So work back.
Allow a standard 30% to 50% mark up so now the $ 8.25 needle is around $ 6.50 .
Now when that was made, some one had to pack it into the little plastic bag / box.
The bag costs about 0,05¢ and a printed box around 5¢ but the machine that makes the bags as required & seals them is well north of $ 100.000 and there is an operator + a maintanance fitter + electricity to run it .
The little bags have to go into a bigger box for freight to the warehouse then get put into a bin.
The bin has a rental cost in a leased space plus an oppertunity cost.
Some one has to put the little bags / boxes into the bins and every month to 6 months count them
Some one else has to either enter these numbers into the computer and or check the count against the computer listed count
When you order one , some one has to go to the afore mentioned bin and take out the little plastic bag then drop it off at the despatch desk where it gets packaged for post to you direct , or gets put into a box for the dealer . If the latter then the whole process happens for a second time at the dealers stock room and of course the counter salesman has to look up the part on their computer to locate the bin the walk to that location, take the little plastic bag out and bring it to the counter where a sales invoice has to be generated .
If you pay with plastic them the dealer looses 1% to 5% of the sales value to the bank or in some cases faces a fixed cost which would be greater than his gross mark up .
An of course here is freight from the B & S warehouse to the dealers shop in the latter as well.
Down here a lot of shops have a minimum counter purchase price of $ 20 because anything less than that signiifes a loss on the physical cost of making the sale.
This is why when you go into a hardwear store all of the small items are in a multi pack and these packs are getting bigger every year because the cost of making sales goes up every year.
One of the big reasons why you can walk into Wallys. HF or similar rip off junk stores and buy an imported engine for 1/3 the price of a locally made one is they are not required to run the very expensive warehouses full of parts that they have paid for 2 years ago and will probably not all be sold for the next 15 years .
It is why Husqvarna has gone over the RuZin carbs . There are no service parts available so if it plays up you are forced to buy a complete carb which they can sell at a profit rather than individual gaskets & diaphragms that are sold at a loss .It is why Walbro is now consolodating and making universal internals to eliminate the need for warehousing 11,000 individual parts and why when you buy a full rebuild kit there are more parts that won't fit your carb than do fit because it is cheaper to give away the extra parts than stock 3,000 different specific packs .
The last warehouse I helped run distributed wine
The cost of picking a case of wine off the shelf, putting a lable on it + a packing slip & invoice then sitting it on the dock was $ 4.50, if and only if no forklifts were involved which doubled the picking price and this did not include the space rental price or the picking face replenishment price , or the delivery acceptance price or the stocktaking price .
So for the past X years B & S has probably been selling their small parts at a big loss which was covered by the large profits from selling vast numbers of engines to mower factories
So loosing $ 5,000,000 on parts is considered acceptable against the $ 30,000,000 in profits from selling complete engines
However now days there is only $ 5,000,000 of gross profits because the sales volume of new engines is so low .
Thus the loss on selling spares can no longer be offset against the whole goods profits and of course as volumes drop, the logistic costs per item goes up
Kohler parts prices are around the level that as a former foundry metallurgist , the production engineer & finally transport operator I would consider reasonsable & sustainable.
B & S prices have been way too cheap for decades and now the buying public has abandoned them in favour of a cheaper imported engine, the true costs of the spare parts chain is being reflected in the over the counter parts price.
So no you are not being Ripped Off, you are just used to being subsidised .