KEE KONFESSIONS

George at Kee Action Sports sent a letter off to his dealers the other day, telling them (and in a roundabout fashion, everyone else) that their prices are going to be going up.  (If you scroll down a little bit you’ll see that I’ve talked about this before…)

Good-O to George and the folks at Kee.  Way to step up in a professional manner, even if it means they’re going to take a hit.  Cudos for being proactive.  At least this time around everyone will know its coming, can try to work the bump into their budget and get the bitching and moaning out of the way before they hit the field.

Now we get to sit back and see if the other paint manufacturers are going to admit to having to do the same thing in relatively short order, or if we’re going to be in for another round of ‘market share, market share, who’s got the market share’.  Of course, those playing that game will simply raise their prices AFTER they’ve squeezed a few extra customers out of KEE’s pockets – but that would be telling.  (If I remember correctly there’s a little clause in those paint supply contracts that exempts the supplier from having to honor their negotiated price for just exactly these kinds of reasons.)

Market share wars or a nice, orderly across the board increase?  (Move along, nothing to see here.) 

Regardless, players are going to be finding it increasingly difficult to make their playing budgets this year as the economy continues to tank.  Our economy – the envy of the world according to some Texans – is on a “solid foundation”.  The ”underpinnings are strong” and it has “good fundamentals”.  And the Titanic was unsinkable. 

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What’s up with all the advertising for this train that leaves at 3:10 heading for Yuma?  Hasn’t Amtrack been paying attention to what’s going on in the airline industry?  How about mentioning the 4:10 to Kankakee, the 5:10 to Moose Jaw or the 6:10 to Oshkosh?  We’re gonna end up with a lot of folks getting bumped off that 3:10.