Originally Posted by
bpcyclist
Wow. Thanks very much for telling me what it's all about. Good to know.
You and I have very different views and beliefs about community businesses. I make it a point to support all kinds of businesses that are more expensive than amazon or Walmart. Tons of them. All for different, specific reasons. Some do a better job of "earning" my business than others, but I believe the market is best served by abundant competition, generally speaking. So, I go out of my way to patronize all sorts of companies and their products, some, probably more deserving than others.
I have washed dishes, flipped burgers, transplanted hearts, and steered a public US company from almost the tippy top position. Businesses on this planet generally succeed for one or both of two reasons in my experience: 1) They have an attractive value proposition; and 2) The take care of their customers. Canyon obviously has "1" going for it. It's the "2" part I worry about. Not for them. For their customers. But what do I know...
So what will you do when robots start to replace more and more low-skilled jobs? Which will happen, inevitably. And inevitably the US government will not prepare for it properly, because they don't care enough about normal people (heck even here in Europe there are people urging governments to do more and we are much more social). There's gonna be a lot of people without employment unless new jobs are created. There's always going to be changes.
Anyway, more to your thread - who do you think profits more from the sale of an overpriced Trek - Trek or the LBS? My money is on Trek. So Canyon is a bigger threat to Trek than LBS. As someone said, Amazon and online retail in general is a much bigger threat to the LBS, because why even buy a tire from them if you can get it cheaper online? I have actually looked at other brands but do you know what? Canyon bikes are ridiculously more inexpensive - for the same price you get essentially the next model up, or even lower price is next model up. If Big companies would lower their prices that would have a much bigger impact. And Canyon directly sponsors one ladies team and has what, two pro teams using their bike? If big name companies need to sell at such high prices, it's because they have to many execs raking in cash. Or if they do actually spend so much on marketing and sponsorships, I would severely question that strategy, especially in this day and age where I can go online read reviews, compare bikes in detail and see for myself that I can either spend the same for next model up, or save 1-2k and get same weight bike, same components and see from reviews and hear from others that the quality is there. Big name, big price does not equal higher quality.