Originally Posted by
Troul
Sometimes a business has a contractual agreement with a vendor. If the language in it missed addressing a supplier issue clause, then the business pretty much has to determine if the risk in breaching the contract is worth it.
Originally Posted by
unterhausen
OP is in a bit of a unique situation in that the bike shop made a bad bargain about labor costs. Most shops make most of their profits off of repairs. Doing it for free turns you into a charity. I can see why they wouldn't want to order parts online at retail, even if the OP agreed to pay labor. That could easily turning into a no-win situation for the shop. Depending on how many customers they made this deal with, I can foresee that their future isn't particularly secure.
It's not like running a bike shop with more mainstream business practices is a lucrative business. If you start giving away margin on parts, it just makes it worse. But I think most shops are probably ordering parts online at retail just to keep customers happy.
Most shops sold through their inventory in the first few months of the pandemic, and then business just dried up because there was nothing to sell. They were busy with repairs, but getting parts was a huge struggle. Bike companies have been very harsh with their dealers, and terms have been awful. Now shops are being forced to buy bikes they probably don't want. Increases in bike costs didn't really flow through to the shops. It's no wonder so many shops are folding. It's not worth it for people who can work a regular job for more money and not face a stream of ungrateful customers.
The thing about QPB is that there are a lot of shops out there that buy parts as soon as they are available. A lot of smaller mail order companies are also ordering through QPB. QPB isn't doing that well either, they just laid off a significant number of employees.
Both of these are significant (possible) factors in this situation.
The shop that I worked for a while started out as a small independent shop and sold pretty much whatever they wanted. Almost 100% of the accessories in store came from one supplier out of a big catalog. As business grew the shop started carrying Specialized, which in retrospect was the beginning of the end for the shop. They made demands regarding what could and could not be sold in the store and where those parts could come from. As the shop continued to grow and gather reputation the owner opted that he wanted to be among the highest end of Spec "Elite" dealers. That agreement basically was, they wouldn't allow us to have the highest end MTB and Road bikes outside an agreement where the shop was given an allotment of OTHER bikes we had to sell as well, popular or not. In addition to this aspect pricing wasn't set by the shop, but by Spec. In the end it turned out that all the stuff people wanted sold. The stuff we couldn't sell ended up having to be paid for complete to sit on the floor while at the same time taking on another allotment where there was very little by way of independent choice as to the WHAT of it by the owner. This obviously led to an available capital issue and the owner opted to close the doors rather than go further in debt just to be in business with Spec. For the community, it was a pretty hard hit because the only shops it left in the area are a couple of Trek stores which are under a similar agreement. If it isn't Trek or the Bontrager house brand, you can't get it there. For me, finding a "full range" merch bike shop is nearly impossible and certainly a long drive. I cannot imagine what folks away from large metro are doing.