Im not sure why you are surprised. TFM almost went under 6 months ago. If it wasnt for one of the smaller investors taking on the whole lot it would have just closed down.So surprising to see these guys close down!
Am currently working for one of BSC biggest competitors, TFM, I am just shocked at how sudden this is.
Although Mr Hess is right, CRC prices are just too low for them to compete with. I just bought a pair of X0 carbon cranks off CRC for $258 when they retail at around $600!
Shops would pay a little over half of retail to get these products, which is more than what we pay from CRC along with free postage when most shops have to pay postage from the distributors to their shops!!
How CRC does it? We will never know.
Wholesalers as a general rule, aren't greedy. Sure everyone likes to be successful. If wholesalers are anything, its frustrating. The Rock Star mentallity is hard to swallow at times. There are some genuinely nice people in the industry. It's not a lucrative one, but it pays the bills for a while.The other ones to blame (other than BSC's strange business strategies and greedy distributors) is the bike companies themselves.
Why do we need an update of every model of bike yearly? This means that every year stores slash prices on last years models to make way for the new model,pretty much losing out on any margins they would have made. Slashing a bike just because it is last years colours is ridiculous. Most bike tech (group sets etc) only changes every 3-4 years or so and that is when there should be a model update.
But Steve - this is true of the UK, US, Europe, NZ - anywhere - they all have the same issues of transportation costs, import duty (if they bring it into the country), GST/Sales Taxes etc. Some are better at managing it than others (no, not saying BSC were good, bad or indifferent here). As for the 'assistant not knowing they are on Stop' they soon get to know this - it isn't something that comes out of the blue.Then thinks of the 2000 part X's that the importer had to order to be able to sell it, then include, sales tax, import duty, transport, recieving the goods
I am not being facetious in asking this, I am interested to know what the Rock Star Mentality is with some people in the industry? Could you attempt to elaborate what you mean?Wholesalers as a general rule, aren't greedy. Sure everyone likes to be successful. If wholesalers are anything, its frustrating. The Rock Star mentallity is hard to swallow at times. There are some genuinely nice people in the industry. It's not a lucrative one, but it pays the bills for a while.
There was a productivity commission report on australian retail generally, and it showed the average margin in oz is twice that of the average margin in the US - they even allowed for sales assistant income differences etc - it was a also a much greater margin than the UK and other European countries.If stores are so upset with the prices distributors are charging them, and they can, supposedly, but parts cheaper off online sites than they can get them wholesale, then why don't the stores just start importing direct using those online sites?
Oh, what's that, because it's not cheaper on all parts? Hm. Then where is the price difference coming from on those parts?
I'd like you guys to run the math on how many, let's say cassettes, a store needs to sell just to cover the salary of one staff member. When you look at it that way, it all of a sudden isn't looking like such a profitable business.
Thankyou, I recognise the type of asshat you described. The surfing industry is riddled with them.I don't see it as anything other than a question. The type I am referring to are the too cool for school fashion victims who look down at customers and sales assistants and call them "Hubbards". On the mantle of once being a regional road champion twenty five years ago.
Thats what I meant. Like I said, there are some cool crew amongst the industry shops and importers.
http://www.27bslash6.com/f4s.html comes to mindThankyou, I recognise the type of asshat you described. The surfing industry is riddled with them.
Interesting. I wonder if this ties in the "everyone wants to be their own boss" mentality a lot of Australians have. That this can't be justified and factoring in the frequent "there's more competition in America" to justify low prices, the above seems to contradict that.There was a productivity commission report on australian retail generally, and it showed the average margin in oz is twice that of the average margin in the US - they even allowed for sales assistant income differences etc - it was a also a much greater margin than the UK and other European countries.
Why? Well, a couple of friends have come over from the US and noted how many bloody shops we have here - i come from newcastle, we have 5 shopping centres and another dozen smaller ones with supermarkets plus speciality stores - ultimately we have stacks of retailers competing for not a lot of customers. Its an oversupply of biblical proportions, created by Westfields and GPT's of this world, paid for by high margins for the retailers. Now the internet is cutting the margin with increased competition, and the only result is businesses going out the back door.
I'm sure plenty of people have been shopping in the US for instance - you sure as hell notice the sheer number of people buying stuff in the middle of the week.
From the owner of BSC who blames the interwebs:
‘‘The solution for that in my eyes is not only add GST to online purchases, but add an extra internet levy to even up the prices and enable the local market compete with the net,’’
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/small-busi...n-bsc-bikes-20120614-20bmc.html#ixzz1xkP9BJfp