johnce

Anywho I brought my "fixie" into my lbs because the pedal arm thinggie seemed to be loose, bare with me i'm not sure of the exact terminology. Well those nice fella's had me rollin' the very next day.

According to the expert there I had a broken kannibling pin that actually caused the dynamic fluxuator to wear out! he said if I wouldn't have brought it in when I did it likely would have exploded in as little as a day or two..WOW!

I guess the moral of this story is....that if your not sure how to properly fix your bike yourself ALWAYS trust those pro's at the LBS. This could have resulted in real tragedy!

And the wonderful part is those nice folks only charged me $300.00.. man how can you put a price of safety though!

skinnyland

hah

powerband

That is great! This parody had me rolling!

Ride Among Us

i was going to start a LBS thread with my question, but this one is here already... I have a new LBS near my house that is run by local respected people in the bike community. They have parts I like and would normally buy. But my dillema is about price. I have to pay almost twice as much as on the internet or at Performance. Example:
I needed some oury grips. A week ago when i brought them up to the counter... $16(+tax)! These are normally $10. Yesterday it was Nitto heat treated 125AAs... $120(+tax). I put them back. Anyone can go to Ben's online and pay $67.

Everything is way over-priced. Also, nothing has tags and they tell you the price once you get up to the counter. Then its extremely high. This new shop (which is on the Burke Gilman trail) is a nice place that specilaizes in track and urban bikes and has decent people running it. But I can't support it if it means paying double for things.
Based on those 2 examples: do you think this shop is pricing their items at more than double wholesale? I know that in retail, its normal for shops to buy something at wholesale and double it's price. But at this shop they seem to be doubling the normal retail price. Am I right? Or possibly they don't value me as a customer and make up a super high price so that I will simply leave... Could be. I feel like saying something, but I don't want to say "on the internet they cost...!"

peabodypride

sad troll is saaaaaaad.

jpdesjar

i paid 65 bucks for my krypto mini and then found one online for 40...i like to support local business and all but...

Jabba Degrassi

Sugino 75. $300. Yeah.

peabodypride

on a serious note, sometimes i just want things that day and am so compelled by feeling the item in my hand, i forget i can get it cheaper elsewhere.

njm

Everyone on these boards gets real defensive when people start asking what wholesale prices are. Threads get shut down by the BF censorship-on-behalf-of-shop-owners patrol.

Markup is definitely high though, about 50% to 100% in order-of-magnitude terms for accessories.

madeinjpn

You go to Back Bay? They have tried doing that to me a couple of times. Again awesome crew of guys but...$$$$$$$$

Matt T

i feel the same exact way. all of my LBS' are overpriced as well (on most items). im sure the response wouldnt be so great if we pulled the internet card either.

i doubt its that they want to drive you away as a customer, but the prices tend to do that anyways.

i guess its always worth trying and asking for a discount. as long as its doen nicely, it couldnt hurt. maybe a little embarrasing, but screw it.

jpdesjar

i do go to back bay, a buddy of mine wrenches bikes there
they were really great when they ordered my surly for me and they know their stuff

madeinjpn

whose you friend Brad?

jpdesjar

i am friends with paul and i know charles too

fetch

bff jill 4 lyph

skinnyland

It's not the case that LBSs are "overpriced," but that they're being undercut by internet retailers with virtually zero overhead/expenses. Shop prices have remained largely the same, aside from inflation (FYI for those of you who don't remember how life worked before internet addiction became rampant). Online swag is underpriced by comparison. Let's keep it in perspective.

Ride Among Us

My point is how can they be charging $120 for those Nitto heat treated track drops? Elsewhere they are offered for retail price for $67. Bens is making some profit at $67. So in otherwords these bars cost much less than $67 wholesale. This new LBS is marking up those bars more than 100%. I think %100 markup is fair, but not way more than that.

peabodypride

I believe becoming loyal to a shop within reason is good and worthwhile to cough up extra money for later on, especially with labor.

I bought my track pro at a city shop and became buddies with the head mechanic there. A few months later I came in and needed the bottom bracket threads faced and BB installed after a powdercoat... in a relatively full environment he dropped what he was doing and helped me without question. That was 30 minutes of work he could have charged me $35-50 for and made me wait 2 days for, but I got it done instantly.

The moral is sometimes spending the extra money at a LBS can even out later.

Peedtm

It's true. AEBike lets you order out of the QBP catalog for only ~10-15% mark up. Though it's still nice getting to pick your parts, avoiding the imperfections you get in the mail.

skinnyland

This doesn't invalidate my statement, unless you walked into another shop who sells them in a store for sixty-seven dollars.




Or, maybe they think you're a chump.

Yoshi

https://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/

kbencsp

"America is a free enterprise system", thats how the CEOs of all the top oil companies responded to the high gas prices

TurntheScrew

I assume you're talking about recycled cycles. For the most part the young people there are all pretty good with customers (even if some of the older dudes are *******s). What i do about the prices at recycled is as follows. I buy stuff for cheap online like a crankset, but i don't get an accompanying bottom bracket. Then i go to recycy and buy a bottom bracket there (since bbs are generally much less expensive than cranksets), and they install both free of charge because i bought the bb there. This is just one example, but i think its a great place to go for its used bins too (lots of stuff for cheap like old steel drops to use or to chop into bullhorns and seatposts that just need some polishing). If you buy little stuff like grip tape or clips and straps online, the cost is so low that shipping would actually make it more expensive than buying locally. This is where the LBS comes in.

bexley

What are you talking about, skinny? Brick & mortar shops have been competing directly with online retailers for a long time now. They're not in parallel universes or something. Some difference in price is expected and accepted, but many bike stores choose to pretend like they're not in competition with anyone. LBS' are a bit like camera shops; there's some kind of unspoken pact to never drive each other's prices down.

If a shop's overhead is such that they have to charge $120 for something that can be sold for a profit at $67, they're not a very good retailer. Too much overheard to compete = their fault. And the overhead argument as a blanket excuse for much higher LBS prices is giving quite a benefit of the doubt anyway--it's just as fair to assume that the store would, in fact, be making money at $67.

shadowsbiker

At my LBS, the prices are comparable enough that I will always go there for parts. I had stopped at Scheels Sports and noticed that they were charging $20 more for the same Shimano MTB shoes I had just bought at the LBS. Pete, the shop owner, also lets me use his stands and tools to do my wrenching and is always there if I have a question and will double check my work if need be.