Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

Looks like more L series will be passing thru the big box doors..........

Lowe's and John Deere Announce Multi-year Alliance

Little Timmy's freckles just fell off at HD. Whats up with that?

                                                              Kevin

Vangellis wrote:
LOL

Yeah.......Now Little Tommy (Big Blues counterpart) gets to play!  

I wonder if Lowes will keep both Cub and Husqvarna in the LT lineup?

The Deere dealers have got to be cheezed........in our Metro area we have several Deere dealers that handle only the small stuff, it's got to hurt them.

Check this out....

   The Home Depot near me has loads of JD stock. All lined up nice n shiny. On the back fender  under the seat of every one is the sticker from the local John Deere dealer.

 Could it be that  the local JD dealer is still getting a cut?

 It has been that way near me since I noticed the first JD tractor there a couple of years ago.

jogo wrote:

What does the sticker say? Is it just referring the buyer to the JD dealer for service? Or are you suggesting that HD is trying to sell stock that the JD dealer is having trouble selling?

AZ

No, they don't they get a cut of the sale/sales. I would imagine it's a reference point for local service department.

Talked w/ a Deere dealer last year re. box store sales of Deere lawn tractors... this dealer likes it,,,,

They have a contract w/ two-three local big Orange stores to set up each tractor (low rate pay)... and they get the warrenty work too...

Guess for local Deere dealers that don't have this... may not be so good... but Deere has been squeezing out Deere dealers for years now...

Less competition..

I understand for dealerships... service and parts is where the bigger $$$ are (for the dealer... not you Mr. 'Lint ! ... sorry... )... not sales of new machines...

Similar to new car dealerships..

Seems some manufacturers... want more units out there.... 

In my opinion... these Deere machines are becomming (or nearly ) ...too commonplace... and compromised... Ahhh... living off the reputation... ...but maybe the low-end-grade lawn tractors are  a correct step for Deere... My Uncle who was a Deere dealer for ~~30 years... never liked Deere cheapening the quality of the Deere products... guess it affected his business in a negative way !  Self interest usally rules !

All I know... is a "low-end" deere lawn/garden tractor from ~~20 years ago... has much better build than those sold at the box stores...

But... I might buy a box-store--sold Deere lawn tractor... but will now more seriously consider other makes 1st...

Living on reputations... only is good for so long.. Remember the Deere Sabre models ? ...short lived... from mind's of genious's... !

Dave...

Same here...all those shinny JD's have a sticker for a local dealership. I would feel better making a purchase from HD knowing I have someone to take it too...

Not saying that 'box' stores are always a bad way to go but does anyone remember what happened to Homelite or McCulloch?  Quality is some what jeopardized when moving product into these stores.  The big 'box' store is only willing to pay so much for the product so it is up to the manufacturer to meet these prices or lose a huge sale.  We've seen it with MTD  - you can't say that these machines are of the same quality as they were 20 years ago.  Then there's Ariens, you have 2 different models - a 'pro' series and a 'consumer' series, the consumer series is a very good machine, but not the quality that the pro series is and they only had the one line years ago.  So the 'box' stores are a good thing for the consumer, but sometimes I wonder if the manufacturer and the dealer benifits.

Sherri