Ridetech Thanksgiving Specials

[bret]

With the proliferation of bigger and earlier "Black Friday" specials, I recently made the decision to decline that activity in order to place more importance on the real meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Completely unrelated to that, (because he was unaware of my decision or discussions leading up to it) one of our longtime master machinists, John H. made the following facebook post this morning:

"I see this "what's on your mind?" and today as prepare to go out black Friday shopping, I have a vent. Folks who leave family gatherings on Thanksgiving Day to shop. Really? I blame the Walmarts of this world for the start of this nonsense. This is a day to give thanks for the blessing in your life such as; your kids being happy, healthy and safe. That you have a roof over your head and food on the table. Not to run out and save a few bucks on a game console or some other useless crap.That cheapens a day that was set aside for a much higher reason.Not to mention the poor retail workers who would most likely rather be home enjoying their blessings as well. We need to stop this erosion of what we hold most dear. You have 360 or so OTHER days for that nonsense. Keep Thanksgiving Day special!"

John and I dont discuss things like this because, well, they just dont come up. But I could not agree more with his position on this subject and am very proud of him for expressing it.

We'll get to the year-end specials next week.



Please have an enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend with the people you care about most!

[Nicks67GTO]

With the proliferation of bigger and earlier "Black Friday" specials, I recently made the decision to decline that activity in order to place more importance on the real meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Completely unrelated to that, (because he was unaware of my decision or discussions leading up to it) one of our longtime master machinists, John H. made the following facebook post this morning:

"I see this "what's on your mind?" and today as prepare to go out black Friday shopping, I have a vent. Folks who leave family gatherings on Thanksgiving Day to shop. Really? I blame the Walmarts of this world for the start of this nonsense. This is a day to give thanks for the blessing in your life such as; your kids being happy, healthy and safe. That you have a roof over your head and food on the table. Not to run out and save a few bucks on a game console or some other useless crap.That cheapens a day that was set aside for a much higher reason.Not to mention the poor retail workers who would most likely rather be home enjoying their blessings as well. We need to stop this erosion of what we hold most dear. You have 360 or so OTHER days for that nonsense. Keep Thanksgiving Day special!"

John and I dont discuss things like this because, well, they just dont come up. But I could not agree more with his position on this subject and am very proud of him for expressing it.

We'll get to the year-end specials next week.

Please have an enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend with the people you care about most!

Amen to that Bret. On the way to the inlaws yesterday, my wife, kids and I drove past Best Buy around 11 AM. People were lined up in the raining 40* Iowa weather just to be first in line, to get in 6hrs later, to have a chance at scrapping overy some electronics special. No thanks.

[chocthunder]

Amen Bret

[Zoomin]

[JEFFTATE]

That's awesome Bret,
I agree

[protouring70]

Thanks Bret for posting that response. I have the same feeling about it and wish that they would go back to how it was.

[Bonehead]

You want to know whos responsible for all the thanksgiving day sales?

WE ALL ARE.

The consumer. We demand things to be cheaper. We want it faster. We aren't going to pay the freight to get it to us. We want more options. We want to beat you down because Skippys Backyard POS Suspension Systems has their sway bars for $0.05 cheaper and are you gonna match that price???? We want the best customer service in the world when there is a problem and we rant and scream like hell when you don't give it to us. We had just word of mouth 20 years ago but by God we have FACEBOOK now and we're going to rip you a new one on every page we can find till someone agrees with us. We obviously don't care about companies popping up out of no where knocking your stuff off and selling it to us at half the price so we can say were not getting "ripped off" by the big guy anymore. We don't care about your cost of business or how many employees you have on staff. We don't care about their well being and their long term prospects for a job. We don't care that you worked you back side off for years to get where you are. We could care less about your operating costs and the new state of the art machinery you put in to make your products better. We want you to bend to our demands and we have zero loyalty to anyone, any company. We want what we want and we want it right friggin now. We think you use dirty words like "profit" and "capital" and we will march in the streets to demand you give up those things to pay us $15 an hour to jack up your order at Whack Arnolds.

Its our fault. We don't care anymore. Made in the USA means exactly nada. So yeah we've griped and complained and beat down retailers and manufacturers for so long, they have to find ways to jump their competition to the market. If that means being open on Thanksgiving at 6pm, then by god they do it to keep the cash rolling in. But of course, its popular to use fighting words and talk trash on a company like Walmart because hey! They are evil nasty companies who make an obscene profit each year and they don't pay their employees anything or give them a 5 minute break every hour to go use the washroom.

I hate every single thing about all of this mess. Whats more, I have equal disdain for folks who brag about all the money they saved because they bought your exact same kit off ebay in some gimp no name garbage brand.

[bret]

I agree with the concept of your comments, though I still see a lot of positive people doing a lot of positive things...especially on these type forums. While it is easy to get caught up in the hype and "pack mentality" of Black Friday and "X-mas" sales [I am allergic to the term X-Mas, BTW] I still feel [hope?] the majority of folk remember the true meaning of the season. Judging by the comments here and the texts and emails that I have received on this...I believe this is true.

Sales...specials...discounts...are a funny thing. The concept is to make the customer believe that they are special...and that this sales event is a unique opportunity that may not be ever repeated. While our heads know that this is all unlikely, our hearts can't help but be intrigued...possibly to the point of buying something.

We have chosen to make ALL our customers feel special...by providing the best possible product at the best possible price while offering the best possible service. We do give discounts to dealers because they are doing part of the work. They answer your sales and tech calls when we could not possibly handle them all. They also counsel you on the rest of your project...what components are compatible...which ones work best for a particular application...and which ones are the best bang for the buck. For that work they earn a commission [discount]on ridetech sales. We are diligent about maintaining the integrity of the retail price, not because we are arrogant and want to make the end user pay more, but because we want to make sure the dealers who have invested their time, effort...and money [inventory] are compensated for their investment. When I see these big discounts thrown around, I have to think that the customer may wonder if the product was priced fairly in the first place. Or if the dealer really knows how much profit they need to maintain to keep their doors open long term.

Anyway...just my opinion. In the meantime we'll keep doing the best we can for the customers and ourselves. I cannot deny that it's been a good year...our best ever. I cannot thank everyone enough for making that happen!