The local dealers really make it hard sometimes...

The one I can hit at lunchtime is full of known crooks. The other one is awesome and nice folks but 30 minutes in the wrong direction from home, so I can only hit it on Saturday which means two Saturdays shot to go get parts and a week turn around minimum.

 

Unfortunately, online parts negatively affects dealers and you're feeling that. Walmart did the same thing to a lot of old businesses that aren't around anymore.
I have a great car mechanic that I've had for 30 years and I wouldn't think of going to Jiffylube or Midas or Tire Warehouse, he gets all my business because he always treats me fair and he's honest.
If people want their local guy who is there in a pinch to be there when they need him, they need to support his business.
Parts sitting on a shelf is money sitting on a shelf. I would imagine you need to be a high-volume, high-traffic store to be able to stock much in the way of parts these days except for stuff that sells steadily.

 

Not to mention the tax man kicking you in the nuts for your inventory every year.

 

My local-ish dealer is pretty good as well. Most things they have in stock. The stuff they don't have usually arrives in a few days. I can call and check availability/order over the phone. I say local-ish because they are not actually the closest to me. There's a larger dealer that's closer. But the guys I work with were willing to give me pretty nice racer discount back when I was still racing. The closer dealer wouldn't even consider it. So I'll drive twice as far just to give this place my business. Maybe I could get some stuff cheaper online, but this dealer has been such a pleasure to work with and has gone above and beyond to help me multiple times, I don't mind going out of my way to support them. And even though I haven't raced in a few years, they still give me hella price breaks on everything.

 

Out of curiosity, what were the last few parts you needed that they didn't have in the store?

 

that happened to me one time out in Cali. in Tustin, there's this crazy awesome MTB store, and what i mean by that is that they keep a bunch of cool ass high end parts and frames and bikes stocked (downhill stuff to be exact) which is usually never the case because its just not as popular as the main trail bike types in most places. their inventory is vast, and really cool. i'd make it a point to go there even just to look every time i was out in Cali hanging every year, and in the end, that led me to buy a few hundred dollars worth of gear here and there and then even buy a frame once for $1500 or so.

one time i flew out to Cali, WITH my mtb, to specifically go on a riding trip thru socal and utah with my buddy. when i go to put my bike back together, i noticed that i had stripped one of the cranks for the pedal slightly and the threads were mad rough. all it needed was for somebody to chase the threads, which needs a special kit because of the reverse threads on one side for bikes. i go to this same shop, dude tells me he can't help, earliest they can work on something is 3 days from now and no walk-ins. i explain to him that i'm here from out of town, i'm supposed to be leaving the next day, its just a 2 minute thread chase, i'll pay whatever he wants... he tells me to pound sand. money couldn't even sway him. my buddy rushes it over to another place near his work before everything closes, dude does it for free and wishes us well, told my boy to just hand him a $20 anyways for being so rad.

so a shop i've been making it a point to patron that i live 3000 miles from, for what had to have been 6 or 7 years, that i've given like $2000 to, just lost me as a customer for not wanting to chase a thread. people are fucking retarded sometimes, that's all it comes down to. the mtb shop i go to in MD... i live 45 minutes from. i will ONLY go there because the work is top notch and the dudes are the best. i live 5 minutes from 4 other shops (i used to live literally behind one of them) and i pass them all to get to my shop. some people value loyalty and customer service, some don't. *shrug*

 

My last dealer experience a few weeks ago:

Me: I need a 105 main jet for an xr100
Parts guy: ok...uh...is that a Suzuki?

This was at Honda of Florence.

 

Haha yes that was a typo $60, sixty!

 

Whew! I was going to ask for your address so I could send you some loose change to make ends meet

 

I wouldnt buy motorcycle parts from a guy who thinks an XR100 is a damn Suzuki, no freakin way. Id be OK with them not knowing what a jet is, MAYBE

 

I needed to order a chain and sprockets for my 2015 Yamaha FJ-09. The dealership is huge and they carry a very big inventory of Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Triumph, KTM, Indian, MV Agusta motorcycles (and snowmobiles brands too), but apparently no parts. I thought that was odd, since the CP3 platform is one of the best sellers in the Yamaha lineup. They ordered the chain & sprocket kit from Yamaha and it was there in 3 days.

 

Expecting a dealership to have anything model/type specific that you want isn't even close to realistic. I'm tickled when they have any part I'm lookin' for...
It's been that way as long as I can remember...back to the early '70s, across various regions and into other countries.

You have to consider THEIR client base - your needs/wants may not fall into that group and that's no guaranty they'll have what their base client is looking for, either.

I have a pretty good relationship with my dealership. I told them straight up I could buy everything and anything I wanted elsewhere. They do what they can to price match and I make sure whatever I need isn't "an emergency". Ya gotta plan ahead, even if you order online. So it comes down to supporting your local dealership with a developed relationship, or not. It's your choice, they can't make it for you.

 

You get what you pay for. The idiot Parts/Service/Sales employee was hired by and kept on by the owner. Since the owners typically pay crap level wages, they get crap level people. No highly qualified, highly motivated person is going to work for a shop owner who views the workers as an expense rather than an asset and integral part of the business.
It all starts at the top.

 

Totally not the same thing as what most have been posting, but I was looking for something as simple as a CamelBak bite valve. I drove to four cycling shops and two outdoor shops, none of them had them. So, click, click, click, ordered a four pack online for less than the price of gas to drive to just the first place, which doesn't even factor in the "personal time value per hour" aspect lost.

Because most of my hobbies end up with the "higher end" stuff (Cycling, surfski paddling, etc), the local store just don't have the stuff I want. Its sad, you want to help the Mom and Pop stores first.

 

That's not really out of line. I just put plugs in a cbr600, not only does it take a iridium plug it's a special iridium, typical Honda bullshit. Retail on them is 17.95, I sold them for 15.

 

The last two shops I regularly frequented have been since closed up shop. After the first went, half their crew went to another shop and I followed them there. Most of what I bought was consumables (oil, filters, etc), some gear and some service work. Always got a racer discount and a fair and reasonable price. About every other month I’d stop by with a pizza or lunch and just shoot the shit. They always took good care of me and were genuinely good dudes, one being a racer/track coach. THAT shop closed down.

I now just buy online %95 of the time because I don’t want another shop closing to be on my conscience.

 

my local dealer is solid. they've price-matched online warehouses for expensive OEM parts and they usually have those parts within 3-4 days. the shipping times are probably more a reflection on Yamaha's parts network than the dealer. but they do order it right away and call me the second it comes in.

 

If the best a local dealer of store can be is a place to pickup my shit 3 to 5 days later, I can cut out the middle man and do it myself. It' unfortunately a never ending circle of no parts so people shop online which leads to less parts on the shelf, which leads to more people shopping online.

If you aren' willing to put 10 to 30 dollar parts on your shelf then it just tells me you don' want to invest in your store so why should I?

 

I think it would take a large dealership with lots of service work to make a viable parts operation. They stock shit to do their service work and the customer just dips into that pot. Takes a lot of work to run a parts operation, cataloguing, staff. So many different options for the same parts. That and people are cheap. I've seen people try on shit at a store, go home and order online to save a few bucks.

 

Which 10 to 30 dollar parts on a shelf and how many?

Personally, I can't think of anything in that range that should be on a shelf, with the exceptions of fluids, Ratio-Rite w/lid, work gloves, numbers, etc. None of that is specific to any one model/type.