Price raise

jonnydcp

Why is it when most retailers are reducing their prices, due to the VAT reduction, state of the economy etc, online cycling stores are wacking the price of everything up.

Example- brought a pair of Assos Winter plus overshoes from ChainReaction on Thursday last week £42.99, todays price £46.99.
Assos Winter LL bibtights from Wiggle £166.99 when I placed my order a couple of weeks ago just looked and they are now £176.16 and thats with my discount. Now is not the time to be trying to put one over on cyclists who spend a lot of money and have made these companies as big as they are.
Stuff it I think my LBS will be getting my Christmas cash, I would rather put money in their pockets than the bank of some faceless money grabbing internet store.

STEFANOS4784

Apparently because of the 'credit crunch' cycling has become much more popular, the prices are up now but i expect as soon as more competition joins the market the prices will be driven right down again :?:

Smocker

More like price alignment.
You guys are wrong.Cycling has only just returned to the mainstream in this country.
prices are just realigning with other products.On top of this currency is fluctuating and labour and material costs have risen enormously.
what makes you think its the retailers fleecing the buyers?The importers are in the CHAIN too!
Your local bike shop is probably closed down due to so many people abandoning them and switching to web shops.Oh but you will have nown that their still there cause you popped in at 5.29 to borrow an allen key once. 8)

STEFANOS4784

O.k whateva
Spent 90 quid down my LBS on 1 tyre new cables and some brake blocks and a 8 speed freewheel cassette, i only didn't get my bike from them as they didn't seem that interested in fit etc just wanted to sell me whatever cr@p they had in stock, i value there advice and don't mind paying top dollar if they give me good advice, i asked for a 56 cannondale synapse, they only had 52 but said it was fiine(i'm 6 ft)
When i bought a bike and went in for advice they were most helpful which is why i payed what was probably 40 quid more than i had to 8)


Also bought a frame pump for 30 quid which i know is on fleabay for 12, don't mind paying if they give me service(i originaly went in for a new stem for my 'good' bike but he told me i was better off going online as the one they had was heavy and expensive) :roll: 8) :?

nwallace

Pound Against the Yen over the last 12 months
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/fds/ ... _month.stm

The price of imported goods will rise as the pound looses value against the manufacturers currency.

For example
When the Pound was at $2 I could purchase 10 Hella 550 Lens covers with £10
Now with it back at $1.50 I can purchase 7 Hella 550 Lens covers with £10 (as you can't buy 0.5 of a cover)

If the pound drops to $1 I woudl be able to purchase 5 Hella 550 Lens covers with £10.

This of course ignores the fact that the cost of Hella 550 Lens covers will change as the company I buy them from gets them in huge quantities from Hella in Germany, and so the $ cost of them depends on the Euro - USD exchange rate too.

Had I bought 1000 USD (cost £500) when the exchange rate was £1 = $2 and held onto them I could now sell the $ for £750.

For bike kit, the price changes will depend on what the suppliers need to buy them. It;s easier to describe using petrol as an example.

If I ran a petrol station, and I am selling petrol at 20p a litre (ignoring taxes) and the wholesale price rises such that I need to charge 40p a litre to keep the same profit margin, I need to increase my price ASAP so that I can afford to buy in the next tank full of petrol. This is one of the reasons many stations were regularly short on fuel while prices were rising, they simply could not afford to fill their tanks. Now with the price dropping they are able to keep their margins the same but drop the price knowing they don't need to spend so much to get their next tank full.

The product turn over for a cycling goods distributor will be lower than for a petrol station of course. If we take a low yield product that the distributor can keep a single supply of for a year before ordering more, if it was an open market (bear in mind manufacturers usually have only one distributor per country) 1 distributor could find that they paid a lot more than their competitors for low yield items (example a company buying in parts from the US now, compared to the company that bought their stock in June)

right now I am waiting for Sachs UK distributor to provide Wiggle with 1 Avid BB7 Road Front. They were due mid-november, bugger all back from wiggle since the "We will contact them to find out" e-mail last week.

Might just have to find some store selling them in another country

jonnydcp

Smocker, I will remember your words next time a shell out 2 grand for a bike at my LBS. In the last 2 years I have spent £3500 in just two shops, some of us still like the human touch mate. 25% increases are soon going to put an end to the cycling boom.

Tom Butcher

Took a mate round some local shops to buy his first road bike. One with a jig in the shop refused to sit him on it as that's just for their own handmade frames, gave an incorrect top tube measurement for the bike he was interested in (63cm for a 58cm specialized !) and when queried insisted they were correct, didn't get a bike out for him to sit on and basically offered zero in the way of service - in fact if he'd bought on line at least he'd have got accurate frame measurements and the on line sizing guides would be better than the complete lack of advice offered by the shop.

Smocker

Looks like some LBSs are in need of a kick in the pants and the credit crunch might be just the thing to either force them to up their game or disappear.
I was in a Snow n Rock the other day and they had zero product knowledge and admitted it.
However there are some totally spot on shops out there usually owned by a business type but staffed by bikies who just wana talk bike and drink coffee as they subtly extract your cash for shinney bitz and new bikes .
Oh and yes i know S+R are a chain not an indie.

Matchstick Man

imports now cost more so not surprised Assos goods etc are more expensive. Local LBS sells BMX's as well and they've gone through the roof in terms of price. LBS can't do anything about it as the costs are being passed on to them by their suppliers so I imagine the same will be happening with Giant dealers, Specialized, Trek,etc. Import businesses (bike trade) will suffer in the UK but exporters will prosper.
Basic economics boys and girls

Monty Dog

Get real - you'd have to cut my legs off to stop me riding a bike. I've been made redundant twice but it didn't stop me riding - a 25% price increase just means I'll be a bit more selective about upgrades and new parts.

beverick

jonnydcp wrote:

Why is it when most retailers are reducing their prices, due to the VAT reduction, state of the economy etc, online cycling stores are wacking the price of everything up.

Cetain retailers are reducing the prices of specific goods to either increase income or reduce stock levels. The government has reduced the price of VAT by 2.5% partially to stimulate consumer spending and partially to assist mainly smaller, unregistered, companies who may not be able to reclaim the full amount of VAT. Remembering of course that VAT is in many ways a 'loan' given by the consumer to the government although it is actually reclaimed (repaid) elsewhere in the supply chain.

The price a retailer sets for a good is net of VAT and is not influenced by the VAT rate other than to preserve "price pointing". Basically, If the price the consumer payed for an item in November was £117.50 it will now be £115. The amount to the retailer will still be £100 it's just that HMRC will get £2.5 less.

Reducing VAT will, ironically, put the income to the retailer up for many items up as they retain their price point especially on low value items. For example, an item previously costing £13.49 would be reduced to £13.21. However, a retailer may be inclined to price the item at £13.25.

Bob

nwallace

I'm watching the price of computer parts slowly climb as the pound collapses against every other currency.

Average price of petrol in Ireland appears to be around €1, it must be getting close to being cheaper to purchase in N.I. than ROI rather than the other way round.

1892

I've noticed that they had put a couple of items up in the sale to what they were before the sale

Lagavulin

The price rise(s) that have me bemused the most are DT Swiss' wheels.

I ordered a set of RR1850s on the last day of July 2007 for £380 (1450 mon Chasserals were the same price).

The RRP of both 1850s and the 1450 mon Chasserals has since shot up to nearly £700!!

I'm almost tempted to buy another set while CRC have 32% off (those hubs are lovely).