I'm obviously bias towards MEC selling bikes as I need MEC to do well in order for me to pay my mortgage and my daughter's Montessori fees. Aside from this bias, I'm really bugged by my local bike store in Kitsalano. The guy is polite and the mechanic super helpful but the prices are horrendous. I bought a tube there for just over $5. I can get an equivalent tube at MEC for $3.50. Recently, I had to replace my entire back wheel at $155. MEC quoted me $100 - 120. I like to support the local store but when their prices are consistently 30 - 50% higher than MEC it makes me wonder if they're grossly inefficient or just plain gouging me. All these bike parts are coming from the same group of factories in Asia and a little bit from NA.
To be frank, as my finances become tighter, I look for bigger bargains and paying 5-10% for made in Canada is within my range but 30-50% is downright fool hardy.
HC.
Honestly, for me I find that 5 vs 3.50 is peanuts and yes they may come from the same factories but local shops do not have the room or resources to purchase huge amounts of stock so that they can get discounts on product via bulk buying. For someone who can write on MEC's official blog I would hope they had more sense to them. Support your locally economy instead of a enormous box store. This is one of the many reasons why we are in said "recession."
LINKY
Posts
Speaking of big box shops, i would imagine they're of a significantly higher concern than MEC to any bike shop.
ReplyDeleteThe comments above are pretty lame tho. You can say the same thing about hiking shoes, kayaks, backpacks, etc.. It's a co-op, and runs differently than a commercial enterprise.
One thing that really bothers me is bike shops complaining about MEC. Again, it's a co-op. It's 100% membership-driven. Membership is $5 for your LIFETIME.
All bike shops would have to do is get their staff and supporters to speak up at any MEC AGM or general meeting, or even just write letters.
They *HAVE* to listen to their membership, and do what they say. It's pathetic that bike shops are complaining like they're some kind of victim in all this. They've had every opportunity to do something about this...and were they a wee bit more organized, could very likely have voted down this direction.
AND: it's still not too late. Again, were shops to organize themselves in some half-assed way, they could have things changed. It's a membership-driven organization. There's no reason bike shop owners couldn't form the entire MEC Board of Directors.
But that isn't the Canadian way. Let's just complain instead. ;)
Hope you don't mind my rant, Halldor. =)
no no! Rant away Dave, a good discussion is always entertaining. But yeah complaining IS the easy way.
ReplyDelete