Moan about feed shop and extortionate prices!!

[Christmas Crumpet]

I've just been into my local feed shop which is quite expensive compared to other places but is useful because it is just down the road etc and they are lovely people in there and stock nearly everything.

However, I wanted to buy some Keratex hoof hardener which I remembered to be about £20 when I last bought some a year or two back. I picked up a bottle and it was £32.95 which nearly had me falling over. I asked the shop assistant if that was right to which she replied yes and said that Keratex put their prices up a couple of times a year.

So I declined to buy any.

Got back to the office and looked online where I can get it off Viovet for £21.09. It is the second time I have been in there and the prices are extortionate. The last thing was Micronised linseed. I think they said it was £40 or perhaps £42 for a 20kg bag. I said stuff that and bought a bag off Charnwood Milling and it was about £28, £13 cheaper including being posted.

They are a good shop but I think are getting pretty greedy. Yes big online companies can do stuff cheaper but a whole third cheaper on the Keratex, more than £10 cheaper. And the linseed £13 cheaper including postage on a 20kg bag.

Its really sad because I am now considering not shopping there because I feel like they are being greedy and that they think we buyers are stupid!!

 

[fusspot]

I feel the same way about one of my nearest tackshops-a supplement my boy is on is now £66.70 in there for just over a months supply-I also looked and can get it at Viovet for £47.00 for exactly the same product.Will just make sure I am more organised and order it online before running out!

 

[lara b]

Whilst I totally understand what you are both saying about the price differences it might not be so much about them being greedy as much as just having much higher overheads.

With Viovet etc you are buying from a bulk warehouse whereas your local shop will also be buying from a bulk warehouse and then having to cover their own cost of rent, staff, heat, light, public liability insurance etc, on top, hence the extra price.

This is the reason so many local shops are failing because they just can't compete when they have all those costs to cover. I am not saying it is wrong to buy online and I do do so myself on occasion but I do find it worrying that the way things are going we may not have anywhere to go and browse and look at labels and ask advice soon as we are no longer as consumers willing to pay for that privilege..

 

[Christmas Crumpet]

I agree but to charge a third more on a product is just not acceptable. Its daylight robbery. I have never minded spending a couple of pounds more on items to support this shop but they are taking the p*ss charging a third more!!! I am not rich by any stretch of the imagination and I am not going to shop at the local feed shop and support them if I can get stuff a lot cheaper elsewhere. I don't have money to throw away!!

The linseed is £21.35 from Charnwood Milling. The linseed at this shop is £42 is £42 off the top of my head. 50% more expensive. Add the postage and it is STILL about a third cheaper.

I feel bad moaning because they are all so lovely there and I know they work their backsides off but that isn't going to stop me buying what I need from the cheapest place.

 

[texas]

My local feed shop has a different trick - only stock the small sizes of products. So for example 5kg supplement is £30, 10kg used to cost £45, i.e. less than two smaller pots that are the only ones they stock now! I've started ordering online too, can't be doing with that, sorry!

 

[SadKen]

I have seen this happen quite a bit, but it can work the other way - thumbs up from me for the tack shop at the Plassey in Wrexham, where I got a fiver off a very good quality rug the other day without even asking - it was already a good price. Love to support my local tack shop when stuff like that happens!

 

[honetpot]

To be fair on most of these tack/feed shops, the mark up on a bag of feed is minimal. Everyone seems to want every shop to sell every sort of feed , when they will only get 50p on each bag. The 50p is not profit as they have to pay, staff, for storage and rates so for a lot its not work the trouble, you only one spoiled bag that cost £8 and you have to sell at least 16 to cover the cost.
I have a local feed store that buys huge amounts and as a result most of their bags are 50p to a pound cheaper than anywhere else.

 

[Spring Feather]

You're paying for the convenience of having a local store that you can get the things as and when you need/want them. You certainly aren't alone lol, we all see things like this, whereby you can pick up the same item elsewhere for much cheaper, so we all make the decision whether it is worth paying the extra to have it now, or pay less and put up with the inconvenience waiting for it to arrive. I'm quite into buying local I have to say so I do like to spend my money with the 'little guys' and help them survive.

 

[khalswitz]

Items in a tack shop are normally way more expensive!! The feed is cheap, you go in for feed and remember that you've run out of hoof oil, and that bridle has a lovely coloured padding, and actually a pair of winter thickness Jodhs would be quite nice... That's how they make their money, is the markup on the 'extras'.
I try to support my tack shops by picking up things whilst I'm in, but anything in particular I need I often buy online from home.

 

[Ella19]

Ah viovet the joys of trying to compete with them! Having worked in independent vets I know what your feed store is up against!II'm not surprised keratex was that much more, we had instances where viovet and other similar companies could sell a product to you for cheaper than we as an independent could buy it in for direct from manufacturers!! They are loss leaders. So they in theory could be selling someting for 5 pounds cheaper than I can buy it, then I need to add a markupplus perhaps postage or delivery it can easily aamount to 30%.