The argument goes like this – The right thinking cyclist should
support his or her local bike shop, even if it costs a few extra bucks, on the
grounds that:
1. You get a whole lot of extra value from buying your gear from
the local guy (like measuring, advice, experience and the ability to actually
swing your leg over the merchandise before parting with your cash) that you
don’t get from Mr Internet and,
2. Much more bluntly - If you don’t support your local guy he’ll
go out of business and then what are you gonna do when you need to get your
kid’s next bike (not to mention like, the bike shop owner gets to be unemployed
and probably turns to crime and ends up stealing your bike so you don’t have a
bike anymore and....it’s just all very messy).
Two very good points to be sure and I’m going to say that I agree
with a lot of the first point and some of the second.
I should also point out, sorry, admit, that all of the stuff I
have purchased for my bike so far, has been purchased online.
I know. It’s terrible. It’s like I don’t love Australia or
something.
But seriously – Online prices beat the living daylights out of the
local equivalent. The same goes for availability. Mind you, the bar here is not
exactly set very high. I went into one of the local bike shops (local is a very
elastic concept out here) a couple of weeks ago looking for some oil and not
only did they not have it, they weren’t that confident that what they did have
wasn’t what I wanted....which it wasn’t....confused?
See it’s fine to use argument No.1 but you’d better be ready to
pony up with the expertise when it’s looked for. It is possible I admit, that
the situation might be better if I lived slightly closer to civilisation. But I
don’t. So I excuse myself.
I also excuse myself on the grounds that most of the research work in my case is being done by myself and the fact that I am building my own bike immediately
disqualifies me as the preferred target of most bicycle retailers who would
really rather sell me one of the complete packages they have sitting, ready and
waiting, on the floor.
As far as argument No2. goes – I’m not as sympathetic as I could
be here. I do feel somewhat sorry for the retailer who gets his or her time
wasted by ‘customers’ whose only intention is to use the information gained to
make an online purchase, but perhaps instead of simply lamenting the unfairness
of it all a new approach needs to be taken.
If the local bike shop can’t compete with the prices offered by
some of the online behemoths maybe they need to admit that to the customers,
point them in the right direction, maybe even through a computer in the shop,
and then make themselves available to fit whatever it is the punter ends up
buying. I’d pay for that. Many would.
Because it’s one thing to get your hands on a cheap component. It’s
another thing entirely to attach it to your bike without screwing the whole
thing up.
Next: Bolting, screwing, whacking...
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