I'm facing the age old quandry of paying more to get my bike from a good local shop, or paying quite a bit less to get it from nearly 300 miles away. I like the romantic idea of supporting a good local (ish) shop but is it worth the extra?
How much is the difference and will the better service make up for it? Have you asked the LBS to see how close they can get on price?
I spoke to a gent earlier in the week who had bought mail order then had a problem with the bike. He was getting nowhere fast. I would pay a slight premium in price to know I could return to the shop if a problem arose.
The difference is 10% and its on one of the top end Lapierre's so its a significant amount. I really want to go with the local shop but its cold hard cash
Yup, use the better price from further afield to negotiate. If one shop can do it so can another. I have a general rule that I am prepared to pay up to 10% more buying from my LBS rather than online. As it's a shop rather than online, tell your LBS he needs to get within 5%
bargin with the shop - he might be able to throw in lots of stuff - win win.