How can WE help cooperate Big Box get good pellets for US?

[SidecarFlip]

Actually, the profit is in the initial sale of the stove and the supply of consumable parts, not in the fuel. (as evidenced by the insane asking prices of replacement parts on OEM websites)........ Just say'in.

 

[tjnamtiw]

This one should have died a much earlier death on page one!

 

[rona]

Why does one feel compelled to buy from BB anyway? My Do-It has Lignetics at competitive prices AND a reliable more supply. Total no-brainer.

The local stove dealer has a small volume compared to the BB stores and has to pay more to get them delivered. Then he has to charge more to handle them so he ends up charging close to a dollar per bag more then the BB store and his customers won't pay it. He tried handling the top quality pellets like his customers wanted but ended up selling them at a loss as those same customers wouldn't pay the price he had to charge so in the end he quit selling pellets.
I can see both sides of the issue but look at two pallets of pellets sitting side by side. One selling for 4.39 and the other 5.99 see which one sells first. Clearly the higher priced pellets will sit there until the cheap stuff is gone forcing the customer to pay the high price.

 

[SidecarFlip]

The local stove dealer has a small volume compared to the BB stores and has to pay more to get them delivered. Then he has to charge more to handle them so he ends up charging close to a dollar per bag more then the BB store and his customers won't pay it. He tried handling the top quality pellets like his customers wanted but ended up selling them at a loss as those same customers wouldn't pay the price he had to charge so in the end he quit selling pellets.
I can see both sides of the issue but look at two pallets of pellets sitting side by side. One selling for 4.39 and the other 5.99 see which one sells first. Clearly the higher priced pellets will sit there until the cheap stuff is gone forcing the customer to pay the high price.

Human nature at it's finest. I call it the 'Mr. Goodbar' scenario. However, not everyone operates under that premise. Those with experience to know the good from the average are willing to pay more and not 'shop around'. Myself included. I know what works well and thats what I buy. When it's cold as an icebox outside is no time to be 'playing pellet roulette'.

 

[SidecarFlip]

This one should have died a much earlier death on page one!

Why, that would be no fun at all.

 

[tjnamtiw]

The local stove dealer has a small volume compared to the BB stores and has to pay more to get them delivered. Then he has to charge more to handle them so he ends up charging close to a dollar per bag more then the BB store and his customers won't pay it. He tried handling the top quality pellets like his customers wanted but ended up selling them at a loss as those same customers wouldn't pay the price he had to charge so in the end he quit selling pellets.
I can see both sides of the issue but look at two pallets of pellets sitting side by side. One selling for 4.39 and the other 5.99 see which one sells first. Clearly the higher priced pellets will sit there until the cheap stuff is gone forcing the customer to pay the high price.

You just described the demise of the downtown local stores at the hands of WalMart and KMart!

 

[SidecarFlip]

You just described the demise of the downtown local stores at the hands of WalMart and KMart!

More or less. I'd heavily discount K-mart in the equation however....

 

[woodmakesheat]

Human nature at it's finest. I call it the 'Mr. Goodbar' scenario. However, not everyone operates under that premise. Those with experience to know the good from the average are willing to pay more and not 'shop around'. Myself included. I know what works well and thats what I buy. When it's cold as an icebox outside is no time to be 'playing pellet roulette'.

Oil (@$2.40/gallon, 83% eff): 48,417 BTU/dollar

Premium Pellets (8000 BTU/lb @ $250/ton, 75% eff): 48,000 BTU/dollar

Ultra Pellets (9200 BTU/lb @ $300/ton, 75% eff): 46,000 BTU/dollar

I won't spend more than $5/bag on principal, I don't care about the 10 extra seconds it takes to clean the stove each week.

Edit: I'd take the better pellets if I could get them at a reasonable price. However 1) they're not available here and 2) the price to get them here is ridiculous.

 

[F4jock]

The local stove dealer has a small volume compared to the BB stores and has to pay more to get them delivered. Then he has to charge more to handle them so he ends up charging close to a dollar per bag more then the BB store and his customers won't pay it. He tried handling the top quality pellets like his customers wanted but ended up selling them at a loss as those same customers wouldn't pay the price he had to charge so in the end he quit selling pellets.
I can see both sides of the issue but look at two pallets of pellets sitting side by side. One selling for 4.39 and the other 5.99 see which one sells first. Clearly the higher priced pellets will sit there until the cheap stuff is gone forcing the customer to pay the high price.

My hardware sells them at $235 a ton off season. Lignetics. Always has them. Same price as BB. What can I say?

 

[Tonyray]

My hardware sells them at $235 a ton off season. Lignetics. Always has them. Same price as BB. What can I say?

Our Stove dealer get's Early pre- buy from us customers of 450 tons..
Not a lot if your a BB Store but good enough that we're not forced to do HD unless we want.
"forced' being the case where no local dealers are close enough to purchase from.
These 0.5 ash pellets from Energex are not easy to get unless it's from a stove dealer.

 

[F4jock]

Our Stove dealer get's Early pre- buy from us customers of 450 tons..
Not a lot if your a BB Store but good enough that we're not forced to do HD unless we want.
"forced' being the case where no local dealers are close enough to purchase from.
These 0.5 ash pellets from Energex are not easy to get unless it's from a stove dealer.

As someone said above, buying ahead is the answer. I'd rather lay in several tons and know my guy has 'em when I need 'em than deal with a BB, begging for a few odd bags at the end of the season. This fascination with BB as if they are the only game in town turns me off!

 

[Pete Zahria]

Many posts about the lack of availability of alternates for reasonable prices here in Southern NH (consider yourself lucky). And yeah, it's nice that availability is OK so far this year such that we can complain about the lack of quality alternatives whereas I only have 150+ tons available at the local Lowes + 2 HDs.

Even within the same state there can be huge differences.
Our local Lowes AND Home Depot are both out right now, hope to get some within a "couple of weeks".
The three places we get ours from
#1) nothing for a month.. They used up their quarterly allotment..
#2) "maybe" this week, one load...
#3) "hopefully next week or the week after..
Last month we were hoping to have 150-200 ton by mid January..
That just ain't happnin'...
So all of you that can get them easily, consider yourselves lucky..
It really is spotty it seems.

It's nuts. All you can do is shake your head..

 

[F4jock]

Even within the same state there can be huge differences.
Our local Lowes AND Home Depot are both out right now, hope to get some within a "couple of weeks".
The three places we get ours from
#1) nothing for a month.. They used up their quarterly allotment..
#2) "maybe" this week, one load...
#3) "hopefully next week or the week after..
Last month we were hoping to have 150-200 ton by mid January..
That just ain't happnin'...
So all of you that can get them easily, consider yourselves lucky..
It really is spotty it seems.

It's nuts. All you can do is shake your head..

Are these local suppliers or BB responses?

 

[SXIPro]

I don't see pellets as a draw thru or loss leader at the big box stores at least for folks buying by the ton. If I am buying a ton I just want to pay, get them loaded and get the hell home. As far as supporting the local places, of they are selling newps for 300 a ton or okies for 350, there is just no way I can justify paying that, I might as well turn on the furnace.

 

[Lake Girl]

Box stores could care less what you think. I stopped by a TSC tonight to see what they had in stock (it's an addiction), they had a skid of greenways with about 6 bags on it and several full skids of indecks still wrapped up next to it. I burn greenways currently, so i didn't want them, but have yet to try indecks. The guy that works there proceeds to tell me that they are not aloud to open up a new skid and sell me any until those 6 bags of greenways are gone. I've never been to a store whose sole purpose was selling stuff and then not sell me stuff when i wanted to buy it, lol. That tells you how much they care about you or what you think.

Don't waste your money on the Indecks unless you love to clean up lots of ash...

 

[Lake Girl]

I was buying through the local Home Hardware - closest store to us and our summer neighbours. They stopped getting Heartlands last year due to supply problems. The Home Hardware supplier from Duluth switched to Indecks. Last year I was paying $7 Cdn per bag for the Indecks even buying the ton. I spoke with the employee responsible for the ordering and he refused to use anyone but the Duluth supplier because it was easier. I probably should have talked with one of the owners ... they lost our business.

This year ordered 3 tons of LaCretes from North American Lumber. $6 Cdn per bag, extra $50 for them to deliver to our house an hour away. The pallets actually turned out to be 65 bags per. Only drawback, they unload by boom truck which damaged the outer wrappers. Lost parts of about 6 bags due to moisture while sitting in their yard waiting on delivery (3 days - and of course it rained) but still ahead of the game. We were able to get 1 ton of Sure fire from a store 2 hours away at $5.50/bag by the pallet. Used some of those while waiting on the LaCretes.

The BBs in our area are Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire (Trebio and Cannawick). Really liking the LaCretes

BTW, I still support my local stores when I can ... best meat available at our local grocery. For items where there is too much of a stretch, it's Wally World.

 

[mustangwagz]

i found my source for pellets outta pure luck. Total accident actually. I had ordered Lignetics, but received somersets...after that he did some research and found out how to tell when somersets were in stock..now he tells me whats in store at the warehouse and sucks em up. Thats how i tell my BBS to buy better stuff...just dont shop there. I shop at the small mom and pop hardware stores for the pure fact that they've got what i want, without the other added crap to deal with..No stores packed full of bumbling weirdos, 1 on 1 customer service, and an individual who knows where EVERYTHING is irregardless of what isle its in. lol sure, ill go buy from HD if i need to..but if i can go buy a ton of "sets" for 260, or a ton of "Who knows what" for 240..imma spend that extra 20 bucks and get the sets, avoid the masses, and prolly spend more money at "jimmys hardware" rather than spend it at a major retailer who looks at me as just another number. At Jimmy's, they know me by name, and dont think twice about helping me to the fullest extent. WHen i leave there i got what i want, or he'll order it.

i dunno, i guess i kinda made this sound like a customer satisfaction thing in a way...but in the end....isnt that what most of us folks want now a days? I dunno about yinz, but i hate CONSTANTLY getting the shaft from everyone else in this country..

 

[alternativeheat]

The BBs in our area are Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire (Trebio and Cannawick). Really liking the LaCretes

.

Yes there isn't a whole lot to dislike about LaCretes. But your story sounds familiar, local hardware this year jumped Spruce Pointes to $7.49 a bag ( US). Since I could get Okie DF's for less I got two pallets of those in the place of the Spruce Pointes from another dealer on early buy. I asked for LaCrete because they are good too and cost a little less but they did not have those for early buy and weren't sure if they even were going to carry them this year.. my choices were Okie DF, Okie Platinum, New Englands. So I went DF, live in luxury ! Then I bought a pallet of Enerxex for the fall shoulder season.

Meanwhile HD got in the AWF White Pines, I bought some of those to try and was pleasantly surprised by them, they performed as advertised with .3% ash and 8600 BTU. Unfortunately I break out from white pine pollen and I broke out using these pellets, weird thing !. If I ever see them around again I will try once more, it could just have been late fall allergies and the white pine kicked it over into a break out..

 

[Lake Girl]

...Meanwhile HD got in the AWF White Pines, I bought some of those to try and was pleasantly surprised by them, they performed as advertised with .3% ash and 8600 BTU. Unfortunately I break out from white pine pollen and I broke out using these pellets, weird thing !. If I ever see them around again I will try once more, it could just have been late fall allergies and the white pine kicked it over into a break out..

No problem with allergic reaction with Spruce Pointes or LaCretes? BTW, you'd be toast at my house surrounded by white pines ... a few cedars for aromatics!

 

[tiger]

Why does one feel compelled to buy from BB anyway? My Do-It has Lignetics at competitive prices AND a reliable more supply. Total no-brainer.

YMMV, as does the OP's possibly, but for me, the nearest BB (HD) is < 2 miles away, and the next nearest non-BB pellet seller is 20 miles away... and I go to the HD regularly. Not for primary purchase, but I wouldn't mind the local BB for fill-in purchases if they had a quality pellet.

 

[Tonyray]

with an average of 250.00 ton at HD I think we would all buy from there if the quality of pellets jumped a few notches....
pretty much all shoulder pellets most times which provide the heat but too many brands provide more ash than we generally want.
but, any port in a storm this time of year.

 

[F4jock]

with an average of 250.00 ton at HD I think we would all buy from there if the quality of pellets jumped a few notches....
pretty much all shoulder pellets most times which provide the heat but too many brands provide more ash than we generally want.
but, any port in a storm this time of year.

Unless you purchase your supply ahead of time. When I've sometimes needed a few bags of pellets at season's end the BB had lawnmowers. . . . .

 

[woodmakesheat]

I wonder if there's a 2-tier system of thinking here? I read threads where many are heating exclusively with FSU's and Heat'rs (including myself - all that HDs around here sell), and others who call these "shoulder pellets". Oh, wait, I do carry these into my house on my shoulders! I get it now!!

 

[Tonyray]

I wonder if there's a 2-tier system of thinking here? I read threads where many are heating exclusivley.with FSU's and Heat'rs (including myself - all that HDs around here sell), and others who call these "shoulder pellets". Oh, wait, I do carry these into my house on my shoulders! I get it now!!

"Shoulder pellets' sometimes get a bad rap because of the ash and supposedly lower heat output but I'll bet well over 50% of pellet owners use shoulder pellets all winter with no problems heating the're homes..[if ya don't tell someone they have shoulder pellets they just go on burnin them stayin happy and warm].
I burned Stove chows which are tagged as shoulder and Energex Golden pellets 0.5 ash last winter Vortex and all..
kept us plenty warm and I really couldn't tell any difference between them except 3x's more ash with the HD Chows..and I have a 90 yr old poorly insulated 2 story house..No complaints here with "Shoulders" but I do prefer less ashier products.. I'll pay a bit more but Won't mortgage the house for some of them way high priced pellets.

 

[Edward Hughes]

Thanks for all the time spent, replying to this thread. With over 70 replys to this thread, many are not satisfied, with the pellets they get
from big box marketing, that don't even burn pellets.
Spend the same time with a different address bar and see if you can help change this problem.
If you have HD stock investments, you may have a better address, to send a little comment, that will rattle the chain down the line.
Good Luck