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What's illegal is any kind of coercion on the part of the supplier to make retailers stick to a certain price. If retailers each decide that it's in their interest to make a reasonable profit and so stick to what the supplier suggests as a selling price, there's nothing at all wrong or illegal about that.
Its price fixing that's illegal. may sound like a good Idea to allow it but in reality it isn't.
You could wake up one morning and all the petrol stations have had a meeting that they all want more money and decide £3.50 is fair for a litre of fuel.
In a store you're paying for someone's time, someone's expertise AND the product.
Yes rich but some people apparently think it's ok to have the former two for free.
As a LBS I find that losing the occasional sale by refusing to price match is preferable to getting a reputation for discounting and then finding more and more of my customers, who might have previously been happy to pay what I asked, expecting a discount.
To all those reading this in regular employment. How would you feel if your boss told you he'd had some unemployed bloke come in who'd offered do your job for half what he's paying you. Would you price match then?
And don't forget, a 20% discount is not 20% less profit for a LBS, it's more like 60% less, obviously depending on the original margin.
Everything I buy from LBS comes with a discount from chainsets to energy bars to bikes, because I am loyal!
it is more than that though, shop rides and advice come free! haven't seen CRC trying to organise a ride near me.
I get this in my trade. We had a customer spend about three hours with one of my guys. We specced the lighting, wiring well the lot.
I then found out through the electrician she employed that she used our specs and knowledge and bought everything off the net.
She came in later for another phase of the build. She asked me to provide dimensions and full spec for everything. I thought here we go again.
So I asked if she had any intention of ever buying anything from us, and that I knew she had used our quote/specs/knowledge to purchase on the net.
Bit of an awkward silence, and then she asked if she could look at the metal flush boxes we stock.
I just said no sorry I have 'customers' to deal with and suggested she sit down with the chaps at Screwfix for three hours, I'm sure they'll help you.
(asking to see a metal box is like asking to see the petrol before you buy any)
I think I might have done her phase 2 plan and sneaked something a bit naughty into it.
Well sadly it's becoming national sport to try in shop and to buy online.
I always buy at my lbs, although I could justify plenty of excuses to get it online (being un-employed etc etc) I consider it to be a better deal in the long run. If I buy online there is almost no on-line French company that offer a discount that massive to the LBS price. So basically the difference in pricing doesn't actually goes in the LBS pocket, but toward my mum salary, or the policeman, or the surgeon at the hospital who took good care of my nan's. So it'a a no brainer for me. Plus it means I keep my bikes for longer and change for something really different, not just anew colour or a new gizmo. Then if I need something and I can't afford it, well I'll just downgrade my purchase. A rear mech is a rear mech, and both XTR and deore work the same...
So if, say, the same shop is cheaper online than in store (and they refuse to price match their own online prices) - rude to try in store and then buy from their website?
So if, say, the same shop is cheaper online than in store (and they refuse to price match their own online prices) - rude to try in store and then buy from their website?
That really winds me up,
I once drove to a shop to buy a bike I'd seen on their website, to be told I had to pay an extra £200 for the shop price if I wanted to take it away!
I went elsewhere even though it was more than than the original shops online price.