FLATULENTFRIEND wrote:

great uncle bulgaria wrote:interesting isn't it.
seems a discount just gives the feel-good factor.
many a canny retailer will crank all prices up and then "discount" all prices to make customers feel special and want to come back.
(I have no idea if this applies to basic bikes or not)
on a large scale this is what the likes of Briscoes and Kathmandu do - have a "sale" on a regular basis - seems to fool punters

as you allude, addng value in other ways sure is really important - the "good guy/gal" thing . . .

Discounts;
My LBS – the owner doesn’t discount or have sales – ever. If I buy something he just knocks some $ of whatever it is because I’m a loyal customer He does this with other regulars too.

fyi, knocking some $ off is a discount

That is all well and good, but why bike shops and not other retailers?

a fair few other retailers give a small discount if you ask. you just have to ask. Big boxes maybe not so much, but you'd be surprised, and smaller shops often do.

Owen wrote:That is all well and good, but why bike shops and not other retailers?

other retailers do. Not the big chian stores, they make their profit from volume (lower margins). You mean you dont get discount elsewhere?

Owen wrote:That is all well and good, but why bike shops and not other retailers?

Bike shops - because this is a bike forum we are in
I suspect that if you went to a fly fishng, skateboarding, paragliding, motor-racing, comepetitive crocheting forum you would find similar discussions.

Used to get discounts in the equestrian shops where I was a regular....

When I worked in retail (when I did my apprenticeship we had a retail aspect) if someone had asked for a discount we would’ve given them some $ off. We were happy to make the sale. No one did though

Owen wrote:That is all well and good, but why bike shops and not other retailers?

not specific to bikeshops really, it's to do with type of relationships some retailers create with punters, therefore it can become the benchmark* standard in an aspect of an industry. i.e local, personalised retailers of high-value/ high service-oriented gear.

*between other outlet prices and other cyclist's relationships with their LBS. A discount from a bikeshop has come to mean "we value you as a friend of our shop" and by inference no discount = you don't mean much to us.

but you already know this...

Cool, good to know. I don't really spend that much money in other retail outlets so I was curious about discounting habits, just wondering how my current employer appeared to stack up against retail in general.

personally I think it's a slippery slope to try take on the big players at their own game pricewise. It'd be like judo dude taking on sumo dude front on

FLATULENTFRIEND wrote:When I worked in retail (when I did my apprenticeship we had a retail aspect) if someone had asked for a discount we would’ve given them some $ off. We were happy to make the sale. No one did though

This.

Went into Sony recently to get some new headphones and they had the Xb700 ones I wanted on display for 200, but none in stock, so I asked if they had any xb1000 ones in stock that are normally 250, they said yes, then I asked if I could get them the cheaper, they said 210. All I did was ask.

wuffy wrote:Went into Sony recently to get some new headphones and they had the Xb700 ones I wanted on display for 200, but none in stock, so I asked if they had any xb1000 ones in stock that are normally 250, they said yes, then I asked if I could get them the cheaper, they said 210. All I did was ask.

they were probably just glad to finally shift them - really they should have paid you to take them off their hands

you should have just got sennheisers and been done

I have no idea what they are like but a guy I worked with used to get his high-end Santa Cruz sorted there and said they were gruff but did a good job. As long as you are certain the job is mint you can forgive a bit of gruff I guess. I'm lucky enough to have a bike store that know my four bikes pretty well and I can text my mechanic whenever I have a query AND he's a top bloke.

danose wrote:

wuffy wrote:Went into Sony recently to get some new headphones and they had the Xb700 ones I wanted on display for 200, but none in stock, so I asked if they had any xb1000 ones in stock that are normally 250, they said yes, then I asked if I could get them the cheaper, they said 210. All I did was ask.

they were probably just glad to finally shift them - really they should have paid you to take them off their hands

you should have just got sennheisers and been done

AKG's FTW

Henry Dorset Case wrote:

danose wrote:

wuffy wrote:Went into Sony recently to get some new headphones and they had the Xb700 ones I wanted on display for 200, but none in stock, so I asked if they had any xb1000 ones in stock that are normally 250, they said yes, then I asked if I could get them the cheaper, they said 210. All I did was ask.

they were probably just glad to finally shift them - really they should have paid you to take them off their hands

you should have just got sennheisers and been done

AKG's FTW

but AKG don't have any $2500 headphones - so they can't be as good