Meola

All my LBS have screwed me over some way or another so I dont deal with any of the ones in my community now. I goto the real pros in North Van. they know what they are talking about, they know what they are doing and most of all they treat me like every other person who walks in the door and not a walking dollar sign like some others. I live just in Vancouver so its a small trek to North Van. to goto the shop but for the service and atmosphere I would even go double the distance.

You are wrong, wrong, wrong unless the rules vary from industry to industry. As far as my manufacturers are concerned once I pay them for the part they could careless what I sell it for so people at the bike shops saying that they make 30-40 points on a item is BS. I have only ever run into one manufacturer that wanted us to sell at a certain price at that was GoPro to keep the cost of there product the same across the board regardless or who buys and sells it for $199USD. As for the LBS I lost all respect when a salesmen quoted me $199 for a shock and when I showed up to purchase it they changed there tune to $340 and when I was like "well what the eff happened to the $199 quote" I got a reply of "someone misquoted you, nothing we can do" and then they walked away from me and didnt even try to salvage the sale, at that point EFF the LBS. I couldnt barter for a price nor did I even get good customer service which is the main selling point for a bike shop. Customer relations will make or break a returning customer, I walked out of my LBS and I will not go back ever again after this mistake on there behalf.

Read my above post about pricing point out of a LBS compared to online retailers if you cant compete with that, then please tell me why I should pay 150% markup for the same price just to have someone hand it to me at a shop? In my opinion my money looks better in my pocket then yours. Whats the extra incentive to pay the marked up price from a shop besides the fact you dont have to wait a week to have it shipped to you? Just like MTV killed music and radio the internet retailers will kill the LBS in a crappy economy people will do whatever they can to survive, this is a prime example.

So maybe the LBS should cut there margin of profit drastically, I work in the retail and wholesale industry and I was outraged when the majority of my LBS gave a a quote for a part that was nearly twice what I could get it off the internet for still brand new let alone even trying pinkbike or anything. The only way for a LBS to survive now is to lower there profit margin to compete with online sales, it might be a cruel thing to say but even we have had to do it ourselves to compete with online retailers. Its a thing of the future people dont care about the long run they care about getting what they need right now for the best possible price. As for bike shops getting hounded for discounts on labor and stuff well when you can take you car into a mechanic and get charged the same labor rate I would want some kind of a discount. Why should a LBS get exclusive dibs on a product if all they are going to do is gouge people on it? It doesnt make people want to buy the product which means sales will drop for Race Face which will lead them to look at other methods of selling there goods. Smaller overhead and more frequent inventory turnarounds would keep operating costs down and essentially allow lower pricing which would result in more sales and with word of mouth it would get passed around, its elementary business tactics. Take it from a person who works of a company that profits millions of dollars a month, cause thats how I learned.