Unfortunately the days are gone when a foreign product was imported by a sole authorised distributor, who supplied the trade at trade prices.
We have multiple companies importing the same product, whom say they are trade suppliers, but then also sell direct to end users via e-commerce, E bay and Amazon. Some of the manufacturers will even sell direct to the end user, bypassing their "official authorised importers".
It is a sad state of affairs, but one that is affecting small retailers in most different lines of retail. There is no loyalty anymore, either from manufacturers to their distributors and dealers or from customers to the dealers.
Please people, when you are choosing who to purchase from, please purchase from the business that you would still like to be able to visit and purchase from in 5 years time.
Having said that, some dealers make it hard to deal with them! Ordered and paid for a reasonable amount of stuff over 4 months ago (some special order) from a bricks and mortar shop,
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** received it before the new year and they still haven't got it out the door to me. 2 months sat waiting for them to post it to me. GRRRRRRR