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Old 01-31-22 | 07:11 PM
  #13  
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icemilkcoffee
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If they are selling their bikes online at the same price points as the dealers, then I don't see how they are screwing the dealers. I bought a new Specialized bike for my wife in early 2020. It was pretty hard to find the XS size Sirrus that she wanted. I would have appreciated the chance to order that bike online. As it happened, we did find the bike in that XS size locally, but not in the color she wanted. We just bought the bike nonetheless. I imagine the local stores typically just carried in stock bikes in the 'usual sizes', and in the popular colors, and not the outlier sizes in oddball colors, which might sit on the showroom floor for months gathering dust. Having an online ordering option would allow Specialized to sell the oddly configured bikes directly to consumers.
The internet is good at catering to 'Long Tail' consumer needs. Bicycle retailing is no different.
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