|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
The original distinction between a store and a shop was that things were made or worked on at a shop but at a store they just came in from wherever they were made and 'stored' there till someone bought them.
If the language change had gone the other way round y'all preescrips would just be puling and micturating about using the hoity-toity word 'dealership' for what was simply a store.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Since a store is a place where things are stored until purchased, why not a car store? of troy said as much above.
Even though I haven't heard anyone till now speak of a car store, I don't have a problem with the terminology. As Faldage observed above, the word 'shop' connotes something that could be worked on. By calling a place a 'car store' rather than a 'car shop,' there is the connotation that these cars are right and ready to go.
'Car store' sounds friendly. It sounds quick. It sounds a little mindless and frivolous. It sounds like the kind of place one would easily put down $20,000.00 within a half hour, except, once you buy the thing, then it takes another hour or two to go through all the financing process and add-on's they try to talk you into, complete with PowerPoint presentation, which I refused to look at. "But you must. It's part of my job." "If you turn that PowerPoint on, I'm walking out of here."
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
If the language change had gone the other way round y'all preescrips would just be puling and micturating about using the hoity-toity word 'dealership' for what was simply a store.
Indubitably ... because we are deeply-flawed human beings.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771 |
Is it any wonder all of the nomenclature is changing? You can't get a regular USED car anymore... everything is PRE-OWNED.  Ladies and gentlemen, we have now reached the height of ridiculous.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 176
member
|
|
member
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 176 |
After the ride this morning, I brought the difference between ‘dealership’ and ‘store’ up with a fellow rider who sells cars for a living. I asked him if he and his fellow car salesmen called the place at which they worked a ‘dealership’ or a ‘store’. Without putting too much thought into it, he offhandedly said, “a store”. (I really don’t think he had actually ever thought about it, and just threw out what to him was the most sensible word to him at the time.)
As we talked it over, we discussed the fact that a dealership represents a specific manufacturer of a product: Ford, Toyota, Chevrolet, etc., and is licensed by each respective manufacturer to sell new Fords, Toyotas, or Chevrolets, etc. One thinks of such places as Ford, Toyota, or Chevrolet dealerships – perhaps a car store too, but also a dealership. Furthermore, consider that a licensed dealership buys its products only from the manufacturer, not a wholesaler. True: some car dealerships sell more than one brand of new car, but they are, nevertheless, still licensed by the respective manufacturer to sell those automobiles, hence, they are dealers of those cars, thus, 'dealerships'.
As far as I know, a store does not need a license from the manufacturer to sell the manufacturer’s products. The store only needs to purchase the products from either the manufacturer or a wholesaler, and have a place to sell them and customers to buy them. I’m sure one could find a store that is also a licensed ‘dealer’ of a particular product, but in my mind, that makes it both a store and a dealership.
In the end, he changed his mind and said that he worked at a ‘dealership’. Personally, I think there are valid arguments on both sides, but only as long as one recognizes that the two can and do exist simultaneously, in one entity, and that a ‘dealership’ is not just a hoity-toity word, but a word that describes a specific situation, or agreement between the manufacturer and the seller.
It’s not an accident that different words have different meanings, and are exclusively used in different places to describe different things. Neither is it a prescriptivist plot [written in jest] designed to limit anyone’s inalienable right to experiment with, play with, mangle, or abuse the language in any way he or she damn well pleases.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Good points made, Dgeigh, about dealerships, but I think some stores have to have licenses to sell certain products. I don't think that licenses for sales are limited strictly to dealerships, licenses for pharmaceutical products being one quick example.
AHD had this general definition of 'store':
A place where merchandise is offered for sale
Stores for merchandise, commodities, wares--and would we include automobiles among those commodities? I think a dealership is a type of store with some specific features, such as the licensure you mention, but some of those specific features would also apply to some other types of stores. Dealership seems to be a bigger and grander type of store. Can't imagine having a Baskins-Robbins dealership!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
but some 'liquor stores' advertize themselves as 'dealers of fine wine' --or at least they do in NY!
this does vary state by state.. because of some obscure ruling about who can transport wine interstate (left over remnants of prohibbtion rules) about 34 states have 'limits' on who can or can't sell wine out of state. NY State vinyards can't sell directly to liquor stores, (they can sell directly at vinyard) they have to sell to wholesalers, who can distribute wines interstate. this puts them at a disadvantage with california wines. (which can sell directly) the internet has made the issue muddier.. (can vinyards sell to everyone in US/World directly (via the internet)? or do they have to have distributors handle out of state sales?
as for a baskin robin dealer.. well most baskin robins are franchises aren't they?
how exactly is a franchise different than a dealer?
some appliance stores call themselves dealerships too..how is a $3000 refridgerator different than a $30,000 car? (and how is it alike?)
obviously, terms like shop, store, dealer, franchize distributor, and vender have specific meanings, but their usage is blurred.
Vender seems to be limited to mechanical devises, (vending machines) and intinerant sales.
'home sales' (am-way, tupperware, candles, etc) seem to have distributors.
and some health items, like canes, wheelchairs, and hospital beds are sold by 'service providers' (even though they are mostly selling 'goods' not services.)
there there are also purvayors.. (which, now i think about it, i realize, i don't really know what a purvayor is!)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 2
stranger
|
|
stranger
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 2 |
I think if I heard someone say they were going to the "auto store" here in the remote rural high deserts of the Western US I would be just ever so slightly confused but just assume they were going to the auto parts store. Perhaps I would assume that they were going to the auto parts department in some superstore a.k.a. WalMart.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 1,385
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 1,385 |
how exactly is a franchise different than a dealer?
Good question.
A dealer is just someone who makes a deal with a manufacturer of a product such as a car, to sell the manufacturer's product(s) exclusively at retail, but this "dealer" uses his own name, example, "XYX Chevrolet", and apart from commiting to a possible annual sales quota, and agreeing to provide certain standard services, such as warranty and other repairs, the dealer has complete freedom to choose his own location, design the look and layout of his dealership, set his own prices, and handle his own advertising and marketing.
A franchise owner is a complete thrall of the franchisor company, say McDonald's. Everything has to be done in cookie cutter fashion according to the franchisor's rules and specifications, including site selection and building design and layout, product pricing, signage, advertising and marketing, menu, packaging, kitchen and other operations, literally everything. The franchise owner can lose his/her franchise if they deviate from the specified formula in any manner.
In return for being a thrall of the franchisor, the franchisee usually makes money with a proven business model year after year without exercising any independent business judgment about anything. The franchisee is relying on the proven formula, not his/her own independent judgment, to succeed in the business.
The dealer, on the other hand, typically makes a bigger investment, and the dealer relies more on his/her own independent business judgment, although dealers benefit from a sharing of "best practices" amongst their fellow dealers in other locations, and, of course, the manufacturer supports this kind of pooling of experiences because it benefits the company as well as its dealers.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Well, that's a phrase worth committing to memory, plutarch! You've given us someone loftier-sounding to think of when we gaze upon those golden arches. For pure sound, I'd much rather be the thrall of a franchisor company than Ronald Mc.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,381
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
1 members (A C Bowden),
346
guests, and
0
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
