Specialized and a few others.....

flappy8

How do they manage to to control pricing on their products? Sometimes end of season discounts etc are offered but obviously centrally. I thought you were not allowed to control pricing - or your dealer network. Evans for instance might have x% off and it would exclude Endura, Spesh etc....

njee20

They don't specifically? But take a dim view on folk who constantly knock bikes out cheap.

flappy8

Surely the must do - its impossible except end of line to ever get a published discount on a Spesh helmet for instance. I can understand them not wanting the bikes out too cheap in case that knocks the quality of the PDI

bennett_346

I've seen the helmets reduced before, and i got my stumpy for £600 below list price as a one off. not sure what you mean.

warpcow

It's even worse trying to get hold of certain companies' bikes from EU countries where they're cheaper. The list price of model X in Sweden, for example, was roughly £2500, but £1800 in the UK, and, like you say, they are rarely discounted. Some UK and German stores will export, but it's all a bit hush-hush. A friend, who was trying to import an X to Sweden, was told by a UK retailer that the manufacturer would penalize them, in terms of what models they could get and trade prices, if they found out. He [the saleperson] quoted the manufacturer's reasoning as being something along the lines of them being happier not selling a bike, than selling it to someone who could not take full advantage of living near the retailer (for service,etc).

Should I put on my tinfoil hat now?

Long_Time_Lurker

I'm sure that a company with their clout could choose not to supply bikes to a shop if they continually offered discounts on their latest bikes.
That is why their bikes cost the same (more or less), no matter where you buy it. Unless it is a previous years model.

flappy8

I thought there were explicit rules to stop suppliers taking sanctions against shops, but maybe I'm just mistaken in that...

chez_m356

Long Time Lurker wrote:

I'm sure that a company with their clout could choose not to supply bikes to a shop if they continually offered discounts on their latest bikes.
That is why their bikes cost the same (more or less), no matter where you buy it. Unless it is a previous years model.

unless i'm mistaken, aren't the shops that stock specialized, authorised dealers who will have to follow the companies guidelines, its not a coincidence that when these sales are on, there also on the specialized website too

El Zomba

chez_m356 wrote:

Long Time Lurker wrote:

I'm sure that a company with their clout could choose not to supply bikes to a shop if they continually offered discounts on their latest bikes.
That is why their bikes cost the same (more or less), no matter where you buy it. Unless it is a previous years model.

unless i'm mistaken, aren't the shops that stock specialized, authorised dealers who will have to follow the companies guidelines, its not a coincidence that when these sales are on, there also on the specialized website too

I think you may be right. I remember when I bought my Hardrock a few years ago that there were huge discounts across the range (25% is large when you're buying from a shop as a stranger). The fella in the shop said that Specialized had imported too many bikes in and as a consequence made the dealers slash prices dramatically before the usual end of year sales to try and offload the excess.

njee20

In instances like that Spesh will reduce the trade price as well and advise new lower retail prices so the shop can still make full margin.