Originally Posted by
philbob57
If the agreement requires adhering to MSRP prices in advertising, I would think they'd afoul of federal law in the US pretty quick. Mail order record sellers in NYC beat the MSRP on LPs in the 1950s, IIRC (but I can't find the info via google or duckduckgo search). Or have the MSRP thieves bought enough congressmen to get the law changed?
I may be wrong but as I understand it the pricing agreements say the retailers can't
advertise a price lower than the MSRP unless they have approval or there is a special pricing event going on. It doesn't mean they can't
sell for something other than MSRP, they just can't advertise or quote lower than MSRP. As it has been explained to me if they force the retailer to sell for a specific price that is illegal but requiring them to advertise their price within the MSRP range is not. One shop I worked for was covered by an MSRP agreement on a particular brand bike but we routinely sold them for less. We had to compete with some shops outside the coverage area that weren't covered by the agreement who always sold the bikes for less than MSRP. The customers got a nice little surprise when we rang-up the sale.
Originally Posted by
rollagain
I think most bike shops get most or all of their merchandise through QBP, so when you order some small item, your order gets added to a bunch of others and the shipping charges get distributed among those orders. The truck doesn't have to visit their store just for something like a set of brake levers, so I'd think they save on shipping costs.
Just a guess.
Quality has free shipping if you keep a the average order above a specific amount. Most shops work hard to keep their average order amount above that level to keep the free shipping. Hint: If you have a bunch of small parts that you want but the shop never has, ask them if they would willing to keep a list of parts you
WILL buy if they get them in. No rush, just whenever they happen to come in. You'd be surprised how often the weekly Quality order is $10-$20 short of meeting the average order amount. Having that list of parts someone wants is suddenly very nice, particularly for a small shop. They can get their order over the minimum AND they know the part they threw on is sold. Sometimes they will give you a nice "team" discount on the part as well. I've worked with 2 shops that did this for me, both gave me the employee discount on the parts. This will only work on parts they don't routinely stock.
Originally Posted by
davei1980
Forgot to mention also, I make every effort to pay in cash (actual currency) at my LBS since the owner has expressed to me the hardship created by processing fees. It's no additional trouble to me and helps him with his bottom line. He will also offer cash discounts sometimes but I don't come to expect.
Certain cards have much higher processing fees than other (Discover, AMEX). On some products such as food, the higher processing fees can actually wipe out any margin the shop had. Most products have better margins but the processing fees do have an impact. I always try to pay cash or check at my LBS.