Online stores killing RSA economy!

[GLuvsMtb]

Why do I buy online?

1. Choice and availablity: Its so nice to go to CRC / CWC and stick everything you need into a basket, check if there is stock and pay. It is so frustrating if you want something specific and you need to phone 10 bike shops to try and get the stuff you want. Click and collect 5 days later.

2. Price: Sure there is a discount, even when you add the import duties and VAT onto it.

 

Why do I support my LBS?

1. Expertise - I am busy buying a new bike. I want to make sure that I get exactly what I want, and my LBS will make sure that I get that.

2. Support - I want to know that if I have an aftermarket issue, my LBS is going to bat for me. I will not buy wheels, shocks or frames online for exactly that reason (perhaps through CWC, but not from overseas), but you have much less risk when buying seatposts, cranks, consumables and the like online.

3. Urgency - something breaks on Friday afternoon and I have a race on Saturday. I then have to pay the inflated prices to ensure that I am ready to compete the next day.

 

Interesting bit on the Mavic Wheels and Dragon sport - I suspect that they are concerned that if there are aftermarket issues, the guy on the bike is going to come running to them to sort out CRC stuff.

I like the idea of more than 1 agent / distributor to ensure that competition is healthy, as long as we don't have a vodacom / mtn type deal where they decide beforehand who gets what part of the marketshare and fix their prices. With the phenominal growth in cycling (and mtb-ing in particular) it will become attractive for more players to enter the distribution market.

 

Are we killing the local economy?

Definately not! We are simply exercising choice.

[Ghostface]

I'm just making sure I understand. I foresee that in a matter of time' date=' you will only be able to buy from this new e-store, as no other store will stock the products, and therefore there will be no competion to keep prices in check.

[/quote']

No Competition???Now I would like to make sure I understand you are the only one who bring in Mavic....where is YOUR competition CWC? And then you sue him?

There should also be competition at the supplier level, why can there be only one in the country? I think that we should have plenty options, if I get a giant and something goes wrong and you can not help me why can I not go to another supplier that CAN help me?

I have had dealings with Dragons, and when I got shocking service I could not take my bussiness elsewhere because you hold the monopoly......Then you post this view? Odd

 

We aren't the only ones bringing in Mavic, Solomans did/are, CWC, Comobike, Icycling. The competion is good and it has made us go back to Mavic and work towards better deals so we can try compete with CWC and CRC. We can't compete with the special sales prices but we are trying to keep everyone happy.

 

Sorry you had bad dealings with Dragons. There's alot of new faces here now and we're trying to focus on giving better service to our dealers and in turn, the end user, you.

[Guest coenie]

Ghostface, only 2 weeks ago you wanted to charge more to fix a wheel than what it will cost to get a new one from CRC....and I am sorry but I do not agree with you saying that Solomons and Icycling also brought in wheels....if so why do you always ask for the serial number?

 

On the CWC thing, now that the case was lost....will dragons every come clean and say what they had against CWC?

 

[Ghostface]

Ghostface' date=' only 2 weeks ago you wanted to charge more to fix a wheel than what it will cost to get a new one from CRC....and I am sorry but I do not agree with you saying that Solomons and Icycling also brought in wheels....if so why do you always ask for the serial number?

On the CWC thing, now that the case was lost....will dragons every come clean and say what they had against CWC?
[/quote']

 

I don't deal with Mavic repairs/servicing but sometimes repairs are more expensive than buying another item. This happens in all fields of high end products (Cellphones, Surfboards, cameras, PC's, Cars, Toys etc).

 

Icycling don't buy wheels from us but they have them on the site. Where do they come from? Solomons used to.

 

I wasn't invovled with the case and have no info about the case. Like I said, it was in motion before I started working here. Sorry.

[Charvel]

Sorry, I didn't read the whole thread, but my take on this is the following:

 

We are coming out of a recession where most of us have been faced with large restraints on our personal budgets. When this happens, it doesn mean that people want less, their "wants / needs" still stay the same, but they will then start to look at other ways to fulfill their needs.

 

Where people normally would've been content with forking out money for products from local suppliers without shopping around, they have now started looking around for the cheapest product / service. People's need for instant gratification would mean that they would look around locally first BEFORE looking at overseas channels, but should the overseas channels be way cheaper than local suppliers, thats when you will get what is happening at the moment.

 

People want choice of products and services at the best price, and funny enough, people WANT to exercise that right locally! But if they feel that they are getting ripped off by local suppliers, they will go the international route (should it work out way cheaper).

 

In essence, in difficult times, price is THE most important factor, while when times are better, the full experience draws more attention. The idea of looking at products / services from a customer's point of view, still hold huge value - doesn't matter which industry you are in.

 

 

[wheels]

Ghostface. Seems like you are a clever buss man. I notice that you work for Dragons. Answer Coenies questions. If you do not have the info on the CWC / Mavic story just go to someone in management and get the story from them. Its a pitty that I cant find the CWC/Mavic story on the hub but as far as I remember they were sued because they imports Mavic and took of the serail numbers.

It was all bulsh*t. They got the best publicity out of that fight and as far as I am aware they still bring Mavic in and still give it to us at a good price.

I wonder if you realise how many cyclist has stoped riding Giant after that fight that you guys had with them. I am one who will never ride a Giant again.