What's Up With Some Online Horse Shops Being Identical?

[marymane]

I have a suspicion that some online horse shops are actually all run by the same company but under different names to initially appear like separate entities. I don’t have any hard evidence other than my two eye balls seeing as some of them have identical inventories with the same pictures for the same products (and not the pictures the manufacturer would give them, especially if they claim to be the ones making the product) and the same basic web design. Some of the products also appear to have the same rating/number of ratings as well.

Has anyone else noticed this while “browsing”? Why would they do this?

[js]

Yes, Stateline and I think it’s Horse.com look identical.

[Bluey]

Some companies buy their competitors and then keep running them as a different company.
If the newly bought company has many steady customers already, used to them, why not?

Magazines do that also, same company publishes several at the same time.

[marymane]

Yes, I’ve noticed those too. And for a while I thought it was only those that did that. But I recently stumbled across Horse Lovers Outlet and it’s legit the exact same website as The Distance Depot except with the color scheme and the name of the site changed. Unlike Stateline or Horse, though, both sites (DP and HLO) claim they make the tack (bridles and such) custom to order or something so the fact they’d be imitating each other in such a manner is…suspicious.

[marymane]

@Bluey

Some companies buy their competitors and then keep running them as a different company.
If the newly bought company has many steady customers already, used to them, why not?

Magazines do that also, same company publishes several at the same time.

Huh, I suppose that would make sense. Seems dishonest though. I don’t like being told one thing when it’s actually another, even if the quality of the product isn’t compromised, it seems a bit skeevy.

[ReSomething]

Maybe they get bad feedback and are creating an entity that people will turn to rather than abandon them altogether.

[NJRider]

@marymane

Yes, I’ve noticed those too. And for a while I thought it was only those that did that. But I recently stumbled across Horse Lovers Outlet and it’s legit the exact same website as The Distance Depot except with the color scheme and the name of the site changed. Unlike Stateline or Horse, though, both sites (DP and HLO) claim they make the tack (bridles and such) custom to order or something so the fact they’d be imitating each other in such a manner is…suspicious.

They are a local tack shop near me. 100 percent legit. Same owner, I think she bought a long distance gear business a from another person so the distance depot targets the trail riders, the horse lovers to general horse people. Same location and people. Very nice, you could call and talk to them if you have questions.

[avjudge]

@marymane

Huh, I suppose that would make sense. Seems dishonest though. I don’t like being told one thing when it’s actually another, even if the quality of the product isn’t compromised, it seems a bit skeevy.

In the case of State Line Tack & Horse.com, while it does seem skeevy (and I’m not a fan of their constant x% off-but-not-really pricing), that’s really what happened. State Line Tack was a store on the NH/Mass. border that was bought by a big operator some years back (which either became or was bought in turn by Tabcom); from the Horse.com site, “In 2005, TABcom, LLC (formerly PetsUnited) acquired Country Supply, rebranded it as Horse.com and established an online presence.” I’m pretty sure Tabcom also owns one or (probably) more non-horse online pet brands.

My assumption had been that, as suggested above, they kept the separate brands for loyalty purposes, but that doesn’t make so much sense for horse.com which I now find didn’t have that name in its prior (independent) life. But I’m not in marketing - I’m sure they think there’s a reason!

[furlong47]

Two possibilities - one is that you have the situation noted above, where one company buys out others but continues to operate them under their old name due to the brand recognition. Even though it appears as separate businesses, they often operate with the same management and infrastructure and ship from the same warehouse. The companies themselves are legitimate.

You could also have the situation where the websites are a scam set up by overseas interests. These sites often go up fast, copy photos and listings from legitimate sites or other fake sites, are full of fake reviews, advertise aggressively on social media, and either take your money or send you a crappy copy of the item you were trying to buy. If you are buying from somewhere new and there are any red flags, take the time to do a little research first. This scam is more common with clothing/fashion but I’ve seen it popping up with tack and riding clothes lately.

[trubandloki]

@avjudge

My assumption had been that, as suggested above, they kept the separate brands for loyalty purposes, but that doesn’t make so much sense for horse.com which I now find didn’t have that name in its prior (independent) life. But I’m not in marketing - I’m sure they think there’s a reason!

Horse.com was a website long before the mother company bought Stateline. They had two different markets back then. Horse.com was cheap stuff and Stateline was more of a real tack store.

(said by someone who is old enough to remember before this all happened.)

[marymane]

Huh, interesting. The more you know, I guess. I didn’t think any of the stores mentioned were scams since I’ve never heard bad reviews just that I didn’t understand why there were “copies” and what motivation a business would have to do it.

[JenEM]

@trubandloki

Horse.com was a website long before the mother company bought Stateline. They had two different markets back then. Horse.com was cheap stuff and Stateline was more of a real tack store.

(said by someone who is old enough to remember before this all happened.)

And then there was also the time when it was owned by the same corporation than owns PetSmart, and for a while they carried horse stuff in their stores. Was great for picking up basics like flyspray etc. I forget the sequence of that and the Horse.com/Country Supply mergers.

[trubandloki]

@JenEM

And then there was also the time when it was owned by the same corporation than owns PetSmart, and for a while they carried horse stuff in their stores. Was great for picking up basics like flyspray etc. I forget the sequence of that and the Horse.com/Country Supply mergers.

I believe it was just Stateline, then bought by PetSmart and then bought by Horse.com/Country Supply (thank you for the Country Supply name, I so could not come up with that).

[cardinale]

Re Stateline: at least in some cases, they apparently don’t have the actual tack items and hence are limited in their ability to answer questions. I called to confirm that an item on their website was actually made in the U.S.A.–as the description stated–I asked that they go look at the item and check the tag–but the person couldn’t do so because they had no access to the merchandise. She was adamant, however, that it was in fact made in the U.S. I took a chance, ordered, and when I received it–yup, made in China. Sent it back but had to call repeatedly and go up the TABcom food chain to get the return shipping covered.

Not worth risking the hassle to order from them again unless it’s something routine. I think they are just a clearinghouse for manufacturers or importers to sell through, at least for some items.

[trubandloki]

That might also be a case of a customer service rep not having any clue on who they might call in the warehouse to look something like that up.

[quietann]

@furlong47

T
You could also have the situation where the websites are a scam set up by overseas interests. These sites often go up fast, copy photos and listings from legitimate sites or other fake sites, are full of fake reviews, advertise aggressively on social media, and either take your money or send you a crappy copy of the item you were trying to buy. If you are buying from somewhere new and there are any red flags, take the time to do a little research first. This scam is more common with clothing/fashion but I’ve seen it popping up with tack and riding clothes lately.

I see this a LOT on Amazon. In general I jut won’t order from a company with a weirdly misspelled name and/or poor use of English. By now most of us have seen this with breeches and other horse supplies.

(Not horse related, but I’m trying to find tomato seeds of a particular variety. The place I was buying them from stopped carrying them this year. I’ve found 2 other places but both are wholesale only. There are 3 skeevy-looking companies on Amazon selling “them” but G-d only knows what I’d get from them.)

[furlong47]

@cardinale

Re Stateline: at least in some cases, they apparently don’t have the actual tack items and hence are limited in their ability to answer questions. I called to confirm that an item on their website was actually made in the U.S.A.–as the description stated–I asked that they go look at the item and check the tag–but the person couldn’t do so because they had no access to the merchandise. She was adamant, however, that it was in fact made in the U.S. I took a chance, ordered, and when I received it–yup, made in China. Sent it back but had to call repeatedly and go up the TABcom food chain to get the return shipping covered.

Not worth risking the hassle to order from them again unless it’s something routine. I think they are just a clearinghouse for manufacturers or importers to sell through, at least for some items.

I would imagine that the customer service people for most companies are not sitting in the warehouse, and possibly not even in the same city, state, or sometimes country.

[Training_Cupid]

@JenEM

And then there was also the time when it was owned by the same corporation than owns PetSmart, and for a while they carried horse stuff in their stores. Was great for picking up basics like flyspray etc. I forget the sequence of that and the Horse.com/Country Supply mergers.

Yep in the early 2000s, because I was in college and a Petsmart near us had it and I thought it was the greatest :lol: Up until then I was still ordering from the Stateline catalog, mailing in my order.

[furlong47]

@Training Cupid

Yep in the early 2000s, because I was in college and a Petsmart near us had it and I thought it was the greatest :lol: Up until then I was still ordering from the Stateline catalog, mailing in my order.

Our Petsmart had a fairly large Stateline section in it. It was there from at least the mid 90s, because I know I got my first breeches there and I remember going there to spend my very first tax refund as a teen :lol: It closed sometime in the mid to late 00s and was replaced in that part of the store by a Banfield pet clinic. I got some pretty good deals at the clearance sale too.

[Highflyer]

@furlong47

I would imagine that the customer service people for most companies are not sitting in the warehouse, and possibly not even in the same city, state, or sometimes country.

And even if they were, they probably can’t just walk into the warehouse and personally check your stuff while keeping you on hold. This type of question is definitely better asked by email.