How can WE help cooperate Big Box get good pellets for US?

It's all about bottom line, not what the customer wants. Sad fact of life you have to wake up to. If the buyer can save the company money, he/she's going to do it because it probably means a bonus. Each person who writes will ask for their perceived best pellet and confuse the heck out of corporate and before long, your request will go right into the circular file. Look at the post here and try to get a consensus of what is the best pellet! RIGHT!

I have read here that pellets aren't a big money maker for the big box stores. Not sure if its true or not, but if it is they dont have much incentive to go out of there way.

tjnamtiw said:

It's all about bottom line, not what the customer wants. Sad fact of life you have to wake up to. If the buyer can save the company money, he/she's going to do it because it probably means a bonus. Each person who writes will ask for their perceived best pellet and confuse the heck out of corporate and before long, your request will go right into the circular file. Look at the post here and try to get a consensus of what is the best pellet! RIGHT!

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Totally agree! They don't care if the pellets are good or bad, only how many sell an what the profit margin is. The sub par pellets sell out all the time, so why would they switch?

Just don't buy pellets from a big box when they have crap and let the manager know why you've chosen to pass them by. They won't care, for reasons stated earlier in this thread, because someone will buy them but you won't be stuck. I buy my supply from the local "Do-It." They have Lignetics, a pellet that performs well in my stove and that I can get at $235 / ton on pre-buy. As well, they maintain a supply throughout the winter so I know that I can get pellets late in the season should I need them when the big box stores have switched over to lawnmowers.

X2. Leave the crap in the stores BUT, with respect to HD, fill out the opinion survey on the bottom of the receipt when u buy something and let them know what u think. I complained long and hard about the lack of open registers for check out in my local store and, voila, more open registers. Was it MY complaining? I doubt it but maybe mine helped.

Foresight is always better than hindsight. Pre buy what you want (brand) and need for the year instead of spot buying questionable quality and then crabbing about it.

Kinda like the door buster to get you inside the store at Wally World. They make more money on the drill you buy then they do selling you a ton of pellets. Im sure they could improve things though without it costing them much.

When I ordered my 3 tons for delivery in Sept, the manager actually asked my opinion of Stove Chow (they sell mostly FSU's) and I told him they were considered "OK for a big box store pellet".

Last year I underbought and paid the price (with a last ton of crap pellets), this year I overbought so I have an extra ton of Somersets that I might part with for the right price........

xSpecBx said:

I have read here that pellets aren't a big money maker for the big box stores. Not sure if its true or not, but if it is they dont have much incentive to go out of there way.

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Yeah, but the flipside is that they're supposed to draw foot traffic. If your pellets, which don't make a whole lot of money are crap and thus don't draw foot traffic, then you've defeated the purpose.

chken said:

Yeah, but the flipside is that they're supposed to draw foot traffic. If your pellets, which don't make a whole lot of money are crap and thus don't draw foot traffic, then you've defeated the purpose.

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Only for some. The others will happily buy and burn them.

HD outside philly here had Douglas fir from Oregon. Blazers..
sold for 250.00 ton. same as the normal crap..
wonder who lost the're job on that transaction....
only got 30 bags cause had 5 tons in the basement and no room..

Local HD stores don't buy pellets. All pellets are purchased from corporate out of Georgia. The experts in Georgia decide what brands and what quantities and when are delivered to each HD store. The buyers use store sales history and pellet availability, and cost of pellets to decide what each store receives. Local store managers don't have a clue what or when the next shipment will be. All inventory and sales records are continuously monitored in Georgia. Even the thermostats for heating and cooling for every local store are controlled in Georgia.

Luv2burnPellets said:

Local HD stores don't buy pellets. All pellets are purchased from corporate out of Georgia. The experts in Georgia decide what brands and what quantities and when are delivered to each HD store. The buyers use store sales history and pellet availability, and cost of pellets to decide what each store receives. Local store managers don't have a clue what or when the next shipment will be. All inventory and sales records are continuously monitored in Georgia. Even the thermostats for heating and cooling for every local store are controlled in Georgia.

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EXACTLY! Which is why I find them annoying and I don't like buying pellets from them.

last year they had GS
this year they had stove chow

i'm not complaining

briansol said:

last year they had GS
this year they had stove chow

i'm not complaining

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Ash-generators!

honestly, this year's chow isn't bad at all. BARELY more than my oakies

Luv2burnPellets said:

Local HD stores don't buy pellets. All pellets are purchased from corporate out of Georgia. The experts in Georgia decide what brands and what quantities and when are delivered to each HD store. The buyers use store sales history and pellet availability, and cost of pellets to decide what each store receives. Local store managers don't have a clue what or when the next shipment will be. All inventory and sales records are continuously monitored in Georgia. Even the thermostats for heating and cooling for every local store are controlled in Georgia.

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I'll take your word for it but how do they make any money from pellets like Blazers that are shipped all the way from Oregon.
couldn't come much further than the Pacific Northwest..
Some one here who lives pretty close to the Blazers plant tells us he pays 190.00 ton there in Oregon.
Only 60.00 more per ton 3,000 miles further?
maybe shipped by rail?

Tonyray said:

I'll take your word for it but how do they make any money from pellets like Blazers that are shipped all the way from Oregon.

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They don't.

Pete Zahria said:

They don't.

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ok..silly question but why bother selling them?
I know what " loss leader" items are in a store like Supermarkets selling Thanksgiving turkey's at cost or less than they paid assuming that
shoppers will buy all the other fixins at the same store but Pellet buyers usually go to HD or lowes all year around regardless of pellet sales..
I know after I bought a ton or 2 I'm not shopping for more stuff at HD that day/

Box stores could care less what you think. I stopped by a TSC tonight to see what they had in stock (it's an addiction), they had a skid of greenways with about 6 bags on it and several full skids of indecks still wrapped up next to it. I burn greenways currently, so i didn't want them, but have yet to try indecks. The guy that works there proceeds to tell me that they are not aloud to open up a new skid and sell me any until those 6 bags of greenways are gone. I've never been to a store whose sole purpose was selling stuff and then not sell me stuff when i wanted to buy it, lol. That tells you how much they care about you or what you think.

A thought...

A lot of people organize locally and bypass the big box altogether by directly contacting a mutually agreed upon pellet manufacturer and ordering a truck, or two, as a co-op.

A board/forum like this is a good place to start. See if there are others in your area who have interest. Coordinate division, delivery, etc.