Price cartel for bike gear?

MountainMonster

The milk part was completely illegal, but the other example of their buying power and buying in such huge amounts is fully legal, and actually encouraged by watchdog committees because it lowers or stabilizes prices to the consumer.

Anonymous

Why, what did they do with milk then?

Anonymous

cooldad wrote:

Knickers in a twist time. Shop around, there's always a deal somewhere.

and always worth learning the fact that most stuff is made in the same factories. Find out the cheaper versions of the same product that's sold under the cheap generic brand and buy that instead of paying top dollar for a name or image.

Same applies to most products, not just bike stuff.

alfablue

Worse still as Tesco often sell milk as a loss-leader it not only forces the competitors' prices down, it forces the farm price to an artificially low level, bringing dairy farms to the brink of economic viability - perfectly legal, but the other side of the coin. Of course, Tesco say they buy from milk processors so have no say on farm prices . . . :roll: we could do with Fairtrade on British Milk!

Sodajim

cee wrote:

cooldad wrote:

TowerRider wrote:

In my opinion and obviously not everyone's, there is certainly price fixing based on rrp. Just need to look specialised prices online and how only certain retailers or location allowed to sell them. Go store and you may be able to get a deal or sale items. No competition on pricing for many items but to be honest supermarkets were caught doing it and today they are still at it with various scams.

Yet Specialized still manage to sell millions of bikes. Perhaps they restrict retailers to maintain after sales service = reputation.
RRP is what it says - recommended. What someone actually sells it for is up to them.
As SS said - parts range from cheap and cheerful to crazy boutique, with cheap and nasty in there somewhere.
Most of the cheaper stuff works fine for everyday riders. Alivio will change gears, but your friends won't ooh and aah.

RRP is indeed recommended...but I know for a fact that some bike manufacturers will contact a bike shop who is undercutting all the other bike shops and tell them to put their prices up. The penalty for not doing so....no more bikes from that company.

This is true. I used to work in a bike shop and this was very much the threat from certain distribution companies.
You were certainly not allowed to advertise discounted prices on current models and if they got wind you had offered a discount to a customer, (by the customer going to another dealer and requesting a price match for example) you could expect a ticking off or/and threat of no further supply. It’s not hard to work out what ones use this ploy. Just look online for the current bikes with in store collection only or call for best prices tagged to them. Legal/ ethical or not it does go on

cooldad

Fairtrade is a load of bollocks.
Marketing ploy to sell mediocre goods to aging hippies.

Like dolphin friendly curry.

alfablue

cooldad wrote:

Fairtrade is a load of bollocks.
Marketing ploy to sell mediocre goods to aging hippies.

Like dolphin friendly curry.

Well, I'll re-phrase then, I would like Tesco to trade fairly with farmers.

Anonymous

cooldad wrote:

Fairtrade is a load of bollocks.
Marketing ploy to sell mediocre goods to aging hippies.

Like dolphin friendly curry.

I agree about "fairtrade" Surely the point is to give a bigger cut to the original farmers or whatever, not to charge ageing hippies more.

BUT, Dolphin friendly curry is a serious issue. One of my ex girlfriends was a dolphin. I took her out for an indian one night, and the following morning, she had such bad runs that she prolapsed and died.
It's a serious issue. Normal curries aren't fit for dolphin consumption, and the issue needs to be bought to the public's attention.
For £100 a week, you could help fund dolphin food safety teachers to spread the word, and prevent dolphin deaths.
Your £100 a week could have made the difference. She might still be alive now

cooldad

Would be wasted money as she would have ended up in a ditch anyway, head on backwards.

Anonymous

Not this one, she was special. She was the one
Despite her obvious smelling of fish, she had a warm heart.

cooldad

Hope you have a reminder of lost love.
You could have done this:

Anonymous

That's what I did. She's mounted on a plinth in the garden, with a motion sensor, so that whenever someone walks into the garde, she turns to them and sings the song from bedknobs and broomsticks.

supersonic

I used to work at a Raleigh 5 star dealership - the shop got cheaper trade prices if they did not stock certain other brands.

cooldad

supersonic wrote:

I used to work at a Raleigh 5 star dealership - the shop got cheaper trade prices if they did not stock certain other brands.

Sorry but couldn't resist - what other brands - like REAL bikes?

supersonic

Ssssh, we had Raleigh Activator TWOs in stock.

nicklouse

bluechair84 wrote:

I ordered a spare part once and checked with the distributor how much they charged. My LBS sold it to me 'at cost' which turned out to be higher than the distributor had quoted me. He wasn't very happy when I said he was being ripped off by the same distributor I spoke to the day before.
I think that odd pricing may very well be down to the distributor forcing up what the shop sells at. Obviously, Superstar are cheap because they don't have the middle man taking a cut.

i wonder if the VAT was the difference?

weescott

RRP was replaced by SRP years ago for the reason of a level playing field in the retail market. What happend? lack of SRP inforcement!

The price cartels come from China and ther over valued currency. So if you think buying Chinese products where they pay a bag of rice a month to 90 year old woman to make your cheap grips is worth it over the EU/AM version is up to you.

Pay more for home grown Hope or cheap chinese version?

cooldad

weescott wrote:

RRP was replaced by SRP years ago for the reason of a level playing field in the retail market. What happend? lack of SRP inforcement!

The price cartels come from China and ther over valued currency. So if you think buying Chinese products where they pay a bag of rice a month to 90 year old woman to make your cheap grips is worth it over the EU/AM version is up to you.

Pay more for home grown Hope or cheap chinese version?

The Chinese currency is severely undervalued, not overvalued, hence their exports are really cheap. (ie lots of Yuan for your £ $ etc).

Welcome to the real world. In the sixties it was don't buy Jap crap, buy British, then don't buy from Hong Kong/Taiwan, support the EU (as the UK doesn't really have a manufacturing sector anymore). Now buy from the USA not China?
Get a grip.
And I'm sure that poor oppressed 90 year old woman prefers her monthly bag of rice to starving to death.

cooldad

ps Hope hubs are noisy and annoying - scream look at me.

popstar

I would have to agree with Cooldad about choosing who to buy from. I am selfish git and want something more affordable. Don't care where it has been made, China Africa EU or US wouldn't bother me. Give me quality and good price any day.

Most US and EU manufacturers moved their equipment to China to produce goods, those who did stay at their own country, under marketing flag of -buy home made- do look like a failure in terms of real world business.

I don't buy the feelings of 90 year old poor woman paid bag of rice for a month's work either, as it is in my eyes -dilletant attempt of those who failed to move on- home made manufacturers.

But, there is some talent in UK. Look at TroutLights.

Anonymous

popstar wrote:

But, there is some talent in UK. Look at TroutLights.

Isn't that just one man in his shed?

Though a lot of good stuff comes from British sheds