Local AD no more….

[sevykor]

After decades of service, my local AD just renovated and the Rolex section is now gone. What would cause an AD to (assuming) lose the brand?

[Auric Goldfinger]

Was it the Rolex dealer in East Lansing, Michigan you're referring to?

[Tools]

Rolex has marketing areas just like zip codes.

If they open up a Rolex sponsored Boutique, anybody in that area will likely lose their contract, or if they don't/won't meet Rolex display and marketing requirements.

[sevykor]

Originally Posted by Auric Goldfinger

Was it the Rolex dealer in East Lansing, Michigan you're referring to?

Yes. All happened in the past month.

[Auric Goldfinger]

Originally Posted by sevykor

Yes. All happened in the past month.

I had a feeling it was that one when I saw your location. I visited that store in July 2021 during a friend's visit at MSU and saw it was very outdated in terms of Rolex's current standards. My guess it was them opting to not do a full build out. There isn't another dealer in the area so I don't think it's because a competing store outbuilding them (standalone boutique).

[ganagati]

Originally Posted by sevykor

After decades of service, my local AD just renovated and the Rolex section is now gone. What would cause an AD to (assuming) lose the brand?

If they were getting low volumes of inventory, they may not have felt the marketing and floor space requirements levied by the brand were worth the investment.

[Auric Goldfinger]

Originally Posted by ganagati

If they were getting low volumes of inventory, they may not have felt the marketing and floor space requirements levied by the brand were worth the investment.

The interesting flip side to that is dealers are having to do new build outs in order to get more allocation.

[DonAltabello]

Not sure what is going on but it seems to be a trend. Recently (maybe 6 months ago or so) an other dealer in Grand Rapids also stopped selling Rolexes. Suddenly their web page just stopped mentioning Rolex and every trace of the brand was gone at the store.

[ganagati]

Originally Posted by Auric Goldfinger

The interesting flip side to that is dealers are having to do new build outs in order to get more allocation.

Interesting….that could be tough to swing for a smaller mom-n-pop jewelry store that hasn’t been getting inventory over the last couple years.

[ArtNouveau]

Originally Posted by ganagati

Interesting….that could be tough to swing for a smaller mom-n-pop jewelry store that hasn’t been getting inventory over the last couple years.

All dealers have been getting inventory and for the most part selling all of it before they even get it. RolexUSA does have different tiers of dealers. The small market Mom and Pop’s are probably told to build out and become a higher level dealer or……..
In general RolexUSA seems to favor big city chains and/or regional family chains that are willing to do whatever Rolex asks so they can get more inventory. One-off local stores can’t afford to compete and are dropped.

[Nairn1980]

Originally Posted by sevykor

After decades of service, my local AD just renovated and the Rolex section is now gone. What would cause an AD to (assuming) lose the brand?

Potentially not prepared to spend the $$$$$$$ that Rolex expect them to spend on upgrading their Rolex area.

Rolex says Jump and the AD is expected to say “how high?”. Perhaps they couldn’t do that anymore.

[RyanJ]

From what I have heard from ADs, many have had to do a huge renovation to be able to keep selling Rolex watches. One dealer I know spent 4 million to upgrade their building.

Some may ask "Well why not do whatever Rolex asks?" Some do not have the cash to make those upgrades and some do not own the building and maybe cannot make those changes.

Plus some ADs actually sell a lot of other watches so could continue making a nice living NOT selling Rolex watches.

From a business perspective, 7 or so years is not a long time and many old school jewelers remember when Rolex watches were really not that desirable. Sure over the past 7 or so years, their flippability has shot their popularity through the roof but some are hesitant to spend millions not really knowing if they will see a return. I mean, we have already seen a big price correction but no one knows if there will be more correction or if prices will shoot through the roof again.

[Coronette]

I would guess the ADs are just not getting enough product to make it worth their while with having to keep up with Rolex demands for store modernization and franchise rules.

[amh]

Time to start building a fresh relation$hip at some new AD!