BGE SALES

flexfusion

Curious to know your thoughts on what effect pellet grills have had on the sales of BGE? My local ACE dealer who is a BGE dealer tells me that his Traeger sales have been so good he has trouble getting them in.  I know my little RecTeq sure has an effect on the number of times I have used my Egg.  

lousubcap

I have no first hand data but given today's societal penchant for instant gratification I am not at all surprised at the trend.  The BGE takes some level of prep work before engaging the obvious "fire and forget" nature of any duration cook.  
Besides Q'ing has likely been noticed by gen Z and the upcoming gen alphas.  
Merry Christmas-

cssmd27

lousubcap said:

I have no first hand data but given today's societal penchant for instant gratification I am not at all surprised at the trend.  The BGE takes some level of prep work before engaging the obvious "fire and forget" nature of any duration cook.  
Besides Q'ing has likely been noticed by gen Z and the upcoming gen alphas.  
Merry Christmas-

Convenient, high quality cooking has advanced with technology over hundreds of years, so if someone is getting great results with less effort, good for them.

I don't find the BGE much effort, but I have a lot of experience (but a fraction of many/most here) and I don't do many true smoking cooks these days as my wife doesn't enjoy that flavor angle much.  Obviously, I don't have a pellet smoker either.

RRP

flexfusion said:

Curious to know your thoughts on what effect pellet grills have had on the sales of BGE? My local ACE dealer who is a BGE dealer tells me that his Traeger sales have been so good he has trouble getting them in.  I know my little RecTeq sure has an effect on the number of times I have used my Egg.  

I’m sure “pellet poopers” will appeal to some people, just like some of us who like BGE, and the hard core Weber users. I can recall near fights on the original BGE forum by purists who thought the BBQ Guru designed by the late Shot Gun Fred would ruin BBQ mankind! Then competitors jumped in and came up with even more wonderful blowers, brains etc and that was accepted and then all hell broke loose when blue tooth capable smart BBQ blowers came in to being so you could adjust your BGE from half way across the country!

I guess what I am saying is to each his own, and life will go on…

littlerascal56

Pellet grills sell 200:1 against Kamado grills in my area.  That’s why my local dealer (John Deere Implement dealership) dropped their BGE franchise and now stocks pellet grills & accessories.  

I promoted the BGE line for them, built custom tables and assisted in any customer issues they had.  I actually bought some of their closeout eggs and accessories and sold to friends. And I taught many how to cook on them. 
Bottom line for a dealer is $$$profit, and units sold per year. More units = better wholesale pricing.  The pellet grills & pellet sales, along with rubs, sauces, and accessories = more profit!
Ace Hardware now sells the BGE locally, but doesn’t stock any.  They have 15 Traeger’s on the floor, and pallets of Traeger pellets. 

PoppasGrill

With the economy today it’s hard to justify dropping 1300$ on an EGG when you can spend half that on another grill. 

I used a barrel smoker for a long time, before my wife got tired of me staring at the Eggs every time we went in Ace and bought my Medium for me. 

Now I won’t go back, even making fun of my son when he was given a large gas Weber ( it actually nice with side burners and all, but I won’t admit it to him)

Grogu

Strikes me eggs have always been a bit of a niche product, and honestly that’s probably part of the allure for some. The fact that you can only get them through a dealer and not all over online or in the big boxes like Home Depot sort of leans into that.

I had (still have) a small Traeger before the egg. I contemplated getting one of their big top of the line models before getting the egg. I ended up getting the egg simply because it was that niche product I’d always wanted “just because.” I’m happy I went this way though. A buddy asked me recently what I thought about the two because he was considering getting one or the other. I told him if you’re never going to run it over 300 degrees, the Traeger is a great choice. As a smoker, the combination of ease and results of a pellet are hard to beat. After 300 degrees (arguably maybe lower) the pellets are burning so clean you might as well use the oven, and you really can’t sear on them (I know some let you expose the fire box to sear one small steak at a time). Despite many (myself previously included) trying to use them as grills, I’ve come to see Traeger and the like being to stick burners what gas grills were to charcoal kettles. They create good enough results that anyone can do with minimal effort, that’s going to be popular. They can’t be your only grill like an egg can though. Camp Chef seems to have figured that out and is now stuffing a pellet smoker and gas grill in the same cooking chamber. Long winded way of saying I expect the popularity and success of the pellet market is more from pulling in a new type of buyer who would previously have just bought a gas grill rather than stealing from the niche market the egg serves.

Canugghead

I'm an old sheep (winking at ya Cap) and own two eggs + two pellet poopers, love them all. Unfortunately due to the extreme cold, this xmas the eggs are batting 0 for 3.

Edit: should have clarified that I'm the weakest link in the cold, although the egg can handle the cold better than any competition I know of.

Foghorn

Canugghead said:

I'm an old sheep (winking at ya Cap) and own two eggs + two pellet poopers, love them all. Unfortunately due to the extreme cold, this xmas the eggs are batting 0 for 3.

I'm curious what that means @Canugghead.  It seems to me that the eggs are insulated better and can hold temp in cold weather better than a thin-walled pellet smoker.  Obviously, here in south Texas I don't see ambient temps as low as you do in the Great White North but everything I've read suggests that the egg will hold temps in very cold weather - it will just burn more coal.

Canugghead

Foghorn said:

Canugghead said:

I'm an old sheep (winking at ya Cap) and own two eggs + two pellet poopers, love them all. Unfortunately due to the extreme cold, this xmas the eggs are batting 0 for 3.

I'm curious what that means @Canugghead.  It seems to me that the eggs are insulated better and can hold temp in cold weather better than a thin-walled pellet smoker.  Obviously, here in south Texas I don't see ambient temps as low as you do in the Great White North but everything I've read suggests that the egg will hold temps in very cold weather - it will just burn more coal.

My bad, I meant I'm the weakest link in this extreme cold, I assume it's a given  everyone knows BGE can handle the cold way better than any other cookers. It's where it really shines. 

Foghorn

Canugghead said:

Foghorn said:

Canugghead said:

I'm an old sheep (winking at ya Cap) and own two eggs + two pellet poopers, love them all. Unfortunately due to the extreme cold, this xmas the eggs are batting 0 for 3.

I'm curious what that means @Canugghead.  It seems to me that the eggs are insulated better and can hold temp in cold weather better than a thin-walled pellet smoker.  Obviously, here in south Texas I don't see ambient temps as low as you do in the Great White North but everything I've read suggests that the egg will hold temps in very cold weather - it will just burn more coal.

My bad, I meant I'm the weakest link in this extreme cold, I assume it's a given  everyone knows BGE can handle the cold way better than any other cookers. It's where it really shines. 

Thanks.  That makes sense.