You know, I don't get this industry at all, even after 18 years. Simply put, this debate arises time and time again about wholesalers selling to the retail public.
I have been VERY transparent about the fact that we have a TINY retail component that covers our town and my small island I call home—that's less than 20% of our gross sales. No big ecommerce web presence at near wholesale prices, no amazon, no ebay, etc. I routinely send retail jobs that find us to our wholesale clients.
Some of our wholesalers on the site have these grand web presences selling dirt cheap to the public, competing against their very own wholesale customers. All I'm suggesting is a bit of transparency goes a long way.
For example-
Merritt handles "retail" jobs that 90% of us could not anyway. He has been very clear about the nature of his business.
Wyldgfi does not even have a sign out front, and his door is locked.
365 has a testimonial "you made our wedding special" or something like that.....sounds "wholesale" to me
B2 as stated above sells cheap on fleabay and other sites
Signs2trade sells cheap through esigns but has never tried to hide that
that other company in texas has a huge retail ecommerce presence yet uses a florida address for "wholesale" and ecommerce web development for sign shops
The list goes on and on......
Guess what I'm getting at is, caveat emptor—get to know your wholesale supplier, their strengths, weaknesses, and if need be possible threats to YOUR bottom line. We can ALL benefit from outsourcing, no matter what side of the equation we are on. It's utilizing your outsource resources wisely that makes all of the difference.
Here's to profitable signmaking for us all.