People often contact us and ask if we have any sales coming up, or if we offer discounts for military, first responders, schools, etc… So I wanted to explain our pricing philosophy.
First, to answer the question: we simply don’t discount. Ever. Believe me, we love our service men and women! Several of our family members and employees served, and everyone at Texas Metal Works appreciates the freedom and safety that those who have served, and who currently serve provide us. So thank you!
There are a few reasons for our pricing approach.
- First and foremost, you don’t need to wait for “the annual sale” or worry if it’s the right time to buy. No need to scour the web for a coupon. Whenever the time is right for you, we’ll be here. Everyone pays the same and no one is taken advantage of. We love you guys, and that’s why we do it..
- We don’t have a Sales force or a marketing department. The good news is we’re not bearing the cost of those functions because we’ve never spent a single penny to promote our products. You guys do that for us, and by the way we cannot say thank you enough every time you share on social media or leave a review. Our community built this company. But not having a marketing department also means we don’t have anyone to even administer things like periodic sales and discounting, planning to roll them out and promote them, and technically lowering prices and raising prices… All of this takes time and energy and we’re just not gonna spend it.
- Most manufacturers sell their products through distributors. In order to do so they have to provide their partners with a price list (and major discounts) that’s valid typically for an entire year. However, within that year, there could be pretty wild fluctuations in material and labor pricing. So they build that variable into their pricing models to make sure they have a safety buffer.
- Now, if their underlying costs happen to be better for some period of time they’ll often put their items “on sale” to give the impression that there’s a deal to be had. However, they’ll only do that if they want to push up their volume because until then they’re enjoying higher-than-expected profits.
- Well we sell direct and we utilize lean manufacturing processes so we experience cost fluctuations and respond to them more rapidly. When the costs go up for a short period of time we just eat them. When we feel like they’ve kind of reached a new equilibrium level we adjust our pricing. Up to this point our prices have never gone down, only up. So actually that is an incentive not to wait to purchase because there is a chance the price will increase if our costs do.
- Our pricing philosophy helps protect the resale market for our tables. We’ve sold a lot of tables, but you rarely see them for sale on eBay, craigslist or Facebook. People just don’t get rid of them. It’s the weirdest thing. But when you do see them, they don’t require much of a discount to sell because of course we don’t discount, and it’s not like these heavy-duty tables get “used up”.
- Side note – there have been a couple of times when I seen one on sale at a discount below what our current prices are and I remember the customer and know they are selling for as much as they actually paid us. So that’s kind of cool.
We’re Here For You
So, that’s a long answer to a short question. Sorry! But I wanted to make sure to communicate our rationale so we’re all on the same page.
Thanks for sitting through my explanation! And if you have any other questions feel free to email us or chat with us or call us. Whatever’s best for you! And just know that when you’re ready our team here in Texas will use the absolute best materials, and the best manufacturing processes, to give you the best value you can find anywhere.
And we’ll stand behind it.