When you walk into a vacuum store, especially one with over 60 machines on display, nobody wants to see an additional 20 used vacuums.
I like to consider myself a good businessman, here is how we handle pricing and moving people up and down. The last thing I want to do is sell someone a "quality" used vacuum in the $150-300 price range. All that will do is cheapen my store, and cause someone not to be back in for 5+ years. My goal on new vacuum shoppers is to sell them the best vacuum they can afford.
Our prices start at $69.99 and go all the way up to $1529. If you take uprights, for example, the "lower end" of uprights (under $300) would follow this pattern:
$69.99 1 Unit
$89.99 1 Unit
$119.99 2 Units
$199.99 4 Units
$249.99 2 Units
$299.99 3 Units
$349.99 3 Units
$399.99 2 Units
Notice there are 18 units total in the "lower end." Those make up close to 1/3 of our collection of new vacuums. Each price point has a specific number of units so that we may step people up. Notice the $199 price point has 4 units- this is about the easiest low-end price point to sell because of the selection.
We also stock sku's by features. So if you are looking for an upright that does carpet/bare floors, we offer everything from the Premium Radiance all the way down to the Hoover Bagless PET and the Hoover Bagged Pet. You can move down to the $119.99 machines for those who need that feature. If they want something a little better, you can move them up to the Hoover Air Max, or if they want a Royal, move them to the Royal Rewind. After the Royal Rewind, you would enter the Panasonic range, and then after Panasonics, you begin the Riccar Vibrance line. The biggest thing is to carry enough new stock so you can move people up down sideways, but never backwards.
At the point that the customer only has $120 to spend, we do have a "new" vacuum to sell in their price range. We can also confidently tell the customer that they are getting the BEST $120 vacuum on the market. All vacuums are tested by us, by our friends, cleaning services, etc in order to find the best value for the money. We sell them the $120 vacuum, and also give them expectations.
By selling them the best "new" vacuum that they can afford, we have left a good taste in their mouth. In 2-3 years when and if they can afford something nicer and more expensive, they will remember my store as somewhere that sold them the best new vacuum they could afford. Not as the store that pulled out some used vacuum cleaner. If we had sold them a higher-end used vacuum cleaner, they would not be available to come back into the store in 2-3 years to purchase another machine.
The profit margin is hefty enough on the lower end vacuums that we pretty much make close to the same on a used vacuum.
Like I have said, we do have the occasional customer who insists and asks directly if we have any used vacuums. We do have a back room with our trade ins, and I do not hesitate to sell a cheap stick for $40. We will never ever clog up our floors with that horrible looking stuff again.
When people come in my store, I don't want them to see things they can get everywhere else. They need to see shiny new vacuums that they are not used to seeing in big box stores (ie: sanitaire, panasonic, riccar, royal- our main lines).
