Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Sako Does Not Play Nice...

595 Tikkas and old Sakos are out there.

Cash in while sanity exists.


Barfetta will be the ruin of the Fin legacy.

I am an Italophile, when it comes to some things like Wine, Art, and Motorcycles, and the general mental state of a poulace.

The Italians however are what they are when it comes to business.

Ruthless.

Sako and Tikka are innocents in the matter.

Post 595 Tikkka's and Sako's are the first in history to prove problematic.

One variable. Barfettta.


Makes me want to puke!

The same folks that make the miserable M9 that has been a liability to our troops since '85 ,have polluted the crystal waters of the last bastion of rifle worship.


Barfetta could screw up a wet dream!


Free the Finn's from the harness and things would go back to normal.

Just wish Nokia would buy Sako.

E4E

Pat,

Is that YOU?!!?

How's things? Good to see you in the fray.

Hoping all is well....................

This exclusive business reminds me of the old Reinhart Fajen gunstock company. Most all of the stock makers would send blanks to them for rough turning and shaping.
A lot of people would see a blank they liked at a gun show and send it to Fajen for shaping, fit, and finish.
After Reinhart passed on, the new owner took the stand of not turning any stocks unless the blank was purchased from Fajen.
Sadly, the old company which had been a big and popular service, went belly up in less than 2 years.

Sako's marketing plan doesn't make much sense. Large dealers with lots of inventory will always do well if their prices are somewhat competitive. Customers generally like to browse rifles by picking them up and feeling them before they buy. Why is Sako trying to protect them? How does it help Sako�s sales to remove all the customers across the country who already know what they want? I don�t get it.

As a Consumer,the numbers don't jive.

I cain't see anything positive and cain't fathom how Today's Sako is better,with the Beretta influences.

I see a slippery slope and that ain't much of a Sales Pitch....................

Nice E4E. I agree.

I feel that Beretta is trying to put some profit back into selling there guns, Sako included! By having fewer dealers and no "Basemint Bandets" the dealers that are allowed to sell them are going to make more money on the guns they sell. This is very common in the archery business.

If Sako/Beretta sells all wares shipped,for the SAME price to All Vendors,then the point is moot.

Then their bottom line is assured and the rest is capitalism............................

Stick,
The point is that if their big dealers, who are really the ones who keep the lights on, are undercut at every opportunity, then they will quit selling Beretta wares, and that is where Beretta would get hurt.

Why would a big dealer want to invest multiple thousands of dollars into inventory, assured that he can get undercut by some kitchen table guy who deons't have to invest anything up front and has no inventory risk?

The bottom line is that Beretta needs to keep the general level of prices high in order to keep up the image of a high end rifle. I would be willing to bet that they do not want their rifles being sold at a discount, regardless of who sells it. Once people start getting a taste of buying items at a low price, that item is relegated, by default, into a lower price/commodity category and it is extremely difficult and expensive to re-launch an item into a higher price category. There are more examples of this throughout history that one could possibly count.

Take the soda indutsty for example. Pepsi and Coke decided to be all things for everyone, available everywhere. They have effectively bastardized the industry so now there is very little brand loyalty, most items are sold at discount, margins have eroded throughout the distibution chain, and colas are now largely viewed as commodities. There are very few colas that can now command a premium at retail.

Beretta enjoys the position of being able to command premium prices at retail. That postion is worth far more than a few untis of volume.

I for one think that Beretta is amking a wise long-term move. Regardless of the anectodal evidence provided in this thread, the reality is that Kitchen Table dealers represent a very small proportion of the total rifles sold. If they accounted for significant volume, they would no longer be Kitchen Table dealers, they'd be Cabelas.

The 3 rifles in Ketchikan that they are going to lose are small peanuts in the grand scheme of things.

You are pissed because pop is cheap?

Dude..................(grin)

CAS
But aren't they really just a commidity item by their own admission by construction? If they want to maintain an image of quality, why would they put a bunch of plastic crap on them?
art

Beretta is pissing the Sako image/esteem away,in the hopes of pinching a quick buck.

I fail to see who wins in THAT scenario? Nor do I savvy the "benefits" of there not being a Sako Dealer,within 500 miles of me?

Am I missin' somethin',is this all good news?................

Stick, It's only good news if you are a stocking dealer with enough horsepower to stock Sako/Tikka/Beretta. That let's them sell at a common market price, exclusive of the kitchen table gun store crowd. Having been one of the kitchen table gun store crowd, I've sold lots of Sakos where I only made $50.00 or $100.00. That managed to keep the price well under the store front gun store price. I don't neccissarily like what they are doing, but I certainly understand it..

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I'm a big fan of Sako rifles because the one's I've had have shot extremely well. But I don't think all that much of the direct to dealer marketing plan. A local dealer isn't at all likely to carry some of the higher end items that I'm interested in (read TRG 22/42), I probably would have bought another TRG-42 if my distributer that used to carry them still did. On the other hand one of their "distributers" -namely Accuflite is the worst price gouger I've run into in a while. So I guess that sometimes of the distributers can also screw the pooch and pricing stuff beyond reason.
Maybe my thinking on this may be too simplistic but it just seems to me that the best way to sell guns is to make them easier for everyone to buy. All the new Leupold, Nightforce, Swarovski and now Sako Price fixing sucks.......DJ

CAS, you hit it on the head. We call it pissing in the pot.

The single largest factor in sporting goods sales is brand loyalty. Note all the comments about Leupold you can find in this forum. Sako/Beretta is pissing away brand loyalty by making it impossible for many in small, isolated communities to buy their products at all. I think they could solve their issues by simply offering their wares to the market at a margin that makes them money, and letting the marketplace make the rest of the calls. If they have a great product, they will succeed. If they don't, they deserve to fail.

I know at our shop we didnt care for the program Beretta has to get their and Sako/Tikka products.

Minimum $20k of Beretta shotguns- but you cant pick all the ones you want to stock you have to take one of thier programs and then add to it if you want anyting else . Sako rifles direct from them, Tikka and Beretta handguns through distributors.

The problems we ran into with this was that darn near everytime we would want to order a gun for our customers, either they were out of stock at Beretta, or the distributors were out of the Tikka's ( handguns were usually ok).
Beretta even gave us a way to check their in stock inventory at any time, lots of 0 quantities in stock.

At least with the old distributor system you could try a number of different distributors and have a good shot at getting it. Doesnt do anyone any good if you cant get what the customer wants, when they want it. Kinda ties in with all the new product announcements that we will see in the gun magazines and on the net, but the manufacturers wont be shipping any of the new stuff untill they get it made later on in the year, but thats a whole other topic.

Jeff

If Beretta just ships there guns to whomever and the prices are bastardized then dealers will no longer want to carry Beretta or Sako products.

GetRealMan
Like dealers won't sell Remington, Winchester, Savage, S&W, Mossberg, Taurus and all the others because of the "bastardized" prices????
art

So what? If they can't compete in the marketplace then they don't deserve to sell them. Why is it different with Remington or Winchester? Will the rifle stores stop selling them too?