What can distributors’ showrooms tell us about green cleaning?
Posted In : Education, The Dirt
With all the hype about green cleaning, I would have expected a consistent theme across all the various channels: trade magazines, manufacturers, industry associations, customers, etc. But one area that continually surprises me is the distributors. All of the showrooms I visit look like they are wielding the latest and greatest tools from 1999 (just to pick and arbitrary date). No microfiber mops. No dual chamber buckets. Tools that spread dirt instead of capturing it (like feather dusters and string mops. Only a couple of showrooms had even a small display of microfiber products.
What’s going on? Do distributors really not understand the marketplace? After a number of discussions and quite a bit of searching, there seems to be an answer that provides an explanation.
First, the people that visit the showrooms on a regular basis are small to medium size janitorial companies. The larger customers get personal visits from the sales reps and have their products delivered. They just don’t go to the showroom that often.
Second, these same small to medium size janitorial companies don’t necessarily understand the significant savings over the life of the microfiber products to justify purchasing more expensive equipment.
Third, the distributors make good profits on the cheaper products. Since these cheaper products also need to be replaced more often, the customers who use these products come back more often and spend more money with the distributor. In reality, these customers are a good revenue stream for distributors. The distributors are doing the fiscally appropriate thing and promoting the items their customers want.
All of this leaves a few interesting questions. As the industry continues toward greening itself, how will distributors adopt to selling fewer products less often? Will the small to medium size businesses similarly adopt, or will they just be rendered obsolete?
I look forward to seeing how this plays out over the next 5-10 years, if it even takes that long.
One Comment
I have noticed this myself that the “green cleaning” products are not always present in showrooms. Amazing. As you say, with all the hype around this method of cleaning one would think to see more in the showrooms.