dont care. I wish more business would at least try and price match (dealers and say cyclegear as example). Instead what they do is keep crying "sale" 50% off but the 50% off just brings it down to normal price you would pay at any other store and still more than online. You would figure that eventually people would say hey id rather sell this for 10% profit than have the guy go buy it on Amazon but they dont. I can only assume that means there is still enough people willing to over pay.

 

[ej'sfz]

like the old saying goes... mark it up 20% more and give them 10% off.....