Specialized price fixing ??

biff55

Due to the unfortunate theft of my bike recently , i find myself in the long slog of choosing a replacement and a couple of issues have cropped up that i wanna put out there for discussion.
Firstly , a bike i have considered buying is the specialized camber elite and after brief price checks on the internet its obvious that every bike store in the land is selling the 2012 models at the same price to within a quid ?
So am i right in saying this has been ordered by spesh themselves ? Doesnt seem very health from a free trade perspective and leaves little choice for the consumer ?

Secondly , after a wander round Evans Manchester store checking out the shiney eye candy , it was quite disheartening to discover you need to spend at least £800 to get any hard tail with a rockshox fork , and the most basic fork model at that.
I saw the camber FS I was interested in , but at £1800 I though it over priced by a good £200 in my opinion so wallet stayed in pocket.
Anyone else with comments to share on this topic ?
Regards.

cooldad

Nope.

cooldad

Unless it's there are more places to buy bikes than Evans.

charliedontsurf

rockrider 8.1 has rockshox recon silver tk fork and thats 500

biff55

cooldad wrote:

Unless it's there are more places to buy bikes than Evans.

There are ?!
Who'd have thought.
:?
Not that it makes any difference if there's price rigging going on.

biff55

charliedontsurf wrote:

rockrider 8.1 has rockshox recon silver tk fork and thats 500

Good call , never saw it in the store , will have a look.

diy

Price fixing would be spesh, trek, marin etc. colluding to set prices or for evans, cycleworks, etc doing the same.

A manufacturer is within their rights to set a rrp and forbid excessive discounting as part of their terms.

biff55

diy wrote:

Price fixing would be spesh, trek, marin etc. colluding to set prices or for evans, cycleworks, etc doing the same.

A manufacturer is within their rights to set a rrp and forbid excessive discounting as part of their terms.

Thanks , clearly spesh arent alone then.

nicklouse

biff55 wrote:

diy wrote:

Price fixing would be spesh, trek, marin etc. colluding to set prices or for evans, cycleworks, etc doing the same.

A manufacturer is within their rights to set a rrp and forbid excessive discounting as part of their terms.

Thanks , clearly spesh arent alone then.

eh?

you miss the point.

biff55

No , i understood.

cooldad

biff55 wrote:

charliedontsurf wrote:

rockrider 8.1 has rockshox recon silver tk fork and thats 500

Good call , never saw it in the store , will have a look.

You wouldn't have unless you were in a Decathlon.

chez_m356

biff55 wrote:

So am i right in saying this has been ordered by spesh themselves ? Doesnt seem very health from a free trade perspective and leaves little choice for the consumer ?

of course its spesh themselves, to sell them you have to be an authorised spesh dealer, which mean you follow there rules, and as for consumer choice, you can always wait for the spesh sales or buy something else

JBA

You can get the 2011 Camber Elite for £1,200 if you do a bit of Googling.

You can then buy a lot of bling with the money saved.

MountainMonster

Nothing wrong at all.

stalkedtoast

I think Specialized bikes are over priced anyway for the spec, look at something else

gezebo

If people thought they (Specialized) were overpriced then they would not buy them. People do buy them for a variety of reason so prices stay generally consistent across the board for current 2012 models. Bike manufacturers are in the business of making money not doing us a favour!

However deals and discounts are available, but to get them on current models you need to haggle. Generally this means going into shops in person on a quiet day and showing them that you've got money to spend. It's often surprising how much cheaper you can get things for, although the best deals will always be on last years (or older) models.

felix.london

chez_m356 wrote:

biff55 wrote:

So am i right in saying this has been ordered by spesh themselves ? Doesnt seem very health from a free trade perspective and leaves little choice for the consumer ?

of course its spesh themselves, to sell them you have to be an authorised spesh dealer, which mean you follow there rules, and as for consumer choice, you can always wait for the spesh sales or buy something else

Just like Apple

stalkedtoast wrote:

I think Specialized bikes are over priced anyway for the spec, look at something else

Just like Apple

cooldad

I quite like a banana sliced on my cereal.

chez_m356

gezebo wrote:

If people thought they (Specialized) were overpriced then they would not buy them. People do buy them for a variety of reason so prices stay generally consistent across the board for current 2012 models. Bike manufacturers are in the business of making money not doing us a favour!

what kind of logic is that, obviously if someone thinks they are overpriced they wont buy one, or are you implying that everyone who buys a spesh thinks its overpriced and buys it anyway ?

TheEnglishman

As other s have said, it's illegal to fix prices. However, manufacturers have the right to sell to any shop/outlet they want to, or not. Many of the online discount places don't sell Specialized. There's a reason for that.

And many don't 'just' buy the bicycle from the shop. They buy the brand and possibly the service as well.

gezebo

chez_m356 wrote:

gezebo wrote:

what kind of logic is that, obviously if someone thinks they are overpriced they wont buy one, or are you implying that everyone who buys a spesh thinks its overpriced and buys it anyway ?

Its the logic that manufacturers base the rrp on Manufacturing cost+What they can get away with charging in order to maximise their profit. People who buy Spesh (or any other brand) buy them because they believe they are worth that particular amount of money.

chez_m356

gezebo wrote:

chez_m356 wrote:

gezebo wrote:

what kind of logic is that, obviously if someone thinks they are overpriced they wont buy one, or are you implying that everyone who buys a spesh thinks its overpriced and buys it anyway ?

Its the logic that manufacturers base the rrp on Manufacturing cost+What they can get away with charging in order to maximise their profit. People who buy Spesh (or any other brand) buy them because they believe they are worth that particular amount of money.

oh so your saying they make a bike for x amount then triple it and the public will still buy it because our brand name is a legend and they don't know any better

sanchez89

why not look at canyon? much better equiped than Spesh for less dollars.

gezebo

chez_m356 wrote:

oh so your saying they make a bike for x amount then triple it and the public will still buy it because our brand name is a legend and they don't know any better

Haha. In a nutshell yes! I'd leave out the bit about people not knowing any better. Go into any shop and buy a Spesh bike and you won't go far wrong even if you know nothing about bikes. Combine that with a good/great customer service record and good quality bikes and a long standing brand name and identity and suddenly you are in a position of power when it comes to charging customers.

The comments about Apple are interesting... Both American companies started at a similar time, in a similar area with Mike Sinyard and Steve Jobs a similar age... It's all a conspiracy! Although it would be reasonable to see why Spesh may try a similar approach to business. Are Spesh the cycling world equivalent to Apple?!

morleyman200

one reason for spesh and overs alike costing an arm and a leg compared to the others, is because you pay for the brand as well. like said above. you pay for the after service, spesh and trek have one of the best warranties on offer, and the money they put into development you can see on bikes as well

diy

It wasn't that long ago that Specialized had more of a boardman like brand. People bought them because they had better spec than the competition. It was Orange and Marin who dominated the shops in the mtb section not that long ago.

boristhespie

RRP was supposed to have been abolished years ago. It was deemed by the Government as anti-competitive.

Giraffoto

gezebo wrote:

chez_m356 wrote:

oh so your saying they make a bike for x amount then triple it and the public will still buy it because our brand name is a legend and they don't know any better

Haha. In a nutshell yes!

Outside of the nutshell, it's called "strategic pricing" and at its simplest it is a matter of charging the best price you now you can get before a diminishing number of customers cuts into the profits

gezebo also wrote:

Are Spesh the cycling world equivalent to Apple?!

No, because I can occasionally shut my stupid bourgeois-bohemian cakehole about owning a Specialized

Thewaylander

I would say Specialized have some of the best suspension platforms out there, and the development cost of these is huge, Smaller companies will often stick to more tried and tested means or buy in a couple of patents.

Development costs are a big area to recoup, though I do personally think they are becoming a bit over priced, they used to be very competetive due to mass production or so I believed.