> It largely comes down to local retailers willingness to carry them. There
> may not be anything particularly wrong with a particular bike, but the
> dealer is looking at ability to make a buck.
There are a lot of things that determine what lines a dealer is willing to
carry. We trade off margin by carrying Trek, as do other shops carrying
what we call 1st-tier bike lines. We would make substantially greater
margin selling Raleigh. So why would we carry Trek instead of Raleigh?
#1: Better & more comprehensive product line. Look at the Trek catalog or
website, and you'll see they're huge. Bikes for everyone from the rock-star
pro racer to a your 4-year-old's first bike, and everything in-between.
Road, hybrid, mountain, comfort, tandem, downhill, triathlon, time trial,
whatever your poison, Trek probably has it.
#2: Stability. Many lines have good & bad years. Their consistency is all
over the map, as management & manufacturing changes rapidly, and there is
little change for long-term improvement because there's nothing long-term.
The differences when dealing with a company whose management has been intact
for over 20 years vs one that changes every 3-4 years is striking. We can
depend on Trek having a great line each & every year. That, in turn, allows
us to invest more of our own time & effort (and money) into stocking &
promoting the line.
#2b: The stability and overall quality means we don't have to carry four or
five brands and try to cherry-pick the most popular or profitable models.
Saves a lot of time, and the customer doesn't end up being offered product
of uniform (hopefully high!) quality... less chance of having something
pushed upon the customer because either the dealer can make 30% better
margin *or* the manufacturer is forcing the dealer to stock it because they
built too many.
#3: Service. There are *huge* differences between one company and the next
regarding both warranty handling as well as tech services in general (as in
calling up a product engineer and asking about such inane things as seatpost
slippage, noisy spokes, handling questions etc). These differences can
definitely affect the bottom line, as they allow you to more efficiently
take care of problems that might come up, and also add to the quality of
services that you, as a retailer, offer to your customers.
There are many more reasons, but those are the ones that most-quickly come
to mind. And all of them, directly or indirectly, add value to the product
the customer buys... and that added value is the reason that a dealer (like
us) might choose to go with a line that offers less (sometimes substantially
less) margin than another line.
By the way, I don't mean to pick on Raleigh here. While we don't carry the
line, they're a legit company and I've known the local rep for a number of
years. They're not 1st tier, but there's not too much room at the top these
days.
--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com
"Derek Hodges" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:
[email protected]...
>
> "Jim" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>>
>> Hello All,
>>
>>
>> Why do I not see any Raleigh road bikes out there. I see many
>> Cannondales, Treks, Specialized. I have an opportunity to get a really
>> good priceon a Raleigh but a bit skeptical because I don't see any on the
>> road. I am looking on the range of the Cannodale R5OO or R600 or Trek
>> 1500. Is there a reason they are not out there. Any advice on the Raleigh
>> brand would be greatly appreciated.
>
> It largely comes down to local retailers willingness to carry them. There
> may not be anything particularly wrong with a particular bike, but the
> dealer is looking at ability to make a buck.
>
>
> --
> Derek Hodges
> Toronto
>