So who was the bicycle manufacturer that landfilled excess stock?

All these regulations are coming in as we aren’t bothering about this proactively. If we did, things would be in a slightly better place, I suspect.

Recommend me a metal detector?

For plastic, sorry, carbon?

Not bikes, but Rapha laying off staff 😕

Rapha North America Abruptly Closes Bentonville Office, Lays Off Staff

(Apologies if it has already been posted)

Really? Costs have gone up hugely… where’s the greed in bike companies and shops trying to avoid loses, staying open, and paying their staff?

You know what though… They haven’t. Staff and energy costs have gone up, but parts and manufacturing have actually gone down slightly (since 2023) and they didn’t soar in 2023 either. Shipping went up for a while but has fallen back, and on a 3K bike it remained a small %age even when it was high.

Super doooper inflation was quite a western thing, Taiwan didnt even breach 4%. So in terms of the cost of a bike, the %age of its value that is directly attributable to the costs associated with staff in western countries, and their offices did go up, but thats maybe 20% on 10% of the cost of a bike?

Not bikes, but Rapha laying off staff 😕

Rapha North America Abruptly Closes Bentonville Office, Lays Off Staff

Shows how much I know.

BillOddieFull Member
At what point does a business that’s posting consistent losses become unsustainable?
Never if you’re owned by the Waltons of Wal-mart fame.  It’s basically a hobby.

Also Walmart have just bought the Smart TV firm Vizio, which has raised some eyebrows from privacy and competition standpoint.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/20/24078060/walmart-vizio-acquisition-deal

oldfart
Full Member

We went and had a look at a Trek Powerfly for my wife this morning. RRP was £3,500 reduced to £2,500. The original price was wildly optimistic given the spec , even the shop guy agreed that the lower price was more online with it’s actual worth .

I think it highlights the greed ? Post Pandemic by companies and a much needed reset is happening.

Trek have done this forever, it seems to be more or less an early adopter strategy- sell a bunch of bikes at an inflated price to the less price sensitive crowd, then drop them once that market’s drying up. My last Trek was a 2014, I reckon you had to be absolutely mad to buy it at RRP but they dropped to a sensible price after about a year, then popped back up with a “new” (different spec, same frame) release, then dropped again.

I like Rapha, but I can’t see how it works as a business unless the owners genuinely believe it’s on a pathway to profitability on quite an impressive scale?

I like Rapha as well, but I don’t think it’s as good as it used to be, and I suspect like any ‘luxury’ brand dependent on discretionary spend, it’s suffering at the moment.

but I don’t think it’s as good as it used to be

Their bottles went from rebranded Camelbacks (nice) to some generic rubbish. I’m still using the former, but won’t be buying the latter.

Core shorts are still my go to. They’ve been consistently excellent. Never paid full price though. I also have base and indoor layers, again not full price.

Well you can always try things like.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/30/france-passes-landmark-law-to-stop-unsold-goods-being-thrown-away

and

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/15/france-fast-fashion-law-environmental-surcharge-lower-house-votes

or

https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/the-destruction-of-returned-and#:~:text=With%20the%20recent%20EU%20policy,for%20returned%20and%20unsold%20textiles.

There are things that can be done to limit waste. But then again we’re British and what can we learn from anyone else……

As long as tax laws allow companies to write off stock destruction over repackaging (however you envisage that) this will continue to happen. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.

I used to work in Costco and would throw out of date stock in the skip, this was in Sighthill before they razed the tower blocks full of asylum seekers (note: they let them out before they knocked them down) and was an otherwise deprived area anyway. The manager used to go out at the end of the day and just to make sure nobody got anything would pour bleach over the lot. Thankfully we live in slightly more enlightened times now, round our way the Nazerenes hoover up everything and batch cook for the food bank.

You also still have the ridiculous scenario where people put things into recycling centres and you’re not allowed to take them, even Australia get that one right.

A distributor used to send lorryloads of expensive hardware for long, long laps of the M25 once a quarter.

I remember reading something about this before. Might not be the same one but was vaguely amusing. Trying to think what it was, I thought it was something military related.

I like Rapha as well, but I don’t think it’s as good as it used to be,

I bought some new Classic gear last January and ended up sending it all back as it didn’t feel as good as the 6y old Classic items it was intended to replace.