The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Overpriced RV'ing accessories

I run the parts department at an RV dealership during the season. While I was away for the month of March, my last minute replacement (who didn't last 3 weeks) did some shopping.
So I'm going through a supplier order that showed up while I was gone, and I was pricing everything and putting it on the shelves.

Turns out this person ordered a couple of things without ever putting any thought into whether or not we'd actually be able to sell the stuff.

How about a propane fired portable fireplace. It's essentially a round steel ring with a 20 foot propane hose attached to it. And it comes with some sort of bag of like charcoal briquettes. They're not for cooking on though. They're just decoration. The propane hose has a quick disconnect fitting on it so it's designed to just plug into the propane outlet that most later model RV's have. The idea is (I suppose) that you can pull in to your campsite, plug the propane hose in, and light this thing up...presto! Instant campfire. Price....retails for $275. Hmmm. Can I get two please...?

Or, a "surge protector" that plugs into your 30A post at your campsite, then you plug your 30 amp RV cable into that. It's a pretty simple item, that I would have guessed should sell for maybe $39.95. Wrong! Retails for $175.

We've also got a box of awning lights. Now, they're pretty good quality...but who wants to spend $189 on awning lights. These were put in stock by the last parts manager. We still have them in stock.

Or maybe an "air ride" 5th wheel hitch box. This is an add on...and an expensive one. We've got 2 of them in stock, and they've been there since the place opened 3 years ago. In fact, I think they're discontinued by the manufacturer. Likely because they never sold any because they were WAY overpriced. I can let you have one at our cost...$1,500. In fact, i think we'd take a lot less. I think they retailed for $2,495.

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