Originally Posted by
cale
Those 30-40% margins contain a lot of dealer support and marketing costs that are directly related to LBS sales. If you eliminate those costs, then it is entirely reasonable to pass along the savings to consumers. This assumes that Trek wants to compete aggressively in the online direct-to-customer sales market. Trek is very business savvy.
But a point you are not addressing is, as a consumer, if I'm doing direct to customer ordering, Trek is too highly priced, and too inconvenient. If I am confident enough to order directly, then I expect at home delivery (unlikely from Trek as why would the LBS pay for the privilege to lose money with extra expenses), or wherever I want it delivered, and I'm certainly not paying retail price when others provide similar bikes for much less. As stated by another poster in the FX disc thread, Trek bikes have gotten increasingly dull and generic, so why not go with a much lower cost generic bike?