Originally Posted by
Jarlybart
If you worked at BF you would understand that though they get good pricing, because of the financial issues they have to buy many parts last minute because they don't have the cash to buy it ahead of time. This means that if a bike is being built on Thursday they may wait until Tuesday to order which means they have to either do two day or over-night it as not to hold the line up. Make sense? This is a very common thing that happens for almost every bike built...so any profit that could be made if things were shipped normal ground are now lost because of the inflated shipping cost. With just a little planning you could lump 10 or 15 orders together and save a ton on shipping but too often they only buy what they need days before they need it...when they have had months most of the time to plan for what the need is. They are now out to January...
I suggested earlier that that sounded like part of their problem.
I assume it varies a bit by part. Hopefully they can order Chosen hubs by the thousand.
Isn't there a big regional parts warehouse in Portland or Seattle? So, shipping from the regional warehouse to Eugene should be cheap. But still, it could be cheaper to plan ahead.
At least fill a box with all the necessary parts for a couple of bikes, but stuff gets much cheaper when bought by the case.
I actually ordered a couple of non-standard parts through Bike Friday a while ago. It took them about 2 months to get them in. But, perhaps that also depends on the vendor. So appending an order to a factory direct order may be relatively cheap, but going to a wholesaler may be expensive.
An option, of course, would be to do the "Niagara Plan". Move the business right next door to the regional distribution center. Then don't hold any inventory in-house. Simply walk across the street to the distribution center as needed.