CONSUMER ALERT Nielsen Reflections Profile #225 full set of corner samples only $14.95

RParrish

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Nielsen Reflections Profile #225 full set of corner samples only $14.95, that's right! That is what my post card said....

Is this the paradigm shift for corner samples some have been predicting? Charging for corner samples? I know the high end stuff companies have charged for. I know it a major expense. But It was just a couple years ago Nielsen introduced the gilded samples and were are they now? Most have been discontinued.

So are you going to pay for them? What do you think? Do you think more companies are going to start charging for corner sample sets? Let's here from everyone, Framer! Suppliers! Vendors! What are the pros and cons?
 
I worry for them. If they charge for samples I am gonna want to have them in hand in a "reasonable" amount of time. No waiting for forever then getting a printed out mock up of them, like the mat corner samples specifier turned out to be.
 
I received a set of 6 samples of #225 free, unsolicited, from Nielsen about a month and a half ago.'
:kaffeetrinker_2: Rick
 
If someone wants me to sell there moulding they need to provide me samples. I cannot sell from pictures like the internet is able to. I cannot control when the discontinue and they will not buy back samples that are discontinued. So I do not buy samples.
 
I would pay for closed corner samples.

I will not pay for Nielsen samples. I think I sell enough metal moulding to justify a free sample to me.

However, I never receive samples or updates or anything. No, that's not right; I asked for them when I knew to ask (vivids). So now I know to ask for these.
 
Got the post card offer today, went into the round file, samples are samples. If a supplier wants me to sell thier product they can furnish the samples free.
 
I would pay for closed corner samples.

I will not pay for Nielsen samples. I think I sell enough metal moulding to justify a free sample to me.

However, I never receive samples or updates or anything. No, that's not right; I asked for them when I knew to ask (vivids). So now I know to ask for these.

But a rep that I just talked with said that she was in your shop. If you want samples ask the rep :) No distrib sends me any without my asking. Well that's not true Framer's does, but they call first and ask if I want them. I like that about them...
 
I had to google 225 to see what they looked like. They look a lot like the 45E's that were, 1) too expensive at the time, and 2) arrived poorly cut. The mitres were horrible. Not sure I want them. (Which means they should be arriving any day now :))
 
But a rep that I just talked with said that she was in your shop. If you want samples ask the rep :) No distrib sends me any without my asking. Well that's not true Framer's does, but they call first and ask if I want them. I like that about them...

Becky reps Nielsen now?????
 
NO!! I said A REP, not a NEILSEN REP...

But I think you can get neilsen chops from Decor...

Yeah, DCN**-*** in your LS software. So ask Becky if she can get you the new neilsen profiles :)
 
She didn't mention seeing you either. Never happened. But we didn't have a nice talk about your shop, and we didn't mention how upscale and very classy it looked, as she wasn't there to see it... Nope, didn't say how nice it was to not meet you, or that I really need to follow up and come down some day. nope the rep I didn't talk to, who shall remain nameless as she wasn't there... :) Oh, now I'm confusing myself....

can't hurt to ask her, she probably can't get the sample, but maybe she could put in a request for you.... and it would just be a way to chat with her again :)
 
I'd have to REALLY like something to pay for samples. OTOH, some companies offer a pay up front and credit for them once you've ordered. I'd still have to REALLY like them to be sure that I could sell them. It becomes a whole new category for framers. You have money hanging on your wall.
 
I'll ask Marsha. Never met her but have her email address and she was very helpful.

I got my card in the mail today, I will not pay for these samples.

Trude; I was wondering the same thing. If you would have to pay for samples; we would become far more selective.

I have many moulding samples on my wall that I don't like. They sell. I didn't think they would. If I had had to pay for those samples; I would never have ordered them.

hmmmm. Interesting.
 
So ask yourself, do you like those samples enough to want to sell them to your customers? Are the samples the kind of thing your customers like? If so, then by all means, pay for them. $15 is nothing, and you'll make it back in no time at all.

If you had to pay for all your samples, you'd probably have a much more effective sample wall. Instead of only selling about 5% of what's on your wall, you'd be selling 75% of what's on your wall. And you'd be able to stock many of those mouldings, too, which means your pricing and margins would be better.
 
I agree to a certain extend Paul; but the problem might be that it would be too much personal taste (mine).

I would have a hard time deciding what my customers might like and I would not be too willing to spend money on moulding samples where I would have doubts.

There are mouldings that I know will sell
There are mouldings that I think might sell
There are moulding that will never sell
There are mouldings that I think will never sell

In all cases I have been proven wrong before.
 
YES...... I will pay for the Dennis Matthewson samples......
BECAUSE I can never find those ANYWHERE!!!!! And I LOVE HIM! :D

Neilson.......... come on..... really?
Not gonna do it... sorry....
It's not that special one of a kind moulding that I JUST GOTA HAVE! :shrug:
 
I agree with Ylva. I have samples that I don't like. They sell even though I didn't think they would. So how do you decide what to put on the wall with that uncertainty?

I also have samples that are gorgeous on the wall, that have never sold and might never sell. But they add alot to the decorum. Even if a customer only orders a metal frame, they love to look at the wall, and ooo and ahhh over the mouldings. It is part of our presentation.

Paul, unless I made my sample wall a whole lot smaller, I could never reach that 75%. Many many of my samples have never sold. Unless people have choices though, what is the point?
 
I also have samples that are gorgeous on the wall, that have never sold and might never sell.

I do too...... either they fall on me when I pull others off...... or they collect sooooo much DUST that it changes the colors of them.... :D
 
I do too...... either they fall on me when I pull others off...... or they collect sooooo much DUST that it changes the colors of them.... :D

images.jpg Here ya go Nic.
 
It's why I re-arrange my walls from time to time. Getting all the samples off and also realize how nice they might be and clean/dust them while they're down.
I sell different mouldings that way, simply because sometimes I had forgotten to offer them....yeah, it happens.

I don't re-arrange everything, just move mouldings around; different selection each time gets the 'prime' spot. It also makes it look like you have something 'new' frequently.
 
A very small percentage of my sales are metal. So for me to pay for samples is out of the question. The overwhelming amount of aluminum profiles are nielsen and a smaller amount are designer. I haven't really checked hard about those that I do have on the wall but I bet you a lot are discontinued. So now I have a little job to do and trim it down to what is current.
I suppose if you do enough business with nielsen they will gladly give them to ya. And vice versa. So if you got the post card you are on a list of something and it doesn't sound good. Have you seen the price of aluminum lately? How do they come up with the $14.95 anyway? :kaffeetrinker_2:
 
I used to think I did only a little framing with metal, but I do quite a bit. almost 30-40% some months will be metal. Not bad. I have a a wall that is 12 by 8 and 7 sides of a 10 sided spinner full of wood samples and maybe 4 rows of metal. The ROI of buying metal samples would have more than paid for the ones that don't move. and as for the d/c'ed ones. I just throw them in the truck and bring them to the metal scrap yard. They buy them and the customers old metal frames from me at a quite nice price :)

Haven't sold a 12 profile in a long time or a 5... A lot of 117's 37's and the floaters, in fact almost invariably the customer will take the metal float over a wood one. For both look and price.
 
Just say "no" to paying for samples. Worst case scenario, they don't hang on your wall.

When you see your Nielsen/Bainbridge/Nurre rep, tell them you'll put them up for free.... and that your not able to sell what you don't show. They'll get the message. It shouldn't be hard.

...and Nielsen should have just said in the postcard "Ask your rep about samples", and leave it open ended. If they can sucker some shops into paying for them, that's their option.
 
Maybe we should take a lesson from the grocery industry. They lease most of their shelf space to major manufacturers like Coke , Pepsi and Bread companies. These co's actually pay the store to display and sell their own products. I have lots of wall space for lease, anyone interested!!!!!!
 
And the coke guys, pepsi guys and bread guys come in and run those aisles. Are you asking us to cede control of our frame sales so we can have free samples? :)
 
Yes they run the asile and all the profits as well as the rent goes to the store. With enough rent coming in for wall space anything is possible.
 
Then rent wall space to your artists.

Problem I have is that then they get to decide what goes up. You have no say. Artists could hang nudes, pastel pet portraits or sculptures from blood and feces. Sure you make some money on renting the space, but they get to decide your decor. Usually it would work for you, who doesn't just love an abstract feces fedora? but when it doesn't work, like that nude of grandma at her wake, you get to look at it for a really long time :)
 
Maybe we should take a lesson from the grocery industry. They lease most of their shelf space to major manufacturers like Coke , Pepsi and Bread companies. These co's actually pay the store to display and sell their own products. I have lots of wall space for lease, anyone interested!!!!!!

That's what I am saying, LJ you can have my walls for $12 a square foot!!!!!
 
I can see it from the manufacturer/distributor point of view. If you give samples away, how can you be assured that they actually go on the wall and are actively being presented? If the retailer has a vested interest in getting a return on a moulding because they had to buy the sample, they might be more inclined to make a point of selling the product.

I'm guilty of getting samples from distributors and they live out their life in the box in a back room, never being shown. One of the reasons I've stopped taking samples unless I know I have space and an interest in selling them.
Oh, lest we fool ourselves completely, the samples aren't free. The cost is figured into the wholesale pricing of the product, and we pay for them over and over every time we use that product.

The whole concept of leasing space for display is great if you have customers that come in and buy staple goods on a weekly basis. The kickbacks from the vendors to the retail supermarket chains is just a convoluted way of doing business. The manufacturer is still making a generous profit, as are all the businesses involved in the supply line.

Maybe Nielsen is figuring that if you buy the samples they won't end up in the recycle bin so quickly. When we decommission a line of metal moulding, the hardware is removed and reused, and the moulding is put in the aluminum scrap bin. Once we have 3 boxes of scrap, it all goes to the recycler (about once a year), and I split the proceeds with my employee. Our best haul to date was about $300.00 when aluminum was bringing $.43/lb.
 
:) Too true!

But they squeak when I mention they have to pay a commission. Invariably they say something like "the All Day Breakfast (a diner) doesn't charge me when I hang there..."
 
So what does this profile look like? I can't seem to find it on their website. Then again they still have the guilded line on the site.
 
I'll ask Marsha. Never met her but have her email address and she was very helpful.

I got my card in the mail today, I will not pay for these samples.

Trude; I was wondering the same thing. If you would have to pay for samples; we would become far more selective.

Marcia W.? She's my rep, and she's AWESOME! :D

I'm thinking maybe they only sell the samples to shops who don't have a NB rep, perhaps? We got ours for free. I like the shape and feel of them -- they're classy.
 
I fished my postcard out of the recycle bin, looked at the profile.

Thanks but no thanks.

Why make a comparatively wide moulding in metal that looks like a gazillion of its wooden cousins?

If they would bring back #98 profile I would actually pay cash money for a set of samples, especially if they could guarantee that they would not discontinue them for at least 5 years.

Man oh man, I loved that profile!!!!!
 
Marcia W.? She's my rep, and she's AWESOME! :D

I'm thinking maybe they only sell the samples to shops who don't have a NB rep, perhaps? We got ours for free. I like the shape and feel of them -- they're classy.

Officially I don't have a NB rep; but yes, Marcia W. has helped me out before and is sending me samples of the #225 as well after I sent her an email. Thank you Marcia!!!!

Maybe the asking for payment was meant to create serious interest and not so the samples disappear in that backroom, I don't know. But I will get them free of charge after I expressed my interest in them.
And yes, I will put them on my wall as I don't have a clue what my future customers might like.
 
As a moulding supplier, I feel that giving out corner samples is like Halloween candy. People take everything because it's free, but how much of it ends up in the trash after a couple of weeks?

I agree with the concept that a frame shop is the suppliers' sales agent, and need to provide them with selling tools. However, why does the supplier have to take ALL the risk in the relationship? Any "for sale" corner samples I've ever seen do not have prices commensurate with the actual cost to make them - the supplier is already taking part of the risk. That said, we are happy to foot the entire cost* whenever the frame shop shows commitment to the relationship. This means paying for them up front, with a rebate of the full cost towards orders. Additionally, we provide new/replacement samples to regular customers who demonstrate their commitment by continuing to make purchases.

As to those who have gotten the OP referenced sets for free versus paying for them, did you ever see a catalog or magazine with a price on it, and yet you get it for free? This allows the company the latitude to decide whether a customer is "real" or not, and charge the wannabees while giving them out to the worthy (I don't say that's what Neilsen is doing).

*not finished corner samples
 
Everyone is already paying for them . If you paid for them you would only be paying for the ones you put on your walls
 
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