Originally posted by Hunter
Well sorry but you are not going to get that info from me. I am not going to tell you what I pay for product. Why do you and your other cohort think I should?
I never said that you should necessarily divulge any information that you don't want to. Keep it all under your hat if you wish, and continue to try to hose the general cycling public for as much as you possibly can. The best cycle shops are not the ones that follow the philosophy that keeping the customer in the dark as much as possible is the best way to deal with them. Only an LBS who does not offer quality service/value need fear the informed customer. If he/she can get better value elsewhere then you don't deserve their business anyway. The feeling that I get from you (in our extremely limited exchange) is that you try to 'get away' with as much as you can by divulging as little as possible, and that mentality bothers me.
My point is that, as I understand it, this board is for bike enthusiasts, and a significant part of being a bike enthusiast is trying to get the most for your biking dollar (esp. since alot of us are students who don't have tonnes of money to sink into our bikes). Setting up a private forum where you and any like-minded people can find splendid new ways to rip the customer off even more does not seem to be consistent with the goal of serving the cycling community.