On 7/25/2016 1:15 PM, AMuzi wrote:
<snip>
> Jeff Archer made some public and vociferous complaints about his store's
> major bike brand being sold at REI stores. A week later was run down and
> killed. Coincidence?
Not funny at all.
There are a sufficient number of brands that if a shop is upset about a
manufacturer selling through REI that they can drop the brand and pick
up something else.
REI's prices are nothing terrific, though there is the 10% dividend and
5% credit card rebate. They also have periodic coupons, but they are not
good on anything other than their own Novara brand. The big advantage of
REI, to consumers, is that they are open long hours, 7 days a week, and
that they are good about returns. Most shops around me open after I'm at
work and close before I get home from work. So if I want to get any
issues taken care of during the week I don't have many choices other
than REI, Performance, and Sports Basement (the latter has a very good
bike department), unless it's a common enough part that they have it at
Dick's (which has a surprising number of non-high-end, but
non-department store quality parts).
When I was in REI yesterday picking up something, someone was returning
a bicycle. That bike will likely show up for sale at their "Garage Sale"
and they won't take any net loss on it if they can sell it for 65% of MSRP.