Chainsaw Repair

We all know about JD taking on stihl.
While I was on 42 south Sat, I  seen that the  big Case tractor dealer has stihl now too. 
Then a few more miles down the road the JD tractor dealer with stihl as we know. 

Wonder who is next. 

When I started in the industry in the 70's a guy with a garage behind the house and a few bucks in parts could be a 'dealer'. Eventually the distributors clamped down as they got such a poor reputation and nobody made any money so there was a high turnover. Now the reps are going the other in an attempt to boost their volume. The Briggs rep for our area set up two dealerships in a town of 200, he gave one of them Dolmar which created issues with one of his best accounts in a nearby town. Neither shop bought enough to make it worthwhile but they were a pain in the butt with service problems. Neither of them knew what they were doing.

Stihl has been losing friends here as well. We are in a rural small market area, there are three conscientious dealers doing reasonably well and now the rep is hinting at a fourth. One of the dealers told me he has been loyal to them and expects the same, if they want to pull this nonsense he will look elsewhere as well.
I sold Stihl but could not make any money on the cutoff saws. They were putting these units into every rental yard who were were blowing them out at 10 dollars over our cost. We refused to order but were told stock them or else so we put two on the floor. I made no effort to sell them, I was on commission.
Echo handles their own distribution in Canada.

There's only 5 requirements to being a still dealer
1. Buy the required amount $50,000 in yearly purchases minimum
2. Pay your bill
3. Have the ability to warranty/repair Stihl
5. 32' of showroom display
4. Don't get caught selling online

If you can do that they'll let you sell Stihl

Good to see you back around Cale. 

Everything OK?  Had sent PM's in past.