Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:
||| Don't buy clothes in a bike shop....You'll pay full price. Go to
||| www.performancebike.com. I'm sure you can find something no so
||| expensive. Don't buy for looks, but for comfort! A nice pair of
||| riding shorts will increase your chances of having fun and that
||| means you'll get more exercise.
||
|| You pay "full price" at Performance too, unless you're negotiating
|| something off whatever the price is listed at (which generally isn't
|| the way they do business). I assume what you mean is that you'll pay
|| less at Performance, but this isn't always the case either. We sell
|| $30 shorts and $35 jerseys, but they're not nearly as popular as the
|| more-expensive offerings. Part of this comes from how things are
|| sold; at a Performance shop, customers often buy based on price
|| first, features second. At a bicycle shop, the salesperson is going
|| to (hopefully) spend the time to explain the different features of
|| the various shorts, and this will often result in someone buying a
|| more expensive item because the benefits make sense to them. I know,
|| evil salesperson tactic, explaining why something might be better
|| than something else.
||
|| There's room for both types of retailers. The Performance customer
|| may prefer learning what they can from a catalog or display rather
|| than talking with a salesperson. Nothing whatsoever wrong with that.
|| And the local bike shop customer may want a bit more personal
|| attention than afforded by a catalog outlet.
||
|| Obviously, things aren't always so cut-and-dry. There are local
|| bicycle shops that may have very unfriendly or unhelpful (there *is*
|| a difference) staffs, and there may be catalog outlets with
|| exemplary employees. Regardless, I (with obvious bias) disagree with
|| your statement "Don't buy clothes in a bike shop...."
I hear you. However, in my case, many of the clothing items I've bought at
the LBS would have been much cheaper if I had bought them online. Now, the
exception to this would have been at the very beginning. The lady who sold
me my bike steered me clear of the cycling shorts with the gel padding. I
think I appreciate that advice at this point, and am happy to have spent
money there on that item. Certainly, the bike rack I bought there was also
a good purchase, since I needed to make sure it would fit my car. Online
was simply not an option there, either. There have been a few other
situations where I picked some clothing items up there, but generally I was
paying a lot more that otherwise for the same item (I've catch them pricing
above retail, too). Still, I was happy to spend that money bacause the shop
was there to fix my bike for free two saturdays ago when I crashed and had
my left shifter move inward on the handle bar. I needed it addressed quickly
and they were happy to do so.
But yes, I did mean you'll generally pay less at the LBS for the same item
you could buy online. Clearly, it is definitely sometimes worth it to pay
more at the LBS.