My LBS has a web site and a walk in shop.

Last night I was looking at buying a bottle and a bottle cage. So tried CRC website which came to £10.80.

Then thought, no I should try the LBS so logged on to their site. Same thing came out a few pence cheaper, but it said online price. So rang the shop, said I had just seen what I wanted online, did they have sais stock in the shop. The response was ‘yes we do but it will be more exepnsive than the web price, we run the businesses separately, and the shop has higher overheads.

I couldn’t beleive it. The guy was basically saying that if I walk in to the shop he will charge me more. Do they not think it makes sense to sacrifice a few pence so that I would actually go in to the store, where I would see all the other stuff they sell and maybe purchase some thing else?

Instead I just went to CRC paid a few pence more, and the bits will get delivered litteraly to my desk at work, saving me a journey to the LBS.

Makes me wonder how LBS’s survive !

Yep, madness when you see this sort of thing. That said, I’ve seen it the other way, where the LBS has told me to come in and they’ll beat their on-line price by a few quid and I don’t need to pay postage.

Inevitably I buy something else in there, even if it’s just some lube, a chain, or some gloves.

Was it a shop in Saltaire by any chance?

Yes indeed it was….

I used to love the shop when it used to up the road and would travel to go there. Now its on my door step I find myself using it less and less, and stuff like this makes it less likely!

Shame really because the guy who runs the ‘two’ businesses is a good bloke who works bloody hard.

Tescos, Curry’s, PCWorld and many other big companies do this.

Curry’s, PCWorld, will normally offer the web price if you ask them to in my experience. They’re quite open to negotiation I find…

If it was cheaper why didn’t you buy it using the LBS online service?

“Tescos, Curry’s, PCWorld and many other big companies do this.”

Yep I did it with Tesco’s last week, ordered some thing on line, picked it up from the shop for free.

Perhaps thats where the business model is going wrong. The bits came to say £10.50 postage would have been £3.50 for all of litteraly posting it about 1 mile away making CRC much cheaper.

So why dont they offer pick up in LBS for free, then like Tesco’s etc they are getting foot fall, and then you might buy other stuff, or at least they can try and start building some form of rapport with a perspective customer.

So why dont they offer pick up in store for free, then like Tesco’s etc they are getting foot fall, and then you might buy other stuff.

I don’t know, did you ask them or suggest it?

It’s plausible that they are completely different business so keep everything separate.

i agree it sounds crazy, but why not buy the stuff from the online section of the lbs website? same price as crc and your still supporting the local business.

The guy on the phone said it is run as 2 separate businesses, but why does that matter to me as a customer?

Both businesses are branded the same, in fact their website suggests you visit their store….

Mang – As I have said above, by the time you add P&P to their online price, they become more expensive than others.

I’ve yet to come across a decent LBS 🙁

So why dont they offer pick up in LBS for free, then like Tesco’s etc they are getting foot fall, and then you might buy other stuff, or at least they can try and start building some form of rapport with a perspective customer.

My guess would have to be they are not bright enough to see that it might be a good thing to get people through the door.

i dont know the business you refer to but it is a model of which i have some experience having worked briefly as a buyer for one of the named businesses above.
some manufacturers will not allow thier product to be sold instore below a price however the product may be available from other sources and available for sale at any price. the issue here is availability and reliability of supply.
if we wanted to stock a full range with full backup there was only one place to obtain that ( through the manufacturer or importer) however we could often offer a limited number of a limited range of the products via a third party ( usually overseas) where the retail price was often considerably less than the ‘norm’.
this clearly drove high value sales but delivered very low margin. it was an excellent tool for driving market share and sales value but the reward was limited and thus endangered profitability.

clearly the saltaire business is doing the ‘right’ thing. retailing a full range at the best price possible whilst offering a limited on line business. in doing so maximising sales values and margin.

Ironically the business i was involved in started its ‘direct’ business in the same mill in saltaire..

I’ve had that with Cycle World in Portsmouth. Either I will buy locally from Wiggle [still supporting the LBS of sorts] or I go to Cycle surgery for Price Matching or I go to Velocity and get awesome customer services.

I’ve had this at All Terrain before, its frustrating when you know its cheaper if you are willing to wait a few days but want to buy something to use straight away.

Perhaps they should change the web site name to All-Terrain Direct or the shop name to All Terrain Express?

Buy it online and get it delivered to the shop. You get the web price and get to visit the bike shop and sniff the tyres too.

A win / win

How would they feel if you tried on some shoes in their shop then bought from their website?

If you offer two different prices, in my opinion you have to have two different brand names to differentiate. Otherwise its disingenuous to a customer.

Especially if the same staff pick and pack the items (and/or are based at the same premises).

Dunc

I have just had the same conversation with that shop.

Annoying, because I could order online and nip down collect avoiding courier charges.

At least they would’ve got a sale

I saw my LBS owner shopping in Tesco

The guy on the phone said it is run as 2 separate businesses

This is what I was told too.

Couple of years ago they had Giro Hex helmets at £35 plus P&P in the web shop. I went into the bricks and mortar shop to try one on, they were on sale at RRP which was around £50 iirc. I asked if they could do it there and then for somewhere near the web price but I was told it was two separate businesses. So I go home and order helmet online and it is delivered to me. I live 2 miles from the shop!
Fast forward a few months retention band in helmet comes away, ring shop explain situation, they say return to them. I say I’m only down the road they say just bring into the shop. They then swap it for a new helmet from on display in the shop 😕 Confusing.

Don’t bother with any of my LBSs anymore, online shopping all the way for me. If I need a workshop job doing that I can’t do I’ll travel to a not so LBS over the hill.

redthunder – Member
I’ve yet to come across a decent LBS
POSTED 5 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

69 cycles in Chester are fantastic.

I’ve ordered SRAM casettes from CRC and had them delivered to my work.. The LBS! Sometimes considerably cheaper than trade plus VAT. It was partially to wind my boss up though!

I’ve yet to come across a decent LBS

LifecycleUK in Bildeston round these parts are good. Ordered boots Saturday, picked up at lunchtime today and a reasonable price. (Not as cheap as CRC but quicker delivery if you factor in the collect from depot needed).

I have been thinking about a webshop for my shop and the idea of a web price and a shop price is aborant to me. However there are many distributors who do not care how much you sell for, they say they encourage sale at trade price.RJ Chickens who distribute Tifossi bikes for instance (which I stock) do not control how those are sold. One shop is selling on ebay, others are selling well below list so I have to follow. I do not agree with two prices, I see the website if it ever gets going as supporting the shop not as a seperate business.

It baffles me why people dont understand that the LBS has to make money, its not in business to give out freebies.

If you dont like it then dont use them and wait for it to close down, then come on here and greet about not having a LBS!!

My LBS is important to me, so wherever possible i use them.

QUOTE – Was it a shop in Saltaire by any chance?

What’s with the secrecy on this forum ffs, just name and shame, it may not be a typical name and shame game but still.

My missus bought a set of pans from Sainsbury’s, online, the other day, for collection at our local branch.
They cost £26 less than from the shelf at the same store.
24 hrs after ordering she had the email to say we could collect. The box was wrapped at the store and obviously arrived from a warehouse earlier that day.
We got them home and one was damaged.
I went back to the shop and they just replaced it with one from the shelf !

So why dont they offer pick up in store for free, then like Tesco’s etc they are getting foot fall, and then you might buy other stuff.

This could be down to how often they get deliveries in and how big these deliveries are. A big store like Tesco’s or any other big supermarket will be getting large lorry loads delivered each night where as a small local bike store might only be getting small deliveries every couple of days. The extra cost to Tesco’s offering to get your order delivered to your local store for you to collect is going to be next to nothing where as it might be a significant additional cost to your LBS.

Performance Bicycle is a large bike store chain in the US and they also sell online. The online price is usually much lower than the in-store price.

Halfords is the same. Wanted something that was cheaper online, asked the guy to match it but said he couldn’t. So I got my phone out, bought it online and ticked the pick up locally option then took it away. Madness

I’m building some wheels at the moment. Shopping for spokes & thought I’d try the LBS…£1.00 each…!!!
Rose bikes do them for less than half that.
And these are std sizes, not some odd lengths.
I always try to support the LBS where I can, but you have to draw the line somewhere. I was looking at nearly £70 on spokes…!!!

Not bike related, but some years ago my mate wanted a camera. Jessops said they would honour the (genuine) online price he’d found if he printed the page out. So into Jessops he goes, with printout & cash. Chap then tells him camera is in stock, & even shows it to him. He then tells him he has to pay for it, but go back to collect the camera next day, as the online deal he found was including next day delivery.

Needless to say my mate had a parcel delivery next day, & Jessops till finished the day £200 lighter.

for the sake of a few pence or a pound why not just buy from the LBS?

Pieface – Member

for the sake of a few pence or a pound why not just buy from the LBS? BEcause it’s not always a few pence or a pound…

for the sake of a few pence or a pound why not just buy from the LBS?

Why not buy it cheaper online, and then set light to a diver, then you could have the lbs experience without leaving your sofa. Well minus the disinterested staff inreraction bit.

So I am not the only person who has been surprised by All Terrain Cycles attitude.

As to those saying I should subsidise my local LBS why the hell should I, they are just a business like any other…

Ok they may be working to a business model and thats all very well and good for them. Obviously they are wanting internet businesss and local passing trade ie not regular repeat customers, again fine by me. However I am surprised that they want to turn down the opportunity to get local riders in to their store because it doesn’t fit their business model.

Shame really because now I probably wont bother even checking their website, let alone visit the shop. Appears to me they are dismissing a whole customer section.

As to when I need work doing on my bike, well I think I will just nip over the hill to JD’s

Just march into the shop website print off in hand and demand they price match their online sister business….

Or don’t and just order it from CRC, nowt wrong with them really…

The only issue I can imagine they have is that the two separate businesses are totally separate entities with separate stock holding, separate trade accounts and everything, but even that seems a bit tenuous…

So I am not the only person who has been surprised by All Terrain Cycles attitude.

Not at all. I was too.

I saw they had something I wanted at a very good price on-line and was passing reasonably near by, so made a detour, hoping to pick it up. The shop price was much higher and I was given the same line about different businesses. I asked if I could order on-line and take the stock there and then, saving them picking, packing and posting, but no joy. Strange.

Other shops I’ve been in have similar pricing strategies have happily met their own (or other) on-line prices following a simple friendly request.

I can see this from both sides.

Sticking a label on a jiffy can be done at any hour of the day and takes seconds.
Taking money in the shop will always involve a few minutes of banter, staffing, opening up etc etc

I like the banter, but if you are running a tight business model banter costs time.

But it also takes time explaining why you have two prices.

How about a turnstile in the shop entrance with two options:
1) free to enter but not allowed more than essential chat such as “one water bottle”… “10.99” with grumpy (ex prison warden) staff.
2) £3 entrance fee with upto ten minutes of banter with jolly (ex lap dancing) staff.

Over the phone… Press one if you actually have some money and want to buy something.. Press two to warble on about a 1935 nurgley wretchins and ask questions about things you are not going to buy, starting the conversation with “I doubt you have a twanny spring for a nurgley wretchins. I’ve been looking for one for 10 years..” and when the shop guy says yeah sure we do it’s £1, you can then say “ok I will have to think about it and call you back…. I once cycled with bill waters, you don’t him, he has a beard and two arms… We rode to summerbuttcome from worbledrover… That was something special….

Would an 0898 cycle chat line work…

Are you bored and lonely want to talk bottom brackets and nipples with like minded men in your area..( Me in a leotard doing a sexy dance in background) Call 0898 853 853 …. Etc