John Deere's poor dealership decision making IMO.

[RickB]

I used to live in the Northeast. Last year an outfit from Texas that owns a double handful of Deere Ag dealership’s in the Southwest bought 8 or 10 Deere dealerships in eastern NY and New England having something like 24 total locations. I have done business at 3 and am familiar with a few more. There’s no way 8 or 10 dealer principals woke up the same day, week or even month and decided to sell out without HEAVY input from Mother Deere.

 

[Diggin It]

This is just a question and I'm not looking to pick a fight.

To those of you who lament the loss of your local small family owned dealership (of any kind), do you support them with your business? Do you buy incidentals such as oil, filters, belts, batteries etc from them or do you seek out the lowest price at your nearest big box auto parts store or discount department store or on line?

Not supporting your local dealer is part of the problem, no?

I do when it makes sense. I buy filters and necessary parts from mine. It's a one location privately owned small business, but they sell a lot of machines. It's in a ag focused area and they do more business than I first thought. Mostly LS as far as new tractors, but they work on most any brand. I've seen Case and JD machines there in various stages of disassembly.

When my MMM belt gave up, I tried to get it from there, but even they admitted the price was outrageous ($120 something). I ended up getting it elsewhere.

 

[JWR]

Your implication that itç—´ just Deere that is doing it or that they do it in some malicious, nefarious manner is simply wrong.

You might want to consider investing in Deere. Itç—´ a well run company and their stock closed at $193.10 today.


.

I did not imply that it is just John Deere. Others of the major manufacturers do similar things, probably modeled after the successful JD business model. I do not like the practice, it is malicious as viewed by the small dealer whose family and himself have busted butt in the business for 78 years. Try telling them it is not malicious. Deere does it slowly enough and insidiously enough that it slides into the past over a period of time longer than the life of many of the businesses and often long enough for the older dealer to have died. Certainly over a period of several generations of corporate management. They have stuck with the plan. I would apply the term unethical and on a personal level, cruel, more so than nefarious. So far as I know they are within their legal rights to execute the plan under their business model as they obviously are. That does not make it a good and right thing to do from a human and ethical standpoint. To deny their plan operates as it does is wrong. I'm sure you don't deny it. We all know it is and continues to be. And frankly my dear, I don't give a **** what their stock prices are. 'Well Run' is your subjective conclusion, true in some ways and false in other ways.

 

[JWR]

We will have to agree to disagree!

The local Kawasaki motorcycle dealership is a single store, family run operation that has cultivated a customer base that continues to support them. This dealership is among the highest rated stores by Kawasaki in the state and they are left to continue on. There is at another Kawasaki dealership nearby that I know of that was forced to give up their franchise by Kawasaki due to poor sales performance.

It's not just Deere. I also know of a small family owned Kubota dealership that was forced out by Kubota.

What you said is factual. I don't see that we disagree.

 

[5030]

Here in Texas, Deere has already forced smaller dealerships to either buy other dealerships, or sell your own dealership. Our dealership had been family owned since like 1936.

So now, there are these "entities" that own multi-dealerships, reducing competition. Some "wet behind the ears" board member/s at Deere must have come up with this idea.

Now the word on the street is that Deere wants to get down to maybe only 4 "entities" to own all the dealerships in Texas.

While this may give corporate Deere some advantages, I for one, don't subscribe to it being better for the little guys wanting a compact tractor.

I would like to hear from some of the guys on the inside of these dealerships and how they feel about the pros and cons of this corporate move.

What will happen to Deere long term due to this?

I don't much care. Don't and won't own anything green, garden and crops excluded.

 

[two_bit_score]

I used to live in the Northeast. Last year an outfit from Texas that owns a double handful of Deere Ag dealership’s in the Southwest bought 8 or 10 Deere dealerships in eastern NY and New England having something like 24 total locations. I have done business at 3 and am familiar with a few more. There’s no way 8 or 10 dealer principals woke up the same day, week or even month and decided to sell out without HEAVY input from Mother Deere.

So is the net effect a positive one for the company, customers and shareholders?

 

[two_bit_score]

I did not imply that it is just John Deere. Others of the major manufacturers do similar things, probably modeled after the successful JD business model. I do not like the practice, it is malicious as viewed by the small dealer whose family and himself have busted butt in the business for 78 years. Try telling them it is not malicious. Deere does it slowly enough and insidiously enough that it slides into the past over a period of time longer than the life of many of the businesses and often long enough for the older dealer to have died. Certainly over a period of several generations of corporate management. They have stuck with the plan. I would apply the term unethical and on a personal level, cruel, more so than nefarious. So far as I know they are within their legal rights to execute the plan under their business model as they obviously are. That does not make it a good and right thing to do from a human and ethical standpoint. To deny their plan operates as it does is wrong. I'm sure you don't deny it. We all know it is and continues to be. And frankly my dear, I don't give a **** what their stock prices are. 'Well Run' is your subjective conclusion, true in some ways and false in other ways.

So were you or a family member of yours one of the small dealers that feel they were forced out of business by Deere? And if you don’t intend to imply that Deere is the only one doing things this way it seems to be true that they are the only ones you seem to be complaining about. So, just how personal is this grudge?

 

[RickB]

So is the net effect a positive one for the company, customers and shareholders?

In less than a year it is impossible to tell. I am not certain all the deals have even closed at this time. It will be interesting to see how many of the 24 total locations remain open for business 24 or 30 months out. Losing a dealership location is seldom a positive outcome for the customers.

 

[ovrszd]

It is my contention no small dealer has been forced out. They'll each been given criteria to survive. The ones that didn't made that choice.

 

[Diggin It]

It is my contention no small dealer has been forced out. They'll each been given criteria to survive. The ones that didn't made that choice.

And if that criteria is above their past performance to a point that meeting it is unreasonably difficult, THAT is being forced out.