[Bill Schwab]

Penn:

I have noticed the same thing about equipment dealers and small hand equipment. The Cat dealer sells Wacker products. Now, I know they make thier own compactors, but the cut off saw looks like a Makita. And, for $775.00, you get the saw and a 14" diamond blade. I think what they are trying to do is play a bit of the catagory killer market like Walmart, Homer Depoit and alike. You go into the dealer to get a machine, or filters or whatever...You stand in line as you see a compactor, or saw, and a light bulb pops in your head...You need an extra one...So, whip out the plastic and you got a new tool....

Would I normally go to a Cat dealer to buy a saw? Probably not, because there are dealers that sell those types of tools exclusively. But if I was there and needed one, sure why not? That is the only thing I can make of why they do it....

Actually, it is kind of scarey. Any time a manufacturer that was king in the professional contractors market has entered the mass market, or pumped volume out of production, they have fallen on thier nose. McCoulloch was chain saw king in the 60's....They enter the chain store market, and have been bancrupt for 20 years. Homelite was king in the 70's and 80's. They entered the mass market and filed chapter 11 in 1989. By doing what they do, they alolow the bean counters to engineer how the saws were to be buiilt to meet price criteria rather than let the engineers design the saw the way it needed to be and then let the bean counters price accordingly.