Farnall (UK) down again

[Simon]

well that just goes to prove the margins they must have. I don't think they have problems with supplier agreements about selling to privates, not many manufacturers want to bother to sell to an end user and prefer "wholesalers" to handle it,

[david77]

That has nothing to do with the suppliers, it is an agreement between the wholesaler and his customers not to sell to the end user.
Example: I run a electronics retail business, so I sell to pretty much everyone. There is an electrical goods wholesaler in town where I buy electrical goods like wires, plugs, sockets, MCB's and so on. We work on the understanding that they (the wholesaler) do not sell to Joe Public who'd like to save a few bob. They sell exclusively to tradespeople and retailers.
They do not even tell Joe prices, they basically kick him out.
If the wholesalers started to sell to everyone all retailers could shut up shop and go home.


 

[Simon]

oh yes there is that too but farnell can be supplying thousands of businesses meaningless parts. How can a retailer expect farnell to not sell me a bunch of resistors if I want them, i expect they expect to sell to manufacturers who should have a concern who buys the parts, why should farnell not act as a retailer too if they want ?

[david77]

I wouldn't count Farnell as a wholesaler. A better description would probably be "a professional's retailer".
They could do retail business if they wanted to, but obviously they don't. The only reason for that I can see is that it keeps the riff-raff out - and to be honest that is a bloody good reason.

[Simon]

yes that does describe them well. I'm sure many people could be time waters to them, they have good prices but that is because customers buy in bulk generally

[Bored@Work]

I'm sure Farnell and RS have the same legal problems in some countries. So it may be wider than North and Central Europe. I was told that they would love to be able to sell to individuals.

This is just their usual excuse of the decade. Distance selling has been harmonized in the EU. The directive is from 1997. And yet they sell to individuals in some EU countries but don't sell in others.

[Bored@Work]

Sometimes companies operate as wholesalers and have agreements with their customers not to sell directly to retail.

Mouser must have such deals, or more precisely lack deals to sell some brands in some regions. However, they just don't sell those brands, but otherwise have no problems selling everything else to individuals. Free shipping from some point on.

Just register a business name and open a cash account!

Doesn't work here. E.g. RS checks if you are really a business and insist on getting your business tax registration number.

Some people tried to be really clever and registered a business just to get a business tax number and then to open an account with RS. This sounds like a cunning plan, until the tax authorities showed up and demanded paperwork, proof of business activities, asked about evading sales tax, and whatnot. And until the local authorities showed up asking about operating a business in a residential area, compliance with local waste disposal rules for businesses and whatnot.

[Zad]

Farnell do have a retail arm, called CPC

http://www.cpc.co.uk redirects to http://cpc.farnell.com/

Farnell at least seem to be trying to expand their customer base, whereas RS just seem to be withdrawing to the bulk commercial / high profit end.

[Bored@Work]

Farnell do have a retail arm, called CPC

http://www.cpc.co.uk redirects to http://cpc.farnell.com/

They do, but they don't sell outside the UK from the web site. So the same as if using uk.farnell.com, where they don't sell outside of the UK, too.

[FreeThinker]

I live in the UK, do not have a company account, but have a RS account. All I did was register on line and give my Credit Card details. I have to pay postage on orders under (I think) £30 but other wise no problems and usually next day delivery. You can also get technical support if you quote your account number.