Do you try to spread your business around?

Friends,

There are so many wet shaving supply vendors, and of course the artisans, out there that it's staggering.

I was wondering if you have a favorite distributor, or artisan, or do you spread the wealth around?

So far, every company I have dealt with, which is not many yet, have excellent service but regarding those
who have the same products, I thought it would be generous to give them all their fair share.

What do you think?

Not really. If I end up looking for something that isn't carried by the vendors I use, then I will use another vendor that does. But otherwise I go back to the same vendors again and again.

I try to spread my business to the various B&B vendors. I'm still fairly new, but I have yet to have a bad experience with any of them. Unfortunately for them, I've been in the June restraint and am heading into GRU-Fall. One or two of them will get a nice order placed on 7/1.

I really can agree with the OP. The B&B vendors have all been great. I don't think I actually try to spread my business around but I do a little business with several online and artisan vendors. If I'm looking at products that several carry then I look for the best deal from vendors I have good experience with. In the long run, we can't go wrong with any of the vendors that we support and are connected to in the forum.

The thread title cracked me up. I don't try to spread it around, but I have used at least 4 of our vendors. West Coast gets a lot of business when I need to order, sometimes Vintage Blades, Mama Bear for almost all my shave soap and all my bath soap, an occasional order to Italian Barber. Among them, they have pretty much everything I want

dgreene120 said:

I try to spread my business to the various B&B vendors...

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By all means, I should have mentioned using them. Thanks for the addendum.

I have my main ones but I am always on the look out for someone new. Especially when it comes to soaps. I base most of my new vendors off of reviews and experiences from other members. If there is more than one vendor carrying what I want I will go with who gives me the best deal.

FreddieP318ti said:

I have my main ones but I am always on the look out for someone new. Especially when it comes to soaps. I base most of my new vendors off of reviews and experiences from other members. If there is more than one vendor carrying what I want I will go with who gives me the best deal.

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+1

If shopping for a Simpson brush, I think The Superior Shave has no equal. It's the only vendor which actually photographs and measures each individual brush in inventory, so you get to pick out your exact brush. Given the major differences in knots in Simpson brushes of the same model, there is no need to buy a Simpson sight unseen when you have The Superior Shave. It's almost as good as being able to walk into a store and selecting your particular brush.

I too use 3 or 4 companies for the majority of my purchases. I only deviate from the main guys when they are out of something I want. Have not had a bad experience with anyone.

So far i have only used two different vendors. And i am extremely happy with their service.

Thanks for the replies. I decided to give all the "full line" distributors a shot for the commonly sold items and try to narrow it down to one or two as my regulars. But it also makes sense to try and hit the free shipping threshold for any individual one.

I've only price shopped between 2 of these so far and I found the cost differences were not significant. But they did differ by $20 in the free freight minimums.

Nope. The lowest priced place nearly always gets my business.

captp said:

The thread title cracked me up. I don't try to spread it around, but I have used at least 4 of our vendors. West Coast gets a lot of business when I need to order, sometimes Vintage Blades, Mama Bear for almost all my shave soap and all my bath soap, an occasional order to Italian Barber. Among them, they have pretty much everything I want

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Thanks, I believe I was on my 2nd martini when I started this and was not thinking of the other rather obvious meaning of "business". So for the record, let me re-phase that: Do you spread your shaving supply purchases around?

Yep:

Lee's Razors
St.Charles Shaves
WestCoast Shaving
Bullgoose Shaving
Razor Blades and More
Mama Bear
Honey Sue
Italian Barber
Classic Shaving
QED
Bob Farvour
Rudy Vey
Connaught Shaving
Vintage Scent
The Superior Shave
Vintage Blades LLC
Appleton Barber Supply
The Shoebox Shave Shop

Prolly left some out and for that I apologize-and will order something!


marty

Well I like WCS, they're the only one I've tried so far. Good results. Going to order from Italian barber on payday then the July restraint begins shortly after. We will see how it goes.

Maggard, Italian Barber, Shoebox, and Amazon. The service has been so good at the first two that I really haven't strayed far. Shoebox is really good too, he had some goods that I wanted that the first two didn't offer. Amazon had EJs for crazy cheap, what can I say?

I do love artisans though as my wife owns a small photography business. I like to talk to the artisans and send my money their way for soaps, bowls/scuttles, brushes, handles, etc. If they are engaging, there is a good chance they will be sending product home with me (online too, I ask a lot of questions).

My main vendors are:

The Groom Room - Troy is TheGRMan here. His shop stocks everything I really need and a lot of stuff I just want but haven't gotten around to buying, yet. I haven't tried to special order anything from him because I keep running out of money buying the neat stuff he already has in stock. I still want some of his razors and brushes. Both area reasonably priced, but I'm on an unreasonably tight budget. I support Troy because he is local and I believe in supporting local small businesses

Mama Bear Soaps - Sue just has so darn many great smelling shaving soaps that I'll never get through them all. Her bath soaps are great as well. I haven't tried her aftershave, but want to do that soon.

Sometimes I'll hit Amazon for brushes and bulk packs of blades, but I'll probably try TGR for those next time as well.

I find myself going back to the same one. I've bought some stuff off Amazon but only if the shipping is the issue. If I make a bigger purchase I nearly always stick to the small business. I mainly use Maggards bc their service is so exceptional. Made an order today. The turn around from order to shipped was under 30 minutes.

So far I have used 4 vendors 3 I am happy with the fourth I am not so sure about yet.