No! Not another Wal-Mart article!
Jim Wier, the CEO of lawn-equipment maker Simplicity, had the courage and perhaps the foresight to say “No!” To Wal-Mart. Both Simplicity and Wal-Mart sell lawn mowers, so that puts them in direct competition, but Simplicity has chosen not to price compete.
Price, Service, Quality. Pick any two.
Wier doesn’t really think that a $99 lawn mower from Wal-Mart and Snapper’s lawn mowers are the same product any more than a cup of 50-cent vending-machine coffee is the same as a Starbucks nonfat venti latte. “We’re not obsessed with volume,” says Wier. “We’re obsessed with having differentiated, high-end, quality products.”
“As I look at the three years Snapper has been with you,” he told the vice president, “every year the price has come down. Every year the content of the product has gone up.
The man who said no to Wal-Mart - Read More…
Thanks, Jack
January 26th, 2006 at 9:56 am
Good article! It’s even more interesting since Snapper’s factory and HQ is located close by.
January 27th, 2006 at 6:36 am
I don’t recall ever owning a Snapper, but I did own an old Allis-Chalmers lawn tractor, maybe the best mower I ever operated.
Simplicity was acquired by Allis-Chalmers in the sixties and, at least at one time, the Simplicity and Allis-Chalmers tractors were the same.