Squeeze

So Raleigh corporate makes the sale and takes the profit, and their dealers have to assemble bikes that they made no money on?

I've been suspicious of this whole deal since I first clicked the link in some other thread at this forum (it has been widely discussed) and was asked for personal information before seeing any bikes or prices.

It sounds like a data harvesting operation to me: they sell bikes at dealer cost (my guess) to maybe 10% or 20% of people who create an account, but gain data for future marketing and to sell to other marketers for everyone who is curious enough about prices to go through the registration process at their site.

If the parent company is already selling bikes at dealer cost and lets a few slip out the door directly to customers in exchange for thousands of marketing contacts, what's the harm?

Nothing, I guess, except the local dealers must be highly upset...IF my assumptions are correct, which they very well may not be.

Just some random thoughts here. I have nothing against Raleigh (I own one), and I'm glad to see people getting good deals, but the whole thing just smells fishy to me, somehow.