Stress reliability, cost-savings and repair turnaround speed to earn customers in the growing commercial cutter segment.

Rural Lifestyle Dealer recognizes Armstrong Implements for its ongoing sales growth, brand leadership and more.

Polaris recently announced its promotional partnership for its power sports division with Costco Auto Program (CAP) -- a new take on the large retailer strategy. Costco will not sell, only display, a select group of products and then direct interested members to the closest dealer who has signed up with the program.

Consolidations and acquisitions have strengthened dealerships in many ways, but also made it much more complicated to plan for the next generation of owners. And, even those smaller family dealerships may discover the next generation thinks their future is outside the dealership.

Jeff Griggs is president of the National Tractor Parts Dealer Assn. and chief operations officer of All States Ag Parts, De Soto, Iowa. We talked recently about the parts business from his point of view, including working with equipment dealers.

I love my role as editor of Rural Lifestyle Dealer and finding ways to help you be more successful. That means whenever I'm making a larger purchase of any item, I scrutinize the process for ideas to share with you.

That's what Mike McCrate, owner of Tulsa New Holland of Tulsa, Okla., says on his website. His dealership is celebrating 31 years in business. Today, he faces competition from Home Depot, Lowe's and Tractor Supply - but he's not worried about it. He believes his service philosophy helps him beat big box prices and he uses that service philosophy to compete head on with lower up-front prices.