LBS – bit of a rip off?

just went into my lbs to buy an inner tube – £7.50 for just a standard road tube. Seemed pretty steep to me. A fiver would be reasonable I think. I want to support local shops but a 50% more expensive price hike over even Halfords makes me think why bother. Am I being tight?

Why didn’t you go to Halfords?

Am I being tight?

No, you’re just not very good a shopping.

scotroutes – Member
Why didn’t you go to Halfords?

Maybe

robw1 – Member
I want to support local shops

Depends on how much of a rush you were in

I’d prefer to support local independent shops so thought I would just go in and get one. asked for a tube….they rung it through the till and told me the price….in my head I thought what the f! but just paid up. Its only a couple of quid more but as a percentage thing over other retailers it just seemed really excessive. Also bought a few other minor things from them recently that I thought were really over priced.

Yes all shops want to rip you off, the ones that sell at a loss are all just round the corner in bankrupt street.

Would there be a £2.50 difference in petrol or your time to get to an out of town place?

Also bought a few other minor things from them recently that I thought were really over priced.

Srsly?

no. I could have gone to a Halfords that would have been less out of my way!

Anyone bring the biscuits?

no. I could have gone to a Halfords that would have been less out of my way!

See post #3

Bikescene in Guisbrough charged me more (about what the OP paid) for a 29er tube (which was kept behind the counter) and wouldn’t include it in the 3for£12 offer on every other tube.

Apparnetly they use more rubber.

I would have asked if they had got the correct price. Made them double check.

Depends what you mean by ‘standard’ £5.99 is the going LBS rate for a generic rebranded chinese jobbie these days with nice Conti/Schwalbe ones going from £6.99 – £12.99 depending on poshness.

So £7.50 for premium branded ‘normal’ road tube’ isn’t that far off, if it was £7.50 for a generic then that is a tad steep.

Most people need help to work out the right valve and size they need so maybe the shop have built that added time into their pricing.

and it probably saved you more than a few quid’s worth of faff getting it there.

Apart from going past Halfords on the way there obviously.

That’s what these were invented for 😀

Inner tubes? Wilkos!

Worlds heaviest Inner tubes constructed like a 1920’s nodder? Wilkos!

FTFY
For what its worth we charge £5.99 for schwalbe, and so do most other shops I know, so yes – £7.50 seems a bit dear unless it was long valve/superlight etc.

I too don’t get why folk don’t repair.

You deserve to get ripped off!

Sorry I’d have said ‘no’. The staff would understand, after all the bikeshop owner doesn’t pay them a fortune.

£7.50 is insulting. Especially now alot of them are stocking stuff I’ve never heard of that they probably order in bulk off Ebay China etc…

Also- puncture repair kits, they used to be great but Evans, Halfords etc sell terrible ones. The glue is like prit-stick strong.

Any recommendations? I’ve got lots of tubes sat in the shed waiting for a decent repair kit/beer drinking sesh..

Damn, I’ve got a spare under my desk you could have had for £7.49

thisisnotaspoon – Member
Bikescene in Guisbrough charged me more (about what the OP paid) for a 29er tube (which was kept behind the counter) and wouldn’t include it in the 3for£12 offer on every other tube.

Apparnetly they use more rubber.

Its an evil ploy to get people off clown wheels. Long may it continue.

^^^^^ One of those kits up there.

The Weldtite and Rema ones seem to work just fine.

I’ve got a spare just above my waistline that you could have had for nowt 🙂

Worlds heaviest Inner tubes constructed like a 1920’s nodder? Wilkos!
For what its worth we charge £5.99 for exactly the same ones in a box marked schwalbe

FTFY 😉

Hahahaha!
Nice, but I’ll have to respectfully disagree 😛

Like Adam we charge £5.99 for Schwalbe tubes (or 3 for £15) and have been for a while now. RRPs are going up now, and I see £6.99 is now what most suppliers are saying they’re worth.

It’s a tricky one as the cheapo tubes could be sold for the same price really but we’d rather stick to our guns and sell a quality product for a fair price – don’t want people to feel ripped off.

Funnily enough I was just thinking about it this morning when I realised we needed to top up on a particular size.

One option I have been thinking about is offering a choice – so an unbranded or cheaper brand tube for say a fiver, or Schwalbe/Conti for £6.99 (and a bit of a deal on 3-4 of each, say).

Would people like to have the choice in their LBS or would you rather just walk in and get what the shop have chosen to stock?

Depends on the price/tube.

I imagine 90% of 700×23 tubes are sold to roadies who want something light, so you could probably get away with stocking only relatively light tubes at the higher price. But 26×2″ tubes, 90% are probably sold to lower end bikes who have avoided buying a new bike or going tubeless, so a £4 unbranded tube would be fine (as long as it wasn’t crap).

Tubes aren’t something I need a choice of, I probably just need one as a spare to get me home. Or more commonly, I’m miles from home, havent punctured yet, but just realised I’ve not got a spare so tempting fate.

Any recommendations? I’ve got lots of tubes sat in the shed waiting for a decent repair kit/beer drinking sesh..

try these Hora…

i bought some 700×35 tubes from my local sainsburys at a fiver each which i thought was pretty reasonable….but they werent of a brand i recognised so i probably paid a bit more for the convenience but i can live with that….but if my LBS was around the corner they’d be my first port of call.

Last time I bought tubes I got Conti’s for 4 for 12 quid(a while ago)

Still got two left and a good supply of park patches.

Our local Halfords appear to be stocking their own tubes in plastic packets rather then boxes, and the price was down to £3.99. Quite happy with that for what I need.

Road tubes bought in bulk from Condor £19.99 for 10 specialized a few years ago. Topped up with a few £1.99 jobs from Planet X in their sale.

26″ MTB – Geax ultralite, Wiggle £15 for 5. They go in the 29er too.

They get repaired on a very infrequent bulk basis and reused.

I would be offended by £7.50 and go somewhere else, even if it was pretty incovenient. Patch of rubber glove and some all purpose glue has fixed me up in the past.

This reminds me that I still charge £5 for Schwalbe, must put my prices up.

This reminds me that I still charge £5 for Schwalbe, must put my prices up.

I was doing that until about a month ago.
Then I noticed how much trade was now and wept inconsolably.

Yeah, last time I ordered I thought “that’s funny, the RRP has come down”, then realised…

you’re still using tubes….. thats the issue

A fiver would be reasonable I think

Thing is, tubes have been a fiver forever, because people expect them to be a fiver. Trade prices have crept up over time, but RRPs didn’t until recently, so the LBS margin was getting slimmer and slimmer. Finally, the “standard” price for an inner tube is creeping past a fiver and people moan.

Shop around for cheaper tubes, or pay a bit more. Not worth getting upset about it in the grand scheme of things.

A shop will charge whatever it can get away with to make a profit, That’s what business is all about. But £7.50 as a starting point for a road tube is to much. If like the op I coughed up because I was at the till and didn’t want to make a scene, I’d feel ripped of and never go there again. I buy Planet-x tubes at £1.99 they do as good a job of keeping my tyres up as anything else.