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| Made by American hands but not all American parts? |
(Betsy Puckett commented on this post. I have edited the original post
to reflect points she made and I apologize for any errors in the original post. Independent retailers in the lawn and garden industry are going through tough times as well. Many of us had stood strong with distributors and manufacturers alike to get through these turbulent times. Many independents are beginning to fight back and are no longer devoting the space, inventory and advertising to brands that shift their emphasis to mass market and box store retailers. Scotts Miracle Gro, Monrovia, Proven Winners and more are excellent examples.)Betsy Puckett Droll Yankees
Some include the Yankee Flipper, X1 Seed Saver, and a popular humming bird feeder. In fact Wal Mart .com lists 60 Droll Yankee products for sale. THIS IS MORE THAN SOME.......... LABELED DROLL YANKEES. Droll Yankee states that many of the models sold on walmart.com are from a company called Plum Struck and they do not know who they are or where they buy DY feeders from.
Droll Yankees offers to replace any feeder in your store that too closely resembles feeders in Wal Mart.
Droll Yankees claims the reason for selling to Wal-Mart was to keep their factory busy when sales fell at other dealers. They also issued a thinly veiled threat about possibly out sourcing their production.
Yet again another business built by independent garden centers, pet shops and birding stores has given in to the box stores, this time Wal-Mart.
To Droll Yankees I say this: had you the need to sell to another channel you could developed a private label for Wal-Mart, increased your sales, kept your factory busy and, protected your existing retailing network.
Any retailer and distributor would certainly understand the need to broaden your customer base
Garden advice you can dig!
I'm saddened to read this post, which is in part inaccurate. You will note that the majority of feeders sold through Walmart.com are sold by Plumstruck. We do not know who Plumstruck is or where they buy our feeders. I looked at the Walmart site quickly and saw pricing that is higher than many other .com sites.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Droll Yankees business was built on quality products, a brand following and customer service. We have remained very loyal to our independent retailers for over 40 years, but they have many choices and some of them have not remained as loyal to us. We will continue to focus on the independents and work on new products exclusively for them.
Your words were meant to injure and you have achieved your goal. But that doesn't mean that your attitude or assumptions are fitting or productive.
Betsy Puckett, President, Droll Yankees Inc.
Whether or not feeders are sold through Wal-Mart or Plumstruck fact is they are sold through Wal-Mart.com. Many other companies sell to Wal Mart but under a different brand name or offer them exclusive products and protect their independents and other lines.
DeleteI have edited the original post to reflect the points you bring up. I apologize for inaccuracies. However my words are not intended to hurt nor is my attitude unproductive.
I have been a huge fan and retailer of Droll Yankees for thirty years. Our customers love your product and you have a huge fan base. Selling to Wal-Mart under the Droll Yankees name may diminish the perceived value of your product especially since Wal-Mart's reputaion for how it treats it's employees and foreign sources has come under fire as of late.
Totally agree with Greg Draiss on his reply to Betsy Puckett, President of Droll Yankees Inc.
DeletePlus the fact that Droll Yankees mix and match some parts on products that are made overseas with the ones made in USA the quality is never the same as they claim to be.
I think that Droll could have done some things differently however the real reason (that no one is willing to admit) is that the independent garden retailer ranks are dwindling and at best the ones still in business are consolidating vendors and being extremely cautious with inventory investment. Also, the price of seed has turned quite a few "birders" away from birdfeeding as a hobby. The economic situation , sorry to say , has made many exit this hobby . Droll has numbers to reach as their management expects to keep and expand their market share. IGC's are one channel of distribution as are others.
ReplyDeleteThank you for drawing the Droll Yankees change to light. A few years ago DRoll Yankees started sourcing parts offshore yet claim to be loyal to America. What happened to their suppliers here in the USA that formerly made those parts. Also, why didn't prices drop from the savings on these parts?
ReplyDeleteSelling to Wal-mart is just one more disappointment that has been festering at Droll Yankees over the past few years including the questionable new tubes on the feeders that are bad for the environment.
Greg,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the courageous post. We own an independent wild bird store and are one of the few still making a profit. We are canceling Droll Yankees products from our store 100%. We have also emailed them to demand removal of our store from their site as a FAR top dealer (#1 in our state).
It may be true what you said Jim Howard but its also true that for decades Droll Yankees commitment to independent dealers was substantial, commited and a two way street. Last year they went to direct sales on the internet. This year Wal-Mart. Give it ip, it isn't simply to keep the factory busy. I call BOGUS on that. It's about increasing sales. period. and at any cost.
Have your accountants draw up that break even scenario with a 50% loss in bird stores and garden centers. Commerce is gone. Who's next?