Feel bad for these little places that sell pellets but…..

[newf lover]

I’ve been looking around locally to try out some pellets. Even though I have some favorite brands, you never know what will be available when it’s time to buy. I would love to buy from some of these little places very close to me, but their choice of pellets stinks. One was carrying Instant Heat, and was selling it for $30 or $40 more than at the local TSC. The guy was upset because apparently these bigger stores are selling the same brand pellets that he is at less than what he himself paid for them. Another place near me is selling Curran Pellets. Told me that the “pellet guy” told him they were the best you could buy. I think he believed that. Other places are selling equally middle of the road or worse pellets as well. Is it because the better brands don’t want to deal with these little guys because they don’t sell enough, or have these little places failed to educate themselves about the wonderful world of pellets? It’s too bad, especially since I bet they will think twice before continuing to sell pellets giving the consumer fewer choices.

 

[Pellet-King]

Pellet demand over quantity prevailed, pellets years ago were always scarce, esp if you didnt buy before november, you basically had to stick with whatever brand was available,They tried to capitilize on the spike in oil prices, for years i never paid over $150 a ton, then 4-5 yr's ago it all went heywire, now people are not buying stoves, most that did realized all the work and maintainance involved and went back to there furnaces now that heating prices are stable.

 

[iron stove]

Have receipts from some of my first pellets bought, $ 165 for the best pellets BT had back in 03-04. Miss those days.

 

[Meneillys]

It is sad to say but I think it is more of a lack of knowledge that keeps pellet dealers from having the top brands. One case is me. I sold New England Wood Pellets because we thought they were as good as any other pellet and they were local. It wasn't until we had an issue that I was made aware of other brands that blow everything out of the water. While NEWP is a good pellet we now carry Cubex that in my opinion burn hotter and cleaner in my stove. If you want to help your local guys out print Jay's test results out and hand them a copy. I used his testing to find a brand that had hi heat low ash and consistency from year to year. I think price plays a part in things also if the NEWP were about $30 cheaper than the Cubex I might start putting them in my stove but the difference is only $8 at the moment.
Also it is hard to stock many brands when you are the small guy. We have to pay for every thing that is sitting in the yard so it is not bad if you can move every thing but if you have 4 brands and each one give you a trailer load of 26 tons that is 104 tons, each ton costing the owner around $200. So if you have a bad month and don't sell anything your net 30 days still is there and you have to have $20,000 to pay for everything.

 

[save$]

My brother was one of the little guys selling pellets. He did it for one year when pellets were hard to get and even poor quality ones got a good price. Never did understand it though, he told me what it cost him, then you add in the overhead, etc. and it became hard to understand where the profit was. In the end, he would buy a truck load that would sit on his lot while big retail outlet prices were going down. Soon his cost was more than what some of the big guys were selling as retail. The difference was the big guy moved his product fast before the prices kept dropping. Some of the more established small places stopped stocking them after their product was gone in Feb. He got out of it before he lost his shirt. There are no fewer than 9 outlets within 10 miles of me selling pellets. Most are 200 to 220 per ton for local brands. More for the well known brands. The hardest thing is to find a dealer who does not keep their product outside. I still believe that supporting the local guy is my first priority, even willing to pay a little more, but like you, not willing to be crazy about it and settle for a low quality product or pay way out of line prices.

 

[briansol]

I wish the small guys had a clue as well. there's a few gas stations in town that sell pellets... but they are Corinth's for $6 a bag. Sorry, not going to happen. Garbage pellet at a garbage price.

 

[deprayb]

Yea when I started selling pellets my father bought a truckload of Inferno's and let me tell you I was not happy when i saw that trailer load sitting in the shop! But after doing a lot of research and just talking to people who have been around for awhile you quickly figure out who is the real deal and who is just pushing pellets to get them out. We now carry Okanagans and still Inferno's (which will hopefully be gone asap). I believe places should carry two or three brands of pellets, one softwood, one hardwood and one just dirt cheap pellet for those stingy guys. newp lover stop by our shop were in bloomfield, ct if you were looking to try some Okies , we sell by the bag.

 

[flowercat]

The only real way around this I believe is to be more of a distributor and focus on pre-buy time. It could put them in a better position if they could sell more. To do this they would have be more able to advertise and provide a competitive pre-buy price that could make them a bigger re-seller and give them a more competitive price. This would also limit the need for long term storage and would almost guarantee the sale if it was part of a pre-buy program. Now they have to pay up front and store the pellets with no guarantee when or if they will sell. Because of this they are buying a few at a higher price. There would have to be a transition and time spent on trying this approach yet it might be worth the effort and it could give them additional pellet related sales.

 

[jtakeman]

Well if the little place is selling crap and trying t get top dollar for them. Word gets around quickly these days. The majority of the people that really don't use pellets think there all the same(There is no octane rating on the bags), So they get as much as they can for them. If its to much, They don't sell much. They drop the price until they sell or they get stuck with them. Even the bigbox stores start high every season. They get what they can or drop the price usually ends up for them too!

I usually get my cold weather stash from the pellet only house and even there(the people that should know pellets) Don't always have them priced according to burn quality. You still need to do your home work to find the nich or sleeper in the lineup. I save myself lots of cash over the years with the "look what I found" pellet brand.