La Marzocco GS3: New Rules - Page 40

by **Cafesp** on Mon Feb 18, 2008 5:37 pm

CoffeeOwl wrote:Congratulations to you, and congratulations to your vendour for his business excellence.

Any vendors willing to go for the original price with excellent service please feel free to email me :lol:

Cafesp

by **multigl** on Mon Feb 18, 2008 7:31 pm

ChiaroScuro wrote:long-time lurker, new member here.

there's been so much discussion about the price of the GS3, i thought i'd mention my experience as another data point for folks contemplating buying one.

i've been on the waiting list for a GS3 for a long time, don't really remember how long, maybe two years. like everyone else, i was flabbergasted with the price increase, and i definitely wouldn't have been willing to pay $7500. i called up my dealer, and, to my surprise, after some back-and-forth, ended up with a price of $5500.

i took delivery a few days ago, and my initial impressions of the machine are excellent.

my vendor is inland coffee and beverage, in spokane, wa. they have had very competitive prices when i've shopped for la marzocco gear for commercial use in the past, although this is my first purchase from them. they did not object to my posting about my purchase and the price, but they gave me the following caveats: (1) this was a special price for me because they regretted the endless delays i'd been subjected to and felt the delays reflected badly on them as a business. they said future sales of the GS3 would be "closer to list price." (2) they prefer not to sell out of the area, because they find it difficult to ensure customer satisfaction at a distance.

so i'm not sure anyone can duplicate my experience with this vendor, but at least we now know that, under the right set of circumstances, pricing closer to the original $4500 than the current $7500 can be found. i doubt that inland took a loss on the machine, although their profit margin may have been smaller than usual. given that, and the fact that demand appears to have all but dried up, i suspect that, with patience, careful shopping, and modest negotiating, more good deals will appear.

they still made a tidy profit on it.

by **ChiaroScuro** on Mon Feb 18, 2008 7:43 pm

multigl wrote:they still made a tidy profit on it.

do you know what dealer cost on a GS3 is?

by **Paul_Pratt** on Mon Feb 18, 2008 8:39 pm

multigl wrote:they still made a tidy profit on it.

Totally inaccurate. The margins are v.small, really.

I think just a few posts up was what I believe to be the winner "Lot's of expenses + weak dollar + unrealistic price to begin with = $7500" in particular for me the latter point of an unrealistic price. No one was as surprised as me when the wholesale prices were released which are way over what I assumed it would be considering the market price had already been set.

Paul

by **multigl** on Mon Feb 18, 2008 11:11 pm

ChiaroScuro wrote:do you know what dealer cost on a GS3 is?

it's the price we all love to talk about.

by **roblumba** on Tue Feb 19, 2008 12:45 am

the USA is a country that has seen the downside of demands for low prices. For example, Walmart taking over the countryside and shutting down mom and pop businesses all over. Sweat shops in China, factories shutting down in America and the list goes on and on. Sometimes it seems we still haven't learned our lesson.

Personally, I would much rather prefer to pay extra, and know that the people who are taking care of me, are being taken care of. There are some things that are simply more important than money. One form of greed is wanting too have more of everything while others have little to nothing. Another form is not wanting to pay honest wages for the things we want.

by **ByronA** on Tue Feb 19, 2008 1:10 am

roblumba wrote:the USA is a country that has seen the downside of demands for low prices. For example, Walmart taking over the countryside and shutting down mom and pop businesses all over. Sweat shops in China, factories shutting down in America and the list goes on and on. Sometimes it seems we still haven't learned our lesson.

Personally, I would much rather prefer to pay extra, and know that the people who are taking care of me, are being taken care of. There are some things that are simply more important than money. One form of greed is wanting too have more of everything while others have little to nothing. Another form is not wanting to pay honest wages for the things we want.

Rob, I agree with you on that. It is something which really worries me. We are so quick to move our technology, intellectual property, and businesses anywhere we can save a buck, but in the end, I think we will lose big time!

Here is a little story from real life. I used to live out in the country. I loved it there, but if you needed something, you had to drive quite a ways to get it. One day, I discovered a general store only about 5 minutes drive from home. The next closest store was about a 45 minute round trip. Now this local general store was a bit more expensive, but I shopped there. My ex wife asked me why? I told her that it is worth paying the extra just in gas and time saved. And it was great having this general store so close, in emergencies! I told her if we don't support them, then we will lose them, and lose our choice.

In the end, the rest of the community didn't support them, and then complained when there was no longer that option. True story...

But you know something, and this is my pet peeve; we have control over where we spend our dollar, and that has a power all of it's own, if people really believed in it. The way business is done here in North America is in our control, if we used our dollar to tell them our opinions. Cars would get better, and cheaper, gas would get cheaper, the air would be cleaner, and our jobs would stop migrating at breakneck speed to somewhere else.

Unfortunately...nobody believes.

by **cafeIKE** on Tue Feb 19, 2008 1:52 am

roblumba wrote:For example, Walmart taking over the countryside and shutting down mom and pop businesses all over.

Just to keep perspective, A&P started the SuperMarket model 80 years ago. Wal-Mart is an upstart.

Folgers, Maxwell House, Chase & Sanborn et al. drove the mom & pop roaster out of business.

Instant coffee was just as trendy in the 50's as *$ is today.

It never fails to amaze when a Lexus, Benz or Beemer pulls into McDonalds.

Companies are successful when they meet a demand.

To paraphrase, people get the products they demand.

by **hbuchtel** on Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:13 am

roblumba wrote:Sweat shops in China, factories shutting down in America and the list goes on and on.

Couldn't let this go without a comment- it isn't the sweat shops in China which are producing the majority of America's goods, it is the regular factories whose employees are making a decent wage... which just happens to be a lot lower then a decent wage in the US.

Not to take away from your general message though!

Regards, Henry

by **kaioslider** on Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:20 am

A little late to this - just saw it being offered over at Chris Coffee: !$7,500! SWEET MOTHER OF....

OK, got the stick shock out of the way. I had lost interest in this machine when I found my upgrade-itis was cured with my Vertrano, but like everybody else was still curious. I had no idea. Yeah, like others have already pointed out, I thought $4,500 was steep, but all things considered a fair price. I mean $7,500! I thought one of the points of this machine was affordability. Not that I was looking to upgrade, in fact I am so happy with my Vertrano I was thinking that if it was still being made if mine ever just got too old I'd seriously just get the same machine, but that's a long way off and of course I also figured I'd see where I was in my life and would maybe considered a G3. Now I can say, never (not at that price), most of us have prosumer machines and have our daily coffee routines, and really don't need a machine like the G3, but most of use are also looking for that god-shot. Most of our prosumer machines are just limited in the fact that they really weren't designed to do coffee shop volume, but other than that, in experienced hands are of plenty machine and god-shot capable. My point is that even if I could turn my nose up at $7,500 I don't think I'd get a G3, it's just too much for the amount of shots I pull. Now, if I was a business it'd be a different story, but then again, at 7.5K, there are other machines to consider - for a business. It sound's like this is kinda limited for caterers that know they'll be pulling a lot of espresso shots (b/c otherwise a prosumer machine - for much less - would be quite capable).


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