Handsomedog – Member

That is the new catalogue price. Ian in Devereux Cycles in Ashton on Mersey showed me in the catalogue. Being that it made me go slightly green he refused to sell it me at that price and instead sold it to at cost (£27).
Top bloke by the way, can't recommend enough for a small cycle shop.

He does always say that you can buy it cheaper from CRC than he can get it at trade.

I take my bikes to Ian and I would say I know him quite well. Really decent honest guy. Could do with putting the kettle on a bit more!;-)He's said to me about CRC being cheaper than trade prices. I'm all for cheaper kit but not at the expense of local bike shops.

See i dont think CRC are killing shops. They attract different types of consumer and i think

Hora – thanks for your comments – i had lumped all that into the catch all "admittedly have all these bills and huge computer resources to finance". I am acutely aware of the expense in both time and money of running/setting up a web store – annoyingly!

Its easy to sell at £21.99 in a sale… as long as you are selling hundreds of them. for your average shop its quite a different matter.

Price matching like with like is fine. Its just very rarely like with like.

And i operate a growing and relatively successful business based on making enough money to employ staff and provide a worthwhile and high value service to customers.

If i price match i have to lose staff and devalue the shop. My preferred approach (and it was true in my old business) is to demonstrate the value in the price not just the numbers. Some people still want this. I hope to attract them when i open the door every morning and turn the lights on.

Plus i can keep people in employment offering a career, a growth in skills and a life path if desired.

Sorry Hora, I was merely under the impression that you thought your LBS was a)lying about the price of a deore mech and b) trying to rip your lad off, which they clearly aren't/haven't, they're merely following the guided retail price.

"why is x retailer being able to sell such an item at such a price"

because they choose to.

importers cannot force shops to sell at a certain price. Even 'recommended' prices are frowned upon now.

if shop xyz chooses to sell soemthign at a loss because they know pwople will buy a chain (or whatever with it) to make up a bit of profit then they can.

you don't shout at Sainsburys for sellign shampoo on a bogof when your local pharmacy has it full price.

if products and services are undifferentiated then that is true and even if you get the sale you may lose the customer but this does assume that price is the only thing that attracts customers

convenience, availability, knowledge, service, people all feature
in this case availability and convenience should have got a premium price
if the LBS was run by a plumber then he'd have charged the kid double the RRP if the kid had coughed "my dad needs this for a ride tomorrow"

as to the cold truth that customers expect pricematch – if there is nothing unique you offer and the customer will travel elsewhere and/or be inconvenienced waiting for deliveries and the customer knows you will price match then you will price match
if you can convince yourself that you don't need to pricematch you probably don't need to

and all the stuff about online businesses having higher costs than traditional retailers is bollox

are German forums chock full of posts about how actionsports are killing the LBS?

I've no idea, German forums are quite disturbing humourless places that are best avoided.

Question, would CRC or similar order a special Shimano spoke for the very wheel they sold me? There's certainly no Shimano spokes on their site (not having a go at CRC BTW)?
It's Wednesday I've got a broken Aero spoke and I'm competing Sunday, would (and I ask because I don't know) CRC get one for me.
I know my man did, fitted and trued ready to go for the weekend. That's worth £££££'s
The power at peoples fingertips goes to their heads, but I bet those same people nip into the shop to try the bike for size before buying online.

It's Wednesday I've got a broken Aero spoke and I'm competing Sunday, would (and I ask because I don't know) CRC get one for me.

I'd ride it as it is a spoke won't much difference and the chances of needing truing would be slim or simple enough to do yourself.

slx is only 30 quid

I don't understand how charging retail price is having one over… or why this is poor service?

Ton,
ooh in that case they're a bunch of robbers

simondbarnes – you da man

nothing like someone opinionated …. esp when they are wrong.

the shop were only charging RRP – thats reccomended retail price – not "price made up on the spot for the young lad"

never mind – next time you want the part to go ride that night – your local shop will probably be gone so you wont have to worry about them pulling one on the little guy and youll have to wait

I always try to buy off lbs as I pop in there for a chat most weeks, get good deals, things get sorted if I need to – like realising a bushing is worn in the rear shock and calling in on the way to Wales for a weekend away and getting it fixed there and then. I don't mind paying a little extra if that's what they want for the extra service I get.

But, chatting with them over the Merlin sale prices and the stuff I wanted was cheaper than they could get it. They are OK with me buying from Merlin as they understand the way of the World. Speaking to a guy at Merlin they said they work on margins depending on where they get the stuff from.

IMO the internet has opened up choice for people. 25 years ago I had the choice of a few local bike shops and limited stock compared to todays choice. And also most people expect to pay less that rrp for everything – I certainly do. IMO what shops have to do is offer something above and beyond the basic price and this is not just bike shops but other shops on the highstreet.

My problem with bike shops is not the price, it's the amateurish service that you generally receive. When I drop a bike off to be repaired, and I'm told that it'll be ready on a certain date, that's what I expect, and if it's not going to be ready for some reason, I expect to be rung to be told why not. I also expect that if they say they're going to order something, then that's what they're going to do, not to have to be reminded about it 3 or 4 times before they finally get round to it.

Now unless it's a really big job, I'll buy the tools and learn how to do it myself.

Your kidding right? So the distributors are taking the lion share?

Make a fiver on a £40 sale. I would go into something else if that was the case.

Its true though, for a good customer/shop relationship you need price AND service. You cant sell one without the other. Its impossible.

BTW- I've owned my XTR rear mech since 2001.