Re: JC Whitney Has New Stuff For IH's!/ Carpet for IH crew cabs?

["Tom Harais" <tjhemh@domain.elided>]

Rocky:

Based on my own work with J.C. Whitney as well as the extensive orders of
freinds, I've always been under the impression that J.C. Whitney is not a
true retailer like Sears or even like Pep Boys, but just a catalogue
company that is involved in "drop shipping". That is, J.C. Whitney puts out
this huge catalogue with lots of folks products that they have agreements
with, but J.C. Whitney doesn't stock most of those parts. Instead, they are
just and "order processing" house that is the central collection point for
orders and then routes them to the individual suppliers/wholesalers and
manufacturers they have agreements with who in turn, "drop ship" the parts
to you. In turn, Whitney is billed a wholesale rate for the part and they
collect the "retail price" along with freight and tax from you, and they
make a profit on the difference.

Hence, J.C. Whitney is unable to tell you anything technical about the
products they offer, except for maybe what is in the manufacturer's
brochure. And, I'm sure you've noted, in most cases, you don't know what
"brand" of parts you're getting from J.C. Whitney, although I've noted that
to be changing some lately. I suspect that is becuase they have agreements
from many manufacturers for similar products and applications, and they
just use the one that currently fits thier business needs.

I do know for instance, that headers from J.C. Whitney, come from companies
that you've never heard of. They aren't Hooker, Thorley or Edelbrock. But
of course, one can argue that the headers of those manufacturers might be
made to spec from some of the same outfits that J.C. Whitney is getting
theirs from. However, I would counter that at least I have some assurance
with Hooker for instance, that some amount of actual engineering, testing
and design modifications went into the specs for the product, even if some
fabricating outfit is building the actaul result.

Just my $.02

Tom H.