Originally Posted by
fietsbob
Dear Joe H
not if you walk into a bike-shop and buy it in person , the online seller is a retail outlet,
just by being too lazy to go get it , the convenience of the post retail sales shipping to you
is a cost you incur.
retail margin includes shipping from the distributor to the shop.
Yes and no.
If a shop normally carries the item, then the price of shipping is figured into their sticker price. If the item is out of stock, and you can wait for the replen order, shipping costs are generally absorbed by the shop as well. But if you can't wait on the shop's normal delivery, then you can be charged for shipping.
At least that was my experience at my LBS when I bought a backpack. They told me that I was lucky in that they were getting ready to put in a big order and that my item could be "tossed in" w/o incurring shipping, but I had to wait like 2 weeks. Otherwise, they would have treated it as a special order and charged me for the shipping.