What's everyones thoughts on the, what seem to be daily or weekly, acquisitions of local dealers by the directs. I saw today Meridian in Virginia was aquired by KMBS and a dealer in Texas by GIS. My thoughts are this is cyclical and these braches will at some point be sold off and closed like they were in the 90's (if my history is correct). My father tells me all the time about the the manufacturers trying this direct operation crap and how it has failed in the past and will fail again. I am the type of person that hates my competition. Some people say competition is good, or give other BS reasons why there needs to be options. I don't feel that way and take no mercy on competition.
Just curious what others think about where the dealer network is going, especially with Global buying up canon and ricoh's dealers. It leaves a void and that void is either filled with another dealer carrying the line or the direct trying to pick up the slack giving the product away for less than we as dealers can buy it for to try to flip the accounts.
