Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a question... I am looking to purchase a snake from NERD, and was wondering two things... what kind of quality are they, and second, it is a regular occurance for a snake breeder to charge two different prices based on if you pick it up at thier location or have it shipped? I was told that I would have to pay 70-100 dollars more if i pick it up at thier location over having it shipped. I live less than 15 miles away.... seems kind of a waste to have it shipped.... but i guess thats what i may have to do to get the better of the two prices....... thanks for replies...

While there is no question about NERD, and the quality of their animals (they are one of the largest and best known), the last bit seems weird. I've never heard of charging more for pick up than for delivery. Hell...if someone lived 15 miles from me I'd save us both shipping and deliver it myself...

Any ideas as to why they want more $$ for a pick up? Maybe I'm missing something.

I liked the ball they shipped me and the transaction was very smooth.

I've heard of a business in my area having two prices. They have an Internet price to compete on the nation wide wholesale market to supply other pet stores and breeders. They also have a retail price through their local pet store that has the extra price of running a walk in business included (employees, utilities, insurance, sales tax). I guess I can see it happening but I'm not sure what the answer is for you. Seems like the shipping cost would take some of the difference up and they might have to send the snake half way across the country to the shipper's hub and back, at any rate it would take at least a day for delivery.

LOL...I used to work at a place (not a herp business)that sold retail to walk in customers, and wholesale ro ther dealors/distributors/government, etc.....

It blew my mind how much stuff gets marked off. One of the first wholesale orders I put together (a descent sized order), I went to the VP for sales and he said "give them 50, 10, and 5". What he meant was take retail, take 50% off, then take 10% off of that, then finally take an addtional 5% off of that. So these guys were getting $50 parts for about $21 dollars...

The next day, some poor schmuck off the street came in and bought the same part for full retail ($50).

I dont see how that applies to the herp world though. Nerd or anybody else is going to pay the overhead on their retail business regardless....Imagine if pizza hut had the same thing going.

Call them up and find out that you can get a pizza for 5 bucks delivered, but 10 buck to pick it up....kinda bass ackwards, dont you think...

Some people don't like buying snakes site unseen and it's nice to have walk in businesses where you can go to window shop in person. I'm sure it costs a lot extra to keep such a business open. But NERD still has to compete with breeders who don't have storefronts so they must have the wholesale price list also. If they spread the price of running the storefront onto the Internet sales they will not be competitive with Internet only breeders. It sounds Pro Exotics nearer me decided to do away with the retail business so that is an option but I’d hate to see all the storefronts close. Reptile specialty pet stores are probably a huge source of new keepers to the industry, people who just walk in and are taken with their first say albino ball python before they would ever think to look for one on the Internet.

Pizza Hut probably doesn't sell wholesale at all (or maybe the do for vendors setting up displays at outdoor events etc.).

It’s an interesting phenomena going on in many businesses right now. You can go to the closest car dealer to see what a model looks like but then find the most competitive Internet dealer to make your purchase and save thousands. Will auto dealerships become obsolete? Maybe they will just have to keep smaller sales staffs and run more efficient storefronts to keep the different prices closer together rather than having huge staffs spending lots of time trying to squeeze the last penny out of each customer per the traditional car lot model.

after thinking about it awhile, they probably charge more for pickup 'cause they have to have someone walk you around the facility, look at all the ones available and make sure none "accidentally" fall into your pocket while you're there (not implying that you would do that, but the world being such as it is.....well, you understand) So it does make sense they would charge for all the extra time they had to spend for the sale as opposed to packing up a snake and shipping it.

Cheryl

yeah but, they don't have to do any of that. They can have the snake in a box on the front counter....walk in, pay, walk out......I could see how you would loose a internet discount if you wanted to "shop" in person, but it sounded like he just wanted to pick it up....

So they have to pay for the public building and it's employees and expenses somewhere. I think it should be paid for by the walk in customers and not the Internet customers.

I think I might be tempted to give the Internet discount to anyone who purchases online regardless of if they come in and pick it up but then their local customers might all start coming in and shopping and then going home and purchase on line and then come back to pick them up!

How expensive of a snake are we talking about here? If they really did ship it the price difference (after shipping) would really not be very much. Some would be happy to pay a small percentage extra to actually pick out their high dollar animal in person.

NERD is good, but if they told me that, I would go somewhere else.
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Chad Bachman

Charging a fee for shipping makes sense of course, but paying more to pick it up yourself is not standard business practice. This doesn't sound right. Call them back and ask for a explanation for the difference, you may have misunderstood something.

I'd contact them again and clear up the situation. It's fairly simple when typing or talking on the phone to get things mixed up (especially if a person was distracted for a moment). I can't say for sure, I don't work there, but I have a feeling the extra $$$ was actually the additional cash needed to cover shipping. Call and ask again. It can't hurt.
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It's actually not that I love or even like snakes. I just hate rodents.