First off, I'm so glad I joined this forum because if I hadn't I probably would have been happy to pay very close to retail recommended price for my Super Avenger.

Now when I go to buy, I'll be looking for at least 15% discount

Thing is I've read how alot of people have managed to get discounts between 30-40%

Do the dealers even make much profit at these sort of discounts?
Really does go to show what a markup these watches command.

30% - usually a best case scenario and becoming increasingly difficult to come by.
40% - impossible unless you are a VIP at your dealer, its some unloved closeout model, or the store is going out of business or dropping the Breitling line altogether.

It's been discussed before. Most countries charge ADs 55% of list, or thereabouts, although in the US it's just gone up.

That gives capacity for some fairly hefty discounting in North America where other costs are relatively low (particularly staff costs), but the difference has to cover the discount, commission, profit, and a share of AD costs - salaries, rent, insurance, taxes, utilities, corporate overhead, etc.

As a business owner I can tell you that those costs can get very high, very quickly.

No doubt about overhead. In the 80s my partners and I were easily able to keep overhead to 40% of average revenues. 60% to split up made for some nice largess (which went further for me then as oppossed to now - I wore a $100 watch!), but by 2000 we were lucky to keep overhead at 60% in my niche of the indusry we were in.

Rent, utilities, supplies, staff salaries, FICA, unemployment insurance, worker comp insurance, liability insurance, health insurance, marketing, computer updates/upkeep.................adds up pretty quickly in a business office setting.

On the other hand, the 80s had mullets!