Originally Posted by Enthalpic
According to that logic bikes should be free (initial loss) in order to sell more consumables indefinably. Kind of like Duracell giving you a free flashlight so you will buy batteries, forever.
They do make some money selling bikes.
There is a big difference between "LBS does not make much money selling bicycles" and the LBS taking the bikes as a total loss. Imagine how many consumables you would have to sell to cancel out even giving away a cheap road bike.
I would imagine that as the price of a bike climbs, so does the markup/profit margin. So, you should have a better chance of getting 10% off of a $3000 bike than one that costs $700 in the first place. Anyone who has worked in bike sales want to comment on the truth of this?