Post by dpiscator on Nov 19, 2008 15:18:28 GMT -4
Online flies are approx .75 cents. Go into a fly shop and you'll pay between 1.95 and 2.50. I'm not sure which shops are charging what. I believe at least 1 Scranton area Orvi$ shop is charging $2.25 per fly. I picked up a bunch of them, saw the price, then put them all back where they came from and walked out.
I probably have a few hundred dozen flies in my own arsenal, so I don't need flies (that's not an exaggeration). The reason I purchase flies from a shop is to support the shop. I won't support a shop that I think is taking advantage of a situation, especially after spending 60 bux in gas for the round trip from Towanda to Scranton and back.
The way I look at it... Let's say the flies in this shop were $1.50 each. I would have most definetely walked out with a minimum of 1 dozen flies (MINIMUM). I might have even picked up 2 dozen. Let's compromise and say I pick up 18 flies. Knowing that shops pay 7.00 - 8.00 per dozen, I would have spent roughly $27.00 in the store. This would have cost the shop approximately $12.00, leaving a profit of about $15.00 for my 3 1/2 minute visit. That's not too shabby. Instead, I walked out without a fly and the shop didn't make a penny from me.
Does it make sense for a shop to lower their prices to potentially sell quite a few more flies, or are shop owners doing so well that they don't need your extra buck. If I ran a shop, I think I'd bend over backwards (but not too far) to get some sales. I know one shop that still charges 1.95 per fly and will even throw in a few extra's every so often.
I don' expect to walk into a shop and walk out with freebies. Business is business and these guys are just trying to make a living but sometimes making a customer extra happy goes a long way. For example... Your happy customer might post about his positive experience on a website where hundreds of billions of fellow fly fishermen will read about it. Is that clientel a fly shop can afford to lose?
Shop owners might be saying... "we have overhead, insurance, etc..." - True... This is why I don't mind paying the 300% markup in the first place, but over 300% is just ripping me off. Uhhhh... yeah... right.
Anyhow, onto my question. At what value do you place on a fly?
Most of them sit in your box and lay dormant until they are called into active duty. Some of them come into combat only to be lost to a sniper up in a tree. Others are taken hostage almost as soon as they hit the battleground. Many take a few hits then are sent back to inactive duty. Then of course there are the ones who go out and conquer.
Price to value ration... What value do you place on a .75 cent fly that you take out of your box, use for 5 minutes, but catch no fish. What value on the same fly at $2.00? What value is placed on a .75 cent fly that absolutely clobbers the fish? Of course the answer to this one is priceless. How about a 2.00 fly?
So what are some scenarios you might want to compare? I think it's an interesting topic and I'm really interested in reading your thoughts on this one.
I probably have a few hundred dozen flies in my own arsenal, so I don't need flies (that's not an exaggeration). The reason I purchase flies from a shop is to support the shop. I won't support a shop that I think is taking advantage of a situation, especially after spending 60 bux in gas for the round trip from Towanda to Scranton and back.
The way I look at it... Let's say the flies in this shop were $1.50 each. I would have most definetely walked out with a minimum of 1 dozen flies (MINIMUM). I might have even picked up 2 dozen. Let's compromise and say I pick up 18 flies. Knowing that shops pay 7.00 - 8.00 per dozen, I would have spent roughly $27.00 in the store. This would have cost the shop approximately $12.00, leaving a profit of about $15.00 for my 3 1/2 minute visit. That's not too shabby. Instead, I walked out without a fly and the shop didn't make a penny from me.
Does it make sense for a shop to lower their prices to potentially sell quite a few more flies, or are shop owners doing so well that they don't need your extra buck. If I ran a shop, I think I'd bend over backwards (but not too far) to get some sales. I know one shop that still charges 1.95 per fly and will even throw in a few extra's every so often.
I don' expect to walk into a shop and walk out with freebies. Business is business and these guys are just trying to make a living but sometimes making a customer extra happy goes a long way. For example... Your happy customer might post about his positive experience on a website where hundreds of billions of fellow fly fishermen will read about it. Is that clientel a fly shop can afford to lose?
Shop owners might be saying... "we have overhead, insurance, etc..." - True... This is why I don't mind paying the 300% markup in the first place, but over 300% is just ripping me off. Uhhhh... yeah... right.
Anyhow, onto my question. At what value do you place on a fly?
Most of them sit in your box and lay dormant until they are called into active duty. Some of them come into combat only to be lost to a sniper up in a tree. Others are taken hostage almost as soon as they hit the battleground. Many take a few hits then are sent back to inactive duty. Then of course there are the ones who go out and conquer.
Price to value ration... What value do you place on a .75 cent fly that you take out of your box, use for 5 minutes, but catch no fish. What value on the same fly at $2.00? What value is placed on a .75 cent fly that absolutely clobbers the fish? Of course the answer to this one is priceless. How about a 2.00 fly?
So what are some scenarios you might want to compare? I think it's an interesting topic and I'm really interested in reading your thoughts on this one.