On 5/07/11 7:59 PM, bruce wrote:

> You must really have missed out on what to me bike ridin has always been
> about.
>
> How the **** do you get personal service from an email? To me nothing
> better than personal service for everything. I've never bought something
> online and had it fitted to my bike or car free.
>
>

You deal with a person. Via email. Kinda like how I am chatting to you
now. If free fitting floats your boat feel free to keep paying ripoff
prices. Personally I wouldn't let most of the bike shop guys anywhere
near my bike.

Fraser

"G-S" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4e13009e$0$27568$(E-Mail Removed) .com...
> On 5/07/11 11:57 AM, Capt_about_lunchtime wrote:
>
>> I sometimes hear older people bemoan the loss of their Butcher,
>> Greengrocer,
>> Deli, Newsagent ect ect.
>
> My local butcher is 1 block down from my local greengrocer with my local
> newsagent in the middle of them (yes seriously).
>
> The local butcher has nicer meat than the supermarket, the local
> greengrocer has nicer fruit and vegetables and the newsagent has
> tattslotto and a selection of magazines quite a lot wider than the
> supermarket does.


And I would bet that your local newsagent sells papers with better quality
paper and even better news items that what the supermarket can come up with.



> The butcher and the greengrocer survive because even thought they are more
> expensive they're selling a better quality product.
>
> Not everyone buys purely on price, the big issue bike accessory shops face
> is they're trying to sell the same product for more money not a better
> product for more money.
>
> They need to add enough 'total product value' to attract premium
> customers.
>
> I suspect a shop front that did custom altered cordura riding gear would
> do ok with us short fat buggers (just an example).
>
>
> G-S

On 6/07/2011 12:18 PM, Fraser Johnston wrote:

> You deal with a person. Via email. Kinda like how I am chatting to you
> now. If free fitting floats your boat feel free to keep paying ripoff
> prices. Personally I wouldn't let most of the bike shop guys anywhere
> near my bike.

That sounds like a good policy. How do you know which ones you would
let near it ?

Nev..

On 6/07/11 1:46 PM, Nev.. wrote:
> On 6/07/2011 12:18 PM, Fraser Johnston wrote:
>
>> You deal with a person. Via email. Kinda like how I am chatting to you
>> now. If free fitting floats your boat feel free to keep paying ripoff
>> prices. Personally I wouldn't let most of the bike shop guys anywhere
>> near my bike.
>
> That sounds like a good policy. How do you know which ones you would let
> near it ?

By knowing them by reputation from people I trust.

Fraser

On 6/07/11 2:24 PM, George W Frost wrote:
> "G-S"<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:4e13009e$0$27568$(E-Mail Removed) .com...
>> On 5/07/11 11:57 AM, Capt_about_lunchtime wrote:
>>
>>> I sometimes hear older people bemoan the loss of their Butcher,
>>> Greengrocer,
>>> Deli, Newsagent ect ect.
>>
>> My local butcher is 1 block down from my local greengrocer with my local
>> newsagent in the middle of them (yes seriously).
>>
>> The local butcher has nicer meat than the supermarket, the local
>> greengrocer has nicer fruit and vegetables and the newsagent has
>> tattslotto and a selection of magazines quite a lot wider than the
>> supermarket does.
>
>
> And I would bet that your local newsagent sells papers with better quality
> paper and even better news items that what the supermarket can come up with.

The local newsagent survives because he offers product that isn't
available elsewhere (well not nearby elsewhere anyway).

Tattslotto agents appear to have franchise areas and the newsagent also
sells many more varieties of magazines and newspapers.

I doubt it's practical for bike shops to provide 'many more varieties'
of product than is available via the internet.

It is conceivable that some variety of restrictive trade practices might
be able to be applied to some types of products in order to help
preserve local shops.

It's already the case that some international shops won't supply to
Australia because there are local distributors.


G-S

You email them and ask them if they are trust worthy.
> That sounds like a good policy. How do you know which ones you would let
near it ?
>
> Nev..
>

Jordan wrote...

> They'd lose $50 if the goods don't suit?

Especially for helmets. Last one I bought it was from the 3rd shop that I'd
visited. None of the previous two shops that I was in had any lids that fitted
me properly.

And even this one that I did buy was a bit of a compromise.