Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Bird
Another point they made is massively reduced in price helmets you can buy form the big shows.
They say don't bother. These helmets are rejects for some reason, and somewhere in some horrible small print it will say not for road use!
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Whilst I agree with the majority of what you are saying in your post I have to take issue with this point.
I wholesaled helmets to a number of traders who sell helmets at bike shows around the country - one of my biggest customers would spend upwards of £120,000 a year on Nitro helmets and every single one of them was sold at the BMF, Stafford Classic show and other smaller events. He wasn't the only guy doing this, there is a whole industry out there of guys who own a truck and a large lock-up who load up on a Friday and set up stall for the weekend selling helmets cheaply. They can afford to do so because they don't have huge overheads - it's just them and maybe a couple of family members, a truck and a lock-up.
Nitro aren't the only cheap helmets you'll find at shows either, there are loads if you care to look. The guys selling them buy from the same reps who sell to your local George White, Suzuki dealer, Kawasaki dealer or independent bike shop. The helmets are exactly the same as you'll find anywhere else in the country. Only difference is George Whites and the rest of the bike shops don't buy in such bulk and as such don't get the discounts... that's another reason Mr Show-Stand can sell cheaper, he buys £25,000 worth at a time, not £500 or even £1000.
As a sales rep we relied on the guys doing the shows to make us money. When you're on 7% of all turnover you go looking for the guy who'll buy £120,000 of stock a year and you'll look after him and make sure he gets what he orders on time, and you'll be back next month to write another order because that one customer is worth £8400 in commission alone each year. If anything you go looking for another three or four of them to really bring the pennies rolling in. I had three of them on my books, and they earned me alot of money every year.
All of them were buying the same helmets from the same factories that arrived on the same containers as the helmets you could see in local shops. The helmets you see for sale at shows aren't rejects, they aren't seconds, and they aren't faulty in any way.