Who gets to sell Taylors?

[BigSkyTaylorPlayer]

I have a small store nearby that I take lessons from and I try to buy things like picks, straps, tuners, etc from them to give them business.  They sell, Blueridge, Martins, a couple other brands and mainly cater to the local school rental, walking by and stopping in crowd.

When I decided which guitar I wanted I thought I would have them order it so they could get the business and that's when I found out about Taylors policy of having minimum orders and such.

Why can't a bonafide, established store make an order and get the business?  Maybe they could even have a Taylor or two on the floor for the high end person coming in as I'm sure they can't carry tens of thousands of dollars in inventory.

I do apologize for my lack of knowledge in this area but I was just wondering why it's so exclusive.

[michaelw]

to become & maintain a dealer for one of the other builders that you mentioned,
a store is required to order one model from each series that they make each year

i am uncertain if Taylor requires that & i am uncertain if there is a required mininum order per year

i have found that there are distributing companies that will set up accounts with a smaller, independent store which will allow them
to order 1 or 2 guitars from some of the builders, as the order would be place with the distributor, rather than directly with the builder

also, i've found that sometimes ordering through a distributor will get a better price than
ordering directly from the vendor (on small quantities) for smaller items (strings, picks etc)

i've heard of smaller, independent stores working with one another -
if one has a customer for a brand they don't carry, the other store will order it for them & vice versa,
that way, the customer can deal with the store their comfortable with & the store's owner also benefits

i've heard of other builders requiring 60% of the store's floor
space & a qtr mil plus to carry their full line of instruments -
needless to say, there many of these dealers around any more

[Jack Sparrow]

A lot of times, the reason for a minimum order (of anything) is so that the wholesaler/manufacturer can be sure the merch is going to a legit store, and it's not just some guy pretending to have a store in hopes of scoring a guitar or two at wholesale price. That's speaking generally, don't know what Taylor's specific policies are.

[bo1142]

A lot of times, the reason for a minimum order (of anything) is so that the wholesaler/manufacturer can be sure the merch is going to a legit store, and it's not just some guy pretending to have a store in hopes of scoring a guitar or two at wholesale price. That's speaking generally, don't know what Taylor's specific policies are.

I had a friend who tried that for Malibu boats.  He had 5-6 people who wanted a boat and thought he would just a dealership license and get everybody a boat at cost.  You should have seen his face when he saw their minimum order...WOW!

[Jack Sparrow]

I had a friend who tried that for Malibu boats.  He had 5-6 people who wanted a boat and thought he would just a dealership license and get everybody a boat at cost.  You should have seen his face when he saw their minimum order...WOW!

Yep! Wholesalers keep a close eye out for things like that (and sadly, small legit stores do sometimes get locked out as a result). Can't imagine what the minimum order must've been on the boats if even 5-6 of them wasn't enough!

[bo1142]

20!  The bottom price range was  around 20k msrp with the top of the line coming in around 75k msrp.  They also wanted a 3 year deal with him.  Needless to say, he decided to go another route.  I tried to tell him, but he refused to listen.  Some people know everything LOL

[Ted @ LA Guitar Sales]

When I decided which guitar I wanted I thought I would have them order it so they could get the business and that's when I found out about Taylors policy of having minimum orders and such.

Why can't a bonafide, established store make an order and get the business?  Maybe they could even have a Taylor or two on the floor for the high end person coming in as I'm sure they can't carry tens of thousands of dollars in inventory.

I do apologize for my lack of knowledge in this area but I was just wondering why it's so exclusive.

No need to apologize, it's a valid question, but it's really a question for Taylor. Perhaps Brian Swerdfeger will chime in.

[Steve]

I have a small store nearby that I take lessons from and I try to buy things like picks, straps, tuners, etc from them to give them business.  They sell, Blueridge, Martins, a couple other brands and mainly cater to the local school rental, walking by and stopping in crowd.

When I decided which guitar I wanted I thought I would have them order it so they could get the business and that's when I found out about Taylors policy of having minimum orders and such.

Why can't a bonafide, established store make an order and get the business?  Maybe they could even have a Taylor or two on the floor for the high end person coming in as I'm sure they can't carry tens of thousands of dollars in inventory.

I do apologize for my lack of knowledge in this area but I was just wondering why it's so exclusive.

If I decide to buy a Taylor, when I walk into a store I don't want to see two or three guitars from Taylor's pretty extensive line. I want to see a lot of choices. If one store has three guitars in stock, and another store has 20 guitars in stock, the likelihood of finding the right guitar is greater at the store which stocks more. I'm having a difficult time finding a reason as to why I would waste my time visiting a dealer that won't make a commitment to the brand I want to buy.

A minimum stocking policy is a good idea. Not only does the store get a lot of nice product in, but it lets the customer know that the store takes the line seriously. Also, it's not like Taylor doesn't support their dealers. I've never seen a guitar company which supports their dealers more.

It's a very fair trade off.

[Big DB]

It is just like buying a car...  I cannot go to a ford dealership and buy a brand new chevy.  Also there are some car dealerships that only carry one major brand and other dealers that carry multiple brands.

Each dealership (guitar/car/motorcycle/boat/gun, etc) has to get a distribution license/agreement/contract from the manufacturer they wish to represent.  Your small store has such an agreement with Martin.  Each manufacturer has their own, and have multiple, types of agreements with their distributors.  Martin has different levels of dealership agreements, and dealer pricing, based on minimum stocking requirements and number of units sold.  Some of the guitar manufacturers also have separate agreements for distributors to sell on-line too! As a dealer, if you are willing to commit to buying more product from the manufacturer you can also get better discounts too.  Perhaps your shop, due to their budgets, is only able to support one major guitar line and he has chosen to carry Martin.

Keep on supporting your small local businesses!!!


edited for excessive dealer promotion content

[Steve]

After some more thought on the topic:

Why can't a bonafide, established store make an order and get the business?

There could be any number of reasons.

Perhaps there's another Taylor dealer in town, or in a nearby town. Nothing would upset an existing dealer more than finding out Taylor sold a guitar to another dealer just because the dealer had a customer who wanted to buy one.

Maybe they could even have a Taylor or two on the floor for the high end person coming in as I'm sure they can't carry tens of thousands of dollars in inventory.

I think a more pertinent question would be "Why should Taylor allow a store to sell their guitars?"

Taylor is a premier brand. Why should they bother selling only two or three guitars to a store that just wants to be able to advertise that they carry Taylor, when there doesn't seem to be any lack of stores who want to step up and stock a fair representation of the Taylor line?

Not every store is the right "fit" for every brand. If Taylor has stocking minimums, and the store you frequent can't adhere to those, then maybe the store you frequent isn't the right fit.

I do apologize for my lack of knowledge in this area but I was just wondering why it's so exclusive.

Because there's a very real value in being able to say you're a Taylor dealer while, conversely, there's no real value in Taylor allowing someone to carry "a Taylor or two".

[dkoloff]

I look at the value of a franchise and the best franchises or in this case guitar stores is when you create a quality business representing a particular product (Taylor) and in turn make yourself strong enough in the manufacturers eyes to create a strong relationship. Same in any business model that wants to have solid distribution.