Robert Saunders said:
Phil Corley's here in Milton Keynes don't appear to stock
much Campag. I popped in after shoe plates for Pro-fit
pedals. They had to be heavily prompted before they
admitted to having heard about such pedals, then admitted
they don't stock Campag parts because people find it so
much easier to order by mail!
When I was in 'the trade' we never stocked campag because
unless you bring it in by the truck load you can't buy it
for less than it gets sold in the back of the comic.
<RantMode> From a consumer point of view (as I am now)
Parker, Settle etc seem great because they let you get all
this nice shiney stuff cheap, from the point of view of the
LBS, the industry and the introduction of better quality
bikes and parts to people new to cycling its sucks.
Smallish LBS can't afford to stock high quality stuff for
local market because the comic boys offer it at very little
more than LBS can buy it for. Comic readers won't buy stuff
from LBS at 25 to 30% more than Parkers.
Quality stuff isn't in LBS so non comic reading punter
cannot find out about better quality stuff, keeps going with
[censored] stuff, has a less fun time, the industry as a whole
makes less money, has less clout with government, more
motorways get built.
Whenever Shimano try to support LBS's by trying to control
leakage from OEM to retail, everyone jumps on them about
restricting competition. But they still expect to be able to
walk into LBS and choose from a full range to tyre sizes,
cassettes, chains etc and whine like hell that the shop
doesn't have the tools to repair stuff that they never sell.
</RantMode>
Glad I got out.
--
Andy Morris
AndyAtJinkasDotFreeserve.Co.UK
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