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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Sparteye, thanks for the thoughtful lawyer's technical explanation. Dealer = agent: now it all makes sense to me!
And thanks, Fr Steve, for bringing this up. I'd often wondered about it myself.
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so I have become aware that the theoretical disctinctions that we might understand between the two terms is not so apparent on the forecourt
How true, Maverick. It all comes down in the end to "bargaining power".
The parties to a contract can make any agreement they wish. The party with the strongest bargaining position always comes out ahead. The ordinary people who buy the shares of the automakers for their retirement fund wouldn't have it any other way.
The automakers do need to give their dealer minions some incentive to invest. They do need dealers to sell their cars. And cars are not hamburgers.
You can sell a hamburger the same way in every city in North America, if not throughout the world, as McDonald's has proven.
But it takes some entrepreneurial imagination to sell cars successfully in different markets in different cities under constantly changing economic conditions.
Car dealers have demonstrated that they have more of that localized entrepreneurial imagination than do the automakers themselves, which explains why car dealships are not all franchises.
It is quite true that "dealer = agent", but that equation doesn't really set car dealerships apart from franchisees in the minds of most people.
"Agent" is a legal term. There can be all kinds of agents, commission sales agents, such as the "Avon Lady" or real estate agents, who don't make a significant or any investment in the supplier's product.
Or there can be car dealership agents who make a far greater investment in their agency relationship than commission sales agents.
And, certainly to the mind of the average person, a franchisee is the agent of the franchisor.
The franchisee sells only the products and services supplied by the franchisor [or products and services made or rendered according to the franchisor's precise specifications], and tho they own their own business, just as a car dealer does, they are even more rigidly contolled by the franchisor than a car dealer is by his supplier.
So in the mind of the average person, a franchisee might be even more of an "agent" than a car dealer.
Anyway, that is my take on it. The average person doesn't have any deep understanding of the legal niceties associated with the simple term "agent" in all of its variations.
Some "agents" are "exclusive agents". Some are "fiduciary agents" like your lawyer, or accountant or stockbroker. Some are just mail courier agents.
And some are "secret agents" who, if Ian Fleming has it right, don't have to go to a car dealership to get their car, or their licence to kill, either.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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... for pointing out over in Information & Announcements how to avoid long-winded and otherwise annoying posts. 
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Dealer = agent: now it all makes sense to me!No offence, ASp. I was just expressing my own point of view. BTW get ready for the Tweel at your nearest car store. "Reinventing the Wheel"
New York Times, Monday, January 3, 2005Extract: "To be sure, the Segway would be a very small market for Michelin, the world's leading tiremaker, but it is an apt demonstration vehicle for the Tweel. The first commercial use of the integrated tire and wheel assembly will be on the stair-climbing iBOT wheelchair, another product developed by Dean Kamen, the Segway's inventor; Michelin said it would announce another application at the Detroit auto show next week. The tiremaker has high expectations for the Tweel project. The concept of a single-piece tire and wheel assembly is one the company expects to spread to passenger cars and, eventually, to construction equipment and aircraft. The Tweel offers a number of benefits beyond the obvious attraction of being impervious to nails in the road. The tread will last two to three times as long as today's radial tires, Michelin says, and when it does wear thin it can be retreaded." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/03/automobiles/03cars.html?oref=login
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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There is a large...business...here in town, where several makes of automobiles are sold, all under the one business-owner's name. The manufacturers are not (as far as I know) related commercially; there are a variety of both foreign and domestic cars. So in this sense of being able to pick and choose brands, perhaps this kind of car dealership is in fact a store. ("Nobody walks away", heh.)
Speaking of ordering from a dealer--I can remember my father doing that with no problem. He'd tell the salesman what color he wanted, for ex., and the salesman was happy to oblige (and not only that, drove it to our house when it arrived). Nowadays, you'd get a pitying look at best, and laughed off the lot at worst, if you tried to get the salesman to order something from the factory.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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re: You can sell a hamburger the same way in every city in North America, if not throughout the world, as McDonald's has proven.
while Mcdodo's does have a formula, it does change slightly from city to city and regionaly.
the stardard formula for mcDodo's burgers includes both mustard and ketchup. ---but not in NYC and surounding area. (all of LI, parts of NJ, Westerchester county, and parts of Conneticut) In this area (a huge part of market) convention has it that you put mustard on dogs, and ketchup on burgers. NEVER MUSTARD ON BURGERS. Yeah, there are plenty of personal exceptions (i like ketchup on dogs, too).
McDodo's has 'changed the formula/receipt' here to conform with local custom. if you like mustard and ketchup on your burger,(mcDodo's 'standard formual) and expect to get it served that way, don't come to NY. (mustard packets are available, you can add your own)
IN Japan, the buger is dressed with 'Bulldog' sause. bulldog sause is a condiment something like a mixture half and half of A-1 steak sause and ketchup. (its spicer, darker, and less sweet) and shredded cabbage. (not lettuce) the pickles are different too..
blanket general statements, You can sell a hamburger the same way in every city in North America are a usually (but not always!) going to be percieved as sloppy. and the post that contain them, wordy.
in this croud, almost everyone will know one or more exceptions, and disagree with a general statement.
it is a rare case indeed, that a general statement is entirely true. in many cases, its only superficial true. if you are going to make long posts, and fill them with general statements, everyone will disagree with you, (some will not comment, but they will still disagree with the general statement). they will tend to ignore post that they see as irrelivant, (since the post is likely to contain general statements.) eventually, it will seem as if there is a conspiracy against you.
have you noticed? Another general convention here to put quotes, either from other poster, or cut 'n paste ones from other sorces in a differnt *color text...so its clear at a glance which words and ideas are our own, and which are some one elses. *or to set them off in some other way.
it is rare for a quote not to be set off in same way that makes it clear its it not the posters own words. IN ADDITION, most will post a url link to the document they are quoting from.
color, bold, italics, etc. are also used for emphisis.
--which can be confusing.. but somehow, we manage to distigish between quotes and emphatic comments.
this might not be relevant here(that is this particular thread)--but since i am talking about generalities i though i would mention it.
Yeah, there are no rules.. except, of course for all the rules!
The sun will come up tomorrow.. (unless of course there is an eclipse at dawn.. in which case it might very well seem different!)
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