Cindy & Zonas,
I do not work for Tropar. I never have. I do not own stock in Tropar (I am almost sure it is owned 100% by the Ilaria family).
I have no reason to defend Tropar except that my experience tells me something is not right in this thread.
I travel eight states and visit lots of awards & engraving shops. While I hear some horror stories, I typically hear mostly positive remarks about them. Hard to actually make comparisons to most other suppliers since they continue to successfully travel down the pre assembled path instead of components.
My wife recently sold her retail business (which she owned for over 25 years) and Tropar was at least one of her favorite, most dependable suppliers (she loved to charge dearly let someone else do the assembly). On numerous occasions, I've heard her say that Tropar was the only company that often referred business to her; that is, when they were asked to sell wholesale by someone in my wife's area, they would refer the lead to several local retail shops.
I could be wrong, but I do not believe Tropar *ever* bids retail. I'd be very interested in details that Zonas or anyone else might have. I recently had Peter E. Ilaria confirm that under no circumstances does Tropar sell direct. Most are probably aware that they sell to promotional products dealers the same as they do trophy shops.
While I'm busy defending, for no good reason, I might also point out that at least most of the time I hear about manufacturers selling direct, there is more to the story than that on the surface.
A couple of instances:
1. Several in West Texas told me that a Texas manufacturer (who I won't name) had taken a huge city wide contract for youth sports awards. Upon checking, it was only partly true. The city had approached the manufacturer and he said he would only go through retailers and gave them a list of retailers in the city. The City was convinced (probably correctly) that no retailer could handle their order they way they wanted to handle it and worked out a compromise with the retailer to send their buyer to the manufacturer and send their trucks to pick up the order, but the retailer set the prices, invoiced the order, collected and paid the manufacturer. A pretty good deal for all concerned. The City, for whatever reason, continued to tell anyone who asked that they were dealing direct with "brand X" manufacturer which gave him a black eye that I personally feel he doesn't deserve.
2. A New Oleans dealer has a very similar arrangement with a Chicago manufactuer who handles the [unnamed world renown sports classic]. That dealer is a regular contributor to this forum and I suspect he'll correct me if I didn't properly state the situation.
Roy Brewer
http://www.brewersales.com
Epilog/Xenetech distributor |