Buying a new bike?
I am confused by all this chatter on the various bikes shows (on YouTube) about the bottom failing out of the bike industry. And to be fair, I see part of that reality on the ground with bikes shops I know closing both virtual and physical.
However you'd expect to see a lot of discounting given the circumstances? I don't. My local bike shop is still looking for €2600 for a new Orbea Orca and €3600 for a Giant Defy 1 (also 105). It wasn't that long ago a 105 based bike was in the €1700-1800 range.
Where is all this deep discounting happening?
Comments
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Discounting is online with the big retailers as they have gotten into the (bad) habit of holding huge stock levels and now need to shift it. You won't find discounts at your LBS, they don't operate on the same margins and can't cover costs.
The industry has been hit hard, but at this moment this is the big players such as Wiggle going into admnistration. We won't see the effects of this for a while but I expect long term we will see:
- lower bike prices as manufacturers realise the demand for bikes at all price points has reduced.
- fewer online retailers and less discounts as they reduce stock levels to meet lower demand.
- well performing LBS will remain strong but they will benefit from online retailers being weaker. Don't expect discounts as they won't need them to compete.
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