Wiggle Australia price match plus 10% off promise

'offshore' people like Wiggle & CRC do support Australian events. Go check out the details on their sites. Eg. OZtober & the Wiggle Australian Cycling Series:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/customer-serv...
http://www.wiggle.com.au/sc/au-events-calendar

As always, it's up to the buyer to decide where to shop. Most people shop on price, so don't see how it is bad to bring good deals to light.

It's true that I'm sent many deals, almost daily, but don't bother sharing most of them. In fact, this particular promo came from a buddy and not the retailer. Instead of berating him about shopping O/S I was pleased to hear he'd snagged a bargain and thought this deal good enough to share.

The whole LBS versus on-line debate has been done to death. Feel free to chime in on one of those old topics if you like, but please not here.

I'll buy some new swag and take it to the LBS to fit as I'm a tech muppet
Usually buy a few things at the same time
Win/ win
Thanks for the heads up, Rob

Anything I need advice on or clothes/shoes that i need to try on I always buy local despite the price. You are paying them for their expertise and for holding stock. Consumables like tyres/tubes, etc you are mad to pay local prices where more often than not wholesale is more than online price...

http://zengarage.com.au/2012/11/an-open-letter-t...

Oh FFS
Let's start a 26 vs 29'er argument just for something different

ha no worries mate
I've been known to stir a bit of shit myself

And with a shed full of 26'ers + parts
may be a while before I can convert to anything else

Yup, as previously discussed. No-one batted an eyelid at that thread.

For the record, it takes a lot of time and trouble to keep this site, and others in the network running along smoothly. There are economies of scale in having several sites run from the same server, code, etc. but that doesn't change the fact that not a penny has ever been paid to anyone who does any of this work by any of the users, riders, clubs members, etc. I might have been a bit of riding kit (shorts & jersey) from one generous guy, but that's about as far as it goes.

People discuss on-line offers all the time, it's a fact of life we all like a good deal. So if this stuff is going to be discussed anyway, then we might as well take any kickbacks on offer, right? So again, as previously discussed we recently joined a few affiliate programs to do that (although to be fair, we've been in the T7 program for years). Costs the buyer nothing, but gives a little back to the place where they heard about the deal in question.

For whatever reason, some people don't like the stores discussed in this particular thread. Sorry about that, but you can't please everyone all the time.

For the record, when I scan through the last few threads in the shopping forums there's a good variety with praise for the Australian Fox distributor, Bunnings (yes, cheap place to pick up a bike rack apparently), MTB Revolution, NZO and a load of kind words for Midland Cycles in WA.

So would those who don't like this particular thread, and I assume want it gone, also like to see threads discussing those other commercial enterprises removed?

I do 99% of my bike shopping at my local and always will. that 1% is novelty odd stuff.

I love my local, I am friends with the guy who owns it. I get advice. I get service. I get support.

no-one at wiggle or CRC even knows my name.

I will always shop at local bike shops. Push n Pedal Cycles. KD cycles. Lakes Bikes and Wembley Cycles. These shops are run buy honest businessmen who wont rip you off.

Great shops, Great blokes, Great friends, Great prices FFS!

go ahead and send our hard earned Australian money overseas to 2 bit hustlers.

The end.

I earn a decent wage but live in an expensive suburb and have a few bikes so price is always an issue with me.
I do a lot of overseas shopping but have recently shifted my spending to local shops that have shifted their thinking to meet the demands of today's cyclists.
I've bought quite a bit of stuff from Bikebug lately as the prices ain't that much more than overseas and when desperate for a Chain and cassette early this week, I ordered Monday morning at a very reasonable price and the stuff was ready to pick up that afternoon from the shop.
Again, as Ants says, if you're not moving with the times then stop moaning and forget it.
You can still sell local and earn money. You've just got to get with the times and think differently.

Good job waiting for that lbs return call when they are all wiped out. Ah well, glad to know we all will accept product from an oli or duo opoly and its all streamlined and distibution lines optimised.

And your wife isnt complaining about your expenditure which seems more the point.

And that our mtb clubs accept pushing the corporate line and accepts in principle payment despite leaning on lbs's for races.

Welcome the brave new world.

Product option steamlisation.

Fmd

Nice backhand deal.

Interesting comment about waiting. Why does it take longer for a Mavic rim to come from Melbourne than Ireland? It wasn't the transport leg that was the delay btw.

Pushys in the ACT is a local operation that seems to have its act together, along with Cell Bikes and TBSM.

where's that like button?

I cant believe I'm reading some of these comments........there loyalty to your LBS and then there's plain stupidity......unless you have more money than sense : ) !!

Saved myself over 50% buying xt groupset in bits online...... chainguide in my LBS - $215.....online $108.....go figure.....

Yeah - I still buy my bikes form the LBS and major parts like forks .... but its just plain dumb not to source parts cheaper online...unless you are desperate ......thats my opinion.... : )

Ants - your 100% correct - retailers keep up.......the world is getting a smaller place every minute..... ordered something form CRC sent Monday ....got here today.....its like Xmas has come early.....

StanTheMan, for somebody who reckons he's got a foot in each camp, you're surprisingly dismissive of local businesses. You're right in what you say but you're still missing the main point.
As you mention,the difference between your Lbs and online is Setting-up and Operating Costs.

your Lbs has to pay a substantial premium to secure premises on a shopping strip while online will do with any industrial area or even a country location. Right from the start, we're easily talking an extra 20,30,50 grands per year if not more, that your Lbs has to fork out.

Then you've got setting up costs. Your Lbs needs to set up a decent showroom which requires fitout to display his products. They don't come cheap.
Online will simply set up much cheaper industrial shelving (A cost that also has to be born by your Lbs, though to a lesser extent, for the stock in his reserve).

Your Lbs has to display his products in a reasonably appealing way, which means "poor" product $ value per sq mtr ratio.
Online will just cram products on the shelves, maximizing his floor utilization.

Your Lbs needs a nice big sign that preferably lights up at night, so customers don't struggle to find him. There goes a few more hundred bucks if not a grand or two.
Online doesn't need any signage.

Your Lbs goes to the trouble of educating himself and his staff (Called: Staff Training) so they are knowledgeable about their products and can provide accurate answers to customers. Now a lot of people seem to believe that this just happens, like you pick it up naturally without having to spend time at it. Wrong!
Online doesn't need product knowledge. He just copies and pastes what info the manufacturer supplied. And for more details, he gets the CUSTOMER to fill in at no cost. What a stroke of genius!

Your Lbs will only have a chance of survival if his staff can interact effectively with customers. So now, we're requiring them to be knowledgeable AS WELL AS good articulate salespersons AND they need to dress reasonably well (yeah, I know, we're only talking cycling. Still...)
Meanwhile, online goes: "Can you read & count? Yep? You'll do. Just make sure you wear your safety boots". Now, I don't mean to be dismissive of people who work in the online business as they are not inferior in any sense. I'm just pointing out that online will secure his workforce much more easily (And I have no doubt cheaply in some cases) than your Lbs because their requirements are less.

And we can talk about presence. Your Lbs has to be open to make any money. Sick, holidays, don't care!
Online can be a lot more flexible because unmanned computers do a good deal of the work so, less staff for the same turn-over. Simpler tasks make it easier to find replacement staff. online doesn't have to keep their front door open to the public during business hours.

Chances are your Lbs won't survive without some sort of advertising, on top of which it must also have a website.
Online doesn't need to advertise. His advertising is online, through his website (In fact, the only investment where he spends more money than your Lbs).

And before too long, because of this disproportion in setting up and operating costs, online is able to go to the supplier and say: "Look here, I'm selling shit-loads. How about you give me a bit of a discount on what I buy" to which unfortunately, most suppliers reply: "You're right. Ok, here's another 10%".

And you have the matter of Customer returns. For a similar number of faults/change of minds, the return rate to your Lbs is about 4 times greater than online. The fact that you simply drop in at your Lbs to return stuff as against having to mail it back to online is probably the reason. But the end result is that your Lbs quickly starts going backwards when dealing with returns while online suffers little loss.

Probably one of the worse aspects because it affects your Lbs both financially and psychologically, is their brain being picked by "pretend" customers who in fact have no intention of buying the product there. Yet your Lbs still has to pay his staff or himself, even though the 20 minutes he's just spent helping a customer will not put a dime in his till when the said customer declared that he will "think about it" and your Lbs knows precisely by his demeanor that he won't be back, but will buy it online. That is low-life behaviour and all I can wish on these people is to lose their job because of others doing it to their work place.
Meanwhile, you can pick the brain of online all day and night, within the limits of the above mentioned available info, without costing him a penny more.

Believe it or not, I could go on quite a bit more because I am very familiar with the phenomenon. There's the subject of Customs clearance, port fees, gst, which are all applicable to the products in your Lbs while not on the products you've just received from overseas. However, I'm sure some readers out there have already decided I've gone on enough. But I make no apology, what's at stake here is a damn sight more important than a few extra $ in their hip pocket. The reason is simple: It doesn't just affect Lbs but the entire brick-and-mortar retail sector, the BIGGEST EMPLOYER in our economy and probably one or more of your family members.

So, I will conclude by asking you Stan (but not limited to...): How the hell do you want your Lbs to "adapt" to this situation?
You go and try to "adapt" your rent with your landlord because you're suffering from online competition who are renting at 2/3 of the price.
You go and "adapt" your showroom by stripping it to the look of a warehouse.
You go and "adapt" the quality of your service to save money, with the result that your staff knows shit.
Even better, you "adapt" by telling customers who come in "Go and check it out online and when you know what you want, you can come in and buy it". Well, what's wrong with that? After all, it's very commonly done, the other way around... and see how long you survive.
Man, it ain't adaptable to, particularly for a small business.

Having said that, is there anything inherently wrong or unfair in online retail? Absolutely not. So to all you people out there who chose to shop online because you can get more for your dollar, I make no condemnation. You're simply playing by the rules in place.
Is there anything inherently wrong or greedy in the way your Lbs operates?
Certainly not. He's carrying on a business in a normal fashion to make a normal living and, in a lot of cases, he's even ready to curtail his income to live his passion, which he freely distributes around his shop.

So why isn't working?
Because online, this new form of retail that operates on a totally different principle has landed and no one has seen fit to create a new, different set of rules for it. Not the industry, not the authorities. Worse, any effort that could currently be considered by those suppliers who do see extra value in their products being seen, touched, enquired about in your Lbs, and are prepared to properly reward for it, are likely to bring the ACCC down on them. And that is a fact.
Yet, the solution is simple, BUT YOU WONT LIKE IT. Lbs should pay less for their stock because they service the products better. Online should pay more for their stock because they don't service them as well. The result is a world where the gap between the respective retail prices of Lbs and online will narrow down to reflect the actual advantages and disadvantages of buying from one or the other.
Don't believe me? Just wait!

In any case, I'll close by saying: Please, before you go to your Lbs and ask him if he'll match the online price, reflect on the above.
CyclinAl over and out...

Yes youre probably right about me being dissmissive about local business. small business is certainly not easy. certainly not as easy as say in the 70's , 80's & 90's. those days are over.

I'm completely aware what cost are, to open a retail shop as well as running expenses hrs required for 7 days a week coverge weekend rates training staff , keeping & attracting talented staff & so on.
for an average person it almost impossible to make it in retail bricks & mortar shops. I believe were on the same page there. Where we differ is I believe a combination of the 2 is where its going.
Internet retailers know you can't feel & touch online. Thats why bricks & morta shopps are around to stay. just in a different role in a few years.
I've had only a few psoitive exoeriences in LBS's not to say that your business is the same. But like you said, Its impossible for a small private business to keep stock , open 60 hrs a week & so on.

I'm suggesting a LBS becomes an extension of the inernet business, the real tricky part is how to make this finacially viable for both partys and how to arrange it in a contract sense so both partys benefit.
I'll let you know when I've worked it out.

My own business.....can't see it last much longer in the old model but the Optical game has recently been turned upside down. and its about to get turned over again.

too right.....Ando.

I know of quite a number of businesse like that. Not in cycling but in motorcars. they have a site where they sell stuff. the forum is of course where they discuss cars but also get thier potntial customers from. They rent an old warehouse for very cheapThey have nights racing cars on computers. you buy the drinks there maybe a t shirt and other stuff. group buys get organised & so on.Also nights where you can repair your car with all the knowlege of members around also make money of the multinationals with advertising on thier blogs & so on
One of the businesses I know does very well at that. I'd say thats the model of future small business. where you can connect several different interests an individual may have.

Im not a supporter of mine because the young bloke working there that I have known for a few years going there swore at me when I told him he had ripped me off , so complained to his boss and he had the hide to tell me he didn't like the way I have spoken to him in the past as well , I found out that he has no sense of humor and is very bland , a few of my mates shopping there have had bad experiences at the same shop too .So from now on my local doesn't get business from at least 4 of us and that can range from $100.00 ~$1000.00plus per year...

Rob's going to hate me but hell! if I can contribute something constructive, I will!
First thing: I should clarify that I don't own an Lbs nor do I have a personal relationship with anybody who does. I am in a different sector of retail but suffer the same.
Oldenslower, the reason why your Lbs pays more for the item than you can get it for online (presumably from overseas) is this:
The overseas online sites you deal with are very large operations and in most cases, they negotiate their purchases directly with the manufacturer. Because of their size, they command very good prices but avoid the costly obligations usually imposed on Distributors.
From there, not only are there no in-betweens, but thanks to the delivery methods they use, they avoid all the importation costs (Provided you kept the bill under $1000, which is highly likely) and you avoid paying the 10% gst.
On the other hand, before reaching your Lbs, the item has to be imported by the Australian Distributor. It's not even certain he has as strong a capacity to negotiate the prices but he'll have costly obligations placed upon him by the manufacturer, such as carrying slower selling products and having to promote the brand through advertising and expos, etc. Although the freight is probably a bit cheaper, he has to pay full importation costs, plus 10% gst (Neither here nor there as he'll get that back). Anyway, he takes his cut.
Then, he has to have reps to market the products, and they take their cut.
So by the time your Lbs orders your product, all these loadings have taken their toll. Yet, he still has to pay more freight to get it delivered to him, plus 10% gst (Also neither here nor there as he'll get that back, except that now, you are next in line and you'll have to pay it and you won't be getting it back).
And that is how, unless I'm mistaken and the mtb industry doesn't work on this standard format (Which would surprise me), your item has come to be more costly to your Lbs than you could buy it for, from an overseas online retailer where low profit margins are the norm thanks to their high turnover.
You could be forgiven for thinking your Lbs is trying to rip you off but he's not.
Hope it helps.

Most shop employees I know seem to really hate the Shimano importer and one shop I know of buys a bit of Shimano stock from other sources and they inform the buyer that it is not a Shimano Australia part.

Also Dirt Works have a lot to answer for, every time a product moved to that shitful importer the price shot through the roof and they cornered many parts of the bicycle market, at one point it was hard to build a wheel here without buying something from DW. I would love to see them go broke and so does every bike related staff person I know.

I do think the Government really need to go back to the $1000 tax free threshold as reducing the threshold didn't make many importers(some did, SCV for example) more competitive it just sent them broke, some may have deserved it others maybe not.

I do buy a bit online, some because some importers won't sell to my LBS, some coz I love a bargain but often just buying from small companies that manufacture in house, I like supporting those guys.

online shopping for me too , try support lbs when needed .. "specialized" is very smart with their marketing and cant get parts even interstate so there is no mail ordering those parts.

not all but alot of people work retail hours to getting to a LBS twice gets hard ( yes twice because most stuff needs to be ordered in )
i usually online shop when i get back from a ride and full of adrenaline. Aint no bike shops open at 10pm at night .. few days to a week later its either sitting at my door step or ready to collect at post office ( which my local has a parcel pickup from 6am )

and prices are always better online

Something like Deus Ex Machina but for bicycles?

Its very one dimentional like thinking that cheap online bike parts are the death of the retail bike store, yes its a fact that online shopping reduces the margin in a commodity market, retail shops that rely on product margin to survive… sorry but its a sad fact that it looks like tar pits for the LBS guys who fail to evolve..

Mr Average bike consumer has X dollars to spend, say he saves Y bucks on a special online.. He's probably still got that Y clams he saved by shopping online, burning a hole in pocket ready to spend on other bike related stuff.. perhaps latte and banana bread if he's a roadie.. or a beer and a steak sambo if he's MTB.. The real survivor of an LBS would find a way to shift their business to cater for the "growing" market of cyclists, its a fact that cycling as a sport and recreation is growing right now.. so there is a market.

Some people that say that online shops like CRRC and Wiggles (yes I know their names but there is some funny stuff happening when you type their name here??) don’t support local bike events? Well I think you've not thought about it enough; Think about Mr Average bike consumer, he's saved his money on parts for his bike, and now has more money to spend on cycling and perhaps entering events, maybe he's even got enough cheap parts left over to build a race bike and sold his other bike cheaply to a mate who's also getting into cycling and may even fill in the numbers at an event or two?

If cheap online bikes and bike parts result in more bikes in the community, more people riding them… then how does online shopping NOT benefit cycling as a sport? How does it NOT increase the potential market for the savvy LBS?

Although I do agree that tax free online sales thing needs to be sorted out.. Taxes are required by GOVco to keep this country trucking…

I wonder how Google or Apple would approach this new retail dilemma?

To make it worse it would appear Dirt Works have their own online store selling direct to public and undercutting their own bike store customers - http://www.rotorburn.com/forums/showthread.php?t...

When I can get Fox Digit gloves in my size (XXXL) for $13 online and the guys in the 3 well regarded Perth bike shops I went to wanted $45 plus, didnt have my size (dont blame them for that though - I have monster hands...) and have no interest in ordering I'll spend my $40 online and get some grips, a couple tubes and some tyre levers as well delivered to my door in a week.

They cant compete with online unfortunately however I gotta get the most out of my money.

In my business (not bike related) I charge a premium for jobs that I don't like doing.
Hopefully some of it goes elsewhere but the bit that remains pays well and lessens the pain.

I would suggest that if foreign retailers want to advertise on Aussie social networks then they should pay top dollar; hell even crazy dollars!
That would at least inject a bit back into the local system.

CRCC & Wiggles sponsor some of the biggest and best events in the UK across all cycling codes. Sweet FA here though.
Most of the big Perth retailers sponsor and run our greatest local events.
Our clubs and forums should be supporting these guys rather than their overseas competitors