Well, your shop owner guy doesn't really have a grasp on what is going on. Michelin sells to distributors. Distributors sell to dealerships. STG and STT are considered dealers. STT at the track days buys from a distributor. STG as well. Your shop buys from a distributor just like STG, Indy Superbikes, Iron Pony, STT, Bob's Cycle, Comp Access, Motosport, Rider's Discount, etc... Distributors in the US for dealers to buy from (As examples): Western Parts Unlimited etc... There are more than two. Maybe just two that your buddy deals with as there are another two distributors at the track level. They get the same distributor pricing as others. However, Parts Unlimited is the biggest buyer in the US. They get the best prices due to volume. They sell at a set price and they have even deeper discounts than what your buddy sees in his price books. Again, STG and STT are two separate businesses and bodies. They are not the same... BUT, they buy from a distributor. What your buddy needs to understand is that a big dealership (Take Iron Pony for example or Tire Express, Comp, etc.) gets a better price on tires than say a mom and pops shop. Also, these fly by night dealers and online guys sell to people at 10% above their cost and may get a lot of sales, but when they look at the books and they have $250,000 in sales, they've only made $25k. Hell, the cost of heat, electricity and other operation costs are way more than that. In the end, they end up not sticking around very long as they never maintained a good margin. If players like Pony, Chap, Comp, etc wanted to get rid of these smaller online guys giving shit away, they'd take about 2 months at most. The thing is, the prices that these small guys sell at is a lot less margin than what the bigger guys sell at with the same sale prices. They make larger margins due to volume and buying totals... In any case, your buddy isn't understanding how the system works and if he thinks STG and STT (I know you're trying to make a jab here at one of the two as you certainly have a distaste for them) are distributors, he's so wrong it's funny...