West Coast Shaving

Does anyone shop with West Coast Shaving? I just got an email about Labor Day savings. I checked out their soaps and the selections are sparse not to mention overpriced.  Even the clearance section is not priced to move. I know they just started selling the American Liberty razor and the A&E designed soaps and splashes but their overall inventory is pretty bare. Just wondering if anyone knows what might be going on with them.

No idea, I saw the Liberty Razor was on a big sale. I tend to prefer Maggards Razors to shop or Pasteur's.

West Coast Shaving is trash. Their "sales" are always marked up MSRP brought down to normal MSRP with "30% off" or whatever. Shady business practices if you ask me.

Exactly what wyze0ne said. Completely different seller than they were before changing ownership.

West Coast Shaving is trash. Their "sales" are always marked up MSRP brought down to normal MSRP with "30% off" or whatever. Shady business practices if you ask me.

Yep, I watched WCS do that with some Grooming Dept soaps earlier this year. At one point these particular soaps were actually marked down to at true 30%. Then before I could make a purchase they upped the price by $3 over MSRP and then offered the 30%.

West Coast Shaving is trash. Their "sales" are always marked up MSRP brought down to normal MSRP with "30% off" 

They are the Invicta watch of the shaving world.

I used to purchase a lot of stuff from WCS as their prices were competitive and selection good. However, that is no longer the case. They seem to be focused on selling WCS branded products. If you search for products, their own brands will always appear at the top of the featured list.

Like others have said, their pricing can be gimmicky. Their standard pricing is often higher than you will find on other sites. They then offer frequent sales that makes the sale prices appear more attractive than they really are. Thus always check prices at several vendors before purchasing. Just as an example, Zingari Man Mousse Illumine shaving soap is available from WCS for $34.99. You can purchase the same soap for $29.95 from Maggard Razors, The Razor Company and directly from the Zingari Man web site. Let the buyer beware.

As West Coast Shaving has faded in my esteem as a vendor , The Razor Company has become my preferred vendor, along with Maggard Razors. However, when purchasing artisan shaving soaps, I try to purchase directly from the artisan's web site when possible.

I used to purchase a lot of stuff from WCS as their prices were competitive and selection good. However, that is no longer the case. They seem to be focused on selling WCS branded products. If you search for products, their own brands will always appear at the top of the featured list.

Like others have said, their pricing can be gimmicky. Their standard pricing is often higher than you will find on other sites. They then offer frequent sales that makes the sale prices appear more attractive than they really are. Thus always check prices at several vendors before purchasing. Just as an example, Zingari Man Mousse Illumine shaving soap is available from WCS for $34.99. You can purchase the same soap for $29.95 from Maggard Razors, The Razor Company and directly from the Zingari Man web site. Let the buyer beware.

As West Coast Shaving has faded in my esteem as a vendor , The Razor Company has become my preferred vendor, along with Maggard Razors. However, when purchasing artisan shaving soaps, I try to purchase directly from the artisan's web site when possible.

Years ago, they ignored us and didn't seem to be interested. Now, I think they are feeling the pinch from multi-front competition. Some mentioned above, as well as Amazon.

A very good example of “Killing the Golden Goose “.

Looking at their pricing on Simpson shaving brushes is chilling.

It’s a small, niche hobby we are talking about.  

Every distributor has their strengths and weaknesses.  

Most have too many products that won’t sell, but no one wants to miss out on the next big thing.  So capital is tied up in dead inventory.

No reseller has flat discounts across their suppliers where they could offer a 20-30% discount and make the right amount of money to stay in business.

Candidly, I’m shocked there are so many resellers in the US.  

I still believe consolidation is coming, for me it’s not a matter of if it’s when.  Happens anytime a market is this fragmented and no one has 30% market share.

Enough about that.  

WCS is the only place to buy some things (like Karve handles) not at the 70 dollars others want for them.  Soaps, you can do better.  

While some judge because they raise prices on items before a sale, it is almost guaranteed to be because their sales promotion discount is too high and they don’t have a sophisticated way to manage their product SKU’s to support a flat sale with an ERP backend.  

In other words, it’s a small business and still does some things manually, like price adjusting lower margin products at the time of sale so they make something on a huge sale discount.  They probably lower the product price right after the sale.

Not perfect but acceptable to me since I know how this looks operationally and commercially.

And let’s face it, we all know what we should pay for a product if we are on here.