why i remain a mail order company

TO SELL OR NOT TO SELL MY PRODUCTS THROUGH RETAILERS

As time has goes by and the Wiggy’s brand has become more well-known people call me and say they do not see my products in stores near them or what stores carry my products, and of course the answer is none. Other times I will be contacted via e mail by a store wanting to carry my products. And of course again the answer is no thank you but thanks for asking.

One day I was contacted by a retailer in Chicago, he has three locations as well as a web site. While on the phone I asked for the web site address so I could get a better idea of his operation. He obliged and when I looked at the selection of sleeping gags, North Face, Mountain Hardwear, and a few others I asked why he wanted mine. His response was that he heard I made a good bag. My response was no it is not a good bag but the best bag ever made. I followed that with the condition I would sell to him; he had to stop selling all the other brands. Of course he wouldn’t do that. My reasoning is quite simple; when someone comes in to the store looking for a sleeping bag his employees of little knowledge will not say get the Wiggy’s because it is the best bag made, but chose what you want as all of these bags are good. So the customer is left to his own devices. I stopped in an REI store this weekend and saw that on display. Make the sale at all costs. My Anchorage store obviously only sells Wiggy’s and the number of bags sold and they are all $200.00 or more ranges around 2500 per year and then there are the bags I sell mail order as well into Alaska. That amounts to an additional 500/600 per year plus what the military buys.

In my opinion if the average retailer was truly concerned about the customer he would explore all of the products he sell to make sure he is offering the best available. But they like being what I call drug stores carrying everything they can.

For those who had the interest as to why I chose 28 years ago to remain a mail order company you now know why.

As an aside; when I was getting started Sports Authority called and ordered $2000.00 worth of bags for their new Alaska store, I thought great they have 90 stores at that time. It took 105 days to get paid. When they called for more bags I told the buyer I needed a letter commitment from the CFO stating he would pay in MY terms net 30. I was told he wouldn’t do that. I told him I wouldn’t accept any orders. Then I sold Cabela’s until they went public. They sent me their rules book. If I made a mistake on an order they were going to charge me $300.00 minimum. I cancelled about $30,000.00 worth of orders immediately. I have not looked back!

Maybe these companies would be successful if they didn’t always squeeze their suppliers.

Wiggy