Technical Juliano's

If I get 10 singles for a $10 dollar bill I got 10 more bills!

 

I've been in the parts business far too long. 40% gross profit is about what you need to shoot for if you want to keep the lights on. That number is a lot harder to reach today compared to 1993 when I started schlepping parts.
-Dave

 

I can tell anyone who wants to listen exactly what happens when an otherwise profitable business sees it's gross profits drop below that threshold.

 

Slow Saturday huh fellas? I have a buddy that runs a parts outfit in Portland selling Chevy muscle car parts. I can get the same crap cheaper on line but I also want my buddy to stay in business so I order form him and have done so for the last 30 plus years. He makes a dime, I get my parts, I sell the cars, I make my dime. Circle of Life.

 

It’s not about being a slow Saturday. It’s about opinions that are not supported by facts and/or the laws of economics.

No body EVER posts a thread confessing “they made too much money” on something they “scored” cheap and sold high.......if they post about that deal, and they often do, it’s a celebration of their shrewd marketing. It’s always and only “the other guy” that makes too much money.

 

Any body remember when Warshawsky was the other side of the corner building JC Whitney was in and sold wholesale from the same catalog but changed prices? I always thought Juliano's was too pricey and a bit elite. I get my DOT approved seat belts from Andover Restraints.

 

Seatbelt Solutions is one and the same company as Seatbelt s Plus, if you read the information in the Seatbelt Solutions website.

Did you bother to study the links, and read the claims on the Seatbelt Solutions site?

I’m out.

I already have seatbelts in my running vehicles.

 

Damn, I feel guilty. These were free AND delivered by my dear friend. Expired for race duty but I'd feel safe wearing em.

 

Seat belt solutions is not a secret. They've been advertising monthly in the Goodguys Gazette. Seems like a nice guy. Made a set of belts to my custom length, I think they were the standard price.

Phil

 

When you went in the side door at Warshawsky, you were at the J C Whitney showroom and counter's. You had to have the Warshawsky catalog in your hand's to get the lower prices. Alway's had a laugh WITH the counter guy's over that. Alway's gave that catalog to someone going in when I left.

 

Capitalism is a strange game. I give you a price, you decide if you want to buy. If you buy a bunch, I give you a cheaper price. If I think you'll bring me a lot of business, the price is even less, or maybe free. Just remember that every bit of discount comes out of the owner's potential profit. The key here is not what others may have paid or what you were charged. There was a product offered to you at a given price and it was your option to buy, or not.

 

After considering other's points of view about 'undercutting their dealers", it occurred to me that people were complaining because the price offered by the manufacturer's retail arm was lower than Julianos'.

Yet, at the same time, that price seemed quite high by comparison with other sources. So, are those folks advocating that the OEM either 'fix' prices at a given point, or raise their own prices to match the highest price of one of their dealers? And what of the other dealers in the OEM's chain.....where should their prices be?

I have to think that any of the complainants here would object to finding the exact same transaction prices for a variety of the goods they purchase. Want to buy a certain brand/model/size tire? How about every tire dealer you shop says it's $xxxx. Would you suspect 'collusion'? It's actually illegal and has been for a long time.

MSRP is "Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price".....Retailers are free to charge whatever they choose or think the market will bear....either less or more than MSRP.

Be careful what you wish for.

 

Having known the Juliano's for more than 35 years, they are good people. Although Bob Juliano has passed, Marcia keeps the business rolling along. They did the research to find suppliers for some of their products. Today you have the internet to help you, but they did their homework, and are justified in making a profit. I had an antique Ford parts business in the 1970's, and we bought our parts through several suppliers, and only 1 supplier's policy was that if we discounted his price, and he found out, he stopped supplying parts to us. The other side of the coin was Bob Drake, whose spring time sales sold parts to the public for less than our dealer pricing, and we had to buy 10 pieces to get the dealer price. We tried to get by with a 33 1/3 percent markup, but it wasn't enough to keep us in business for more than 4 years. A lot of our customers complained when we shut the doors, where were they going to buy their parts now. Our response was, why didn't you support us more when we were in business. We invested a lot of time and money, but to no avail. A lot of dealers in our hobby were lost along the way. Be thankful that people like the Juliano's made the investment of time, and money to supply you with god products. A good example for us was when a customer wanted to buy a reproduction tail light for $ 16.95, that was made by A & L Parts Specialties. He complained that it was too expensive, and so he bought a tail light from J. C. Whitney. When he got the tail light he realized the big difference in quality, and wanted us to take it back. we said why don't you return it to J.C. Whitney, he said they won't take it back. we said that if you bought it from us, and didn't like the quality, we would have taken it back. To end the story, we allowed him a $ 10.00 trade in on the A & L tail light that he should have bought in the beginning. We sold the J. C. Whitney taillight to another cheap customer for the $ 10.00 we had allowed in trade.

 

ONE manufacturer makes the bulk of the belts that everyone sells. When I was shopping I noticed the patterns on the buckles were the same no matter who sold them. Wesco had the best price so I went with them for everything.

 

Dayuum, seems this topic can use a good "belt". I recommend single malt...

 

Interesting thread. Nothing of value to add, except that, in my business, which has nothing to do with seatbelts, or car anything, if you trust your favorite supplier, you are a fool. Wasn't always that way, but it damn sure has been for several years.. The old generation business owners I dealt with in the 70s or so were honorable, trustworthy suppliers. Not now. We as dealers are expected to follow "their" rules. They, on the other hand, are free to fuck us over when they see fit.

 

Look at the stitching how they are sewed. Some are sewn like factory originals. Back and forth and across the overlapped part. Others only have about 6 lines sewn back and forth.

 

I keep Oban 14 in the desk drawer, for after-hours.

 

Ok..lets take this seatbelt thread on a slight detour..Back in the day, 40s 50s etc how many guys do you figure actually put seatbelts in their hot rods?I'm guessing not a lot. I actually didn't wear them much till I got married 15 years ago and my wife pointed out that in the case of an accident my body might actually crush her in an accident...I wear mine all the time now. So I'm glad to see on this traditionalist forum we are actually squabbling over prices but not the actual application of said parts

 

See...difference here (and if you were in Ca. in the 80's) there was the seat belt law...Hell, before that in the late 70's I put lap belt in my '57. Wasn't required, but made decent sense.

I'm not advocating ABS/etc for HotRods, but safety is a good thing.

Now about the original post...well heck, why didn't the OP shop around before buying?

NEVER look later to see if you made a good deal or not

 

I'm not shy to say I seldom to never use belts. A spine like mine doesn't like inertia locks in new cars, especially in the coutry road/suv/4Wd truck environment I live in. I'm also a relative slo-poke in my DDs. You wanna know when I will NEVER wear em? In the rain. If the local constabulary wants to stand in the rain and cite me with a no-record ticket, for NOT being forced to protect myself, I'll pay it for the entertainment. Yeah, I can get a waiver but what fun is that? I do wear them in really nasty snow conditions, when I want to go really fast (rarely), if I'm playing designated driver (always my role) or if I see the 10-12 gendarmes on a corner invading people's personal space.

Also, adding them to my 39 doesn't make me a hypocrite, rather it provides that select measure for those who'd like to drive or ride in my heap. Yeah, I'm not a 100% dick (in spite of what some who really know me might say)

 

If you were going to race at a sanction drag strip, seat belts were mandatory. Put Pep Boys belts in my car in 1958 so I could race at Paradise Mesa.

 

Not really related to this subject but....I will be buying seat belts for the Studebaker so the subject came up at a good time. I looked up the Seatbelts web site, found it fairly quickly and then as I continued to read I noted a reference to Andover Restraints, I'd forgotten but they were the vendor for the belts I installed in the 38 Chevy. I Googled it and it took a while before I could find it, evidently they didn't pay their dues to Google That makes me wonder when I am searching for a product am I getting all of the possibilities? I've had seatbelts in my vehicles since the 60's. My parents were killed in an automobile accident in 1972. They were driving a 63 Dodge Dart. Dad's head hit the A pillar and evidently mom's chest hit the dash. If they would have had three point belts I believe the outcome would have been different.

 

Yes Ca. has had seat belt laws for many years ,but it is only relevant on 1967 and newer motor vehicles as that was the year it was federally mandated that all cars come equipped with safety belts. I'm just glad to see most guys install them on their builds nowadays

 

I canceled a seatbelt order from Juliano’s after I found them cheaper and in the color I wanted from Wesco. Juliano’s accommodated me no problem.

As it turns out, the ones from Wesco were drop shipped from SeatbeltSolutions in Florida anyway. At the end of the day, I got what I wanted at what I thought was a reasonable price.

 

I'm in medicine and it's that way, too.

 

Your rational only makes sense if all the other drivers are driving like you are. You might be going 20, but the idiot in the 500HP production car might hit you going 120 and then, well...

 

Came right up for me: http://www.andoauto.com/AR1.htm Mine have held up really well.

 

I was a part time belt user, rolled my 1970 Boss 302 Mustang 2 1/2 times in January 1970, car ended up on the roof. Every loose item in the car went out the broken windows including two mag wheels that were in the back seat. Weird feeling hanging upside down in a seat belt! Been using them ever since, put them (three point) in my street rod in 1979, advocated to the NSRA to make them mandatory for their safety inspection. Was told "it would hamper participation", that was in 1987. I still maintain cars featured in magazines should have the NSRA Safety 23 (a real 23) before published or awarded. Yup, a little on the militant side with this but been there and done that, wouldn't be sitting at this machine if I hadn't buckled up that night!