Originally Posted by
unterhausen
Many of Shimano's current issues with bike shops are due to a factory burning down. But they need bike shops to support them. Oem sales are contingent on a dealer network to support the bikes. It's not like there stuff is so much better that they can ignore that.
I don't believe that a factory burning down caused European Retail prices to be lower than US Wholesale prices.
Tariffs, VAT, Sales Taxes, & the lack thereof does, however, make some difference.
Yes, the big companies, Trek, Cannondale, Giant, etc... all like some dealer support of their products. However, I'd estimate that a big chunk (more than half) of the bike consumers also do most of their own service, and simply use bike stores to purchase parts.
And, that half of the consumers are the ones served worst by these new policies.
In my case, I can count on tubes being carried locally, but most everything else is pretty obscure, and not necessarily typically stocked by local stores. I'm much better served by large online warehouses (if only online selection was even more complete). I frequently split my orders between a couple of vendors, in part because even the big online companies don't stock all I need.
For Shimano... how many components do they sell with new bikes vs over the counter sales of components?
My guess is that once one gets beyond some core consumables (tires, tubes, bar tape, cassettes, chains, maybe chainrings), 90% of the sales are with new bikes.
And, for the stuff that a store doesn't carry, should I be forced to hire someone to find and order (and mark up) stuff for me?
It may be that I'm better off doing a custom order of 10 items online vs going down to the store, and having them buy a single item at a time from their wholesale company.
I'm 10 miles from the closest store, and 15 miles or so from several stores. Car-free, it would be inconvenient to not stock at least some of my own spare parts.