ON LBS or ONLINE or combo: Not all ONLINERS are alike. At one extreme there is the late-20s guy who never left the house or ramped up his resume, but he got into bikes, and cleared the hurdles to getting a reseller's permit. He eats and sleeps iwhether or not he sells anything, but he likes to stay busy and the correspondence and attention that comes with the business. His super low prices come with non-immediate shipping because he doesn't stock anything, so his theoretical inventory is sold before he orders it. This is legal and honest work, but the sale benefits one person who's not even in need.
At the other extreme there must be oversalaried suppliers who underpay their employees and offer no benefits, and who jack up prices because on principle they have to cover the top-heavy salaries, and the underpaid staff is totally dispensible because customers can educate themselves online, or something...and the staff never has to interact. RBW is between those. We're in one of two low-rent buildings in a town where, if you didn't buy a home 25 years ago with some family help, you won't be able to working here. We pay better-than-bikeshop wages and offer "gunning for google" benefits. We buy as direct and sell as direct as possible to keep prices down, but if every puchase comes down to price, we're no match for the pajama-clad brat with a computer and a day to win the game. Then we're left with frames and bags and we layoff 11 of 14 employees. I think we got into this at the right time, but it doesn't seem to be the right time anymore. We're trimming the menu and the cut items won't be replaced. We're on an inventory-spending budget that means we'll be more often out of stock. This stuff goes on all over the world, but is just really obvious when the lake you thought your canoe was in is actually a river and the waterfall's right over there. We also have costs the extremes (or an LBS) doesn't have, because so much of what we offer is our design, made for us, and we're picky about materials and construction. The USA-available waxed cotton is 65 percent as good as the Sackville Scottish cotton, but every time we order the Scotstuff, we have a $9,000 bill and another $1,500 for freight to Connecticut. There's a similar story for almost everything we "make." I've understood this the whole time, and I don't mind, because it's the only way we can stay in business. It doesn't work to buy Shimano derailers for $60, then try to compete with online prices of $62. A non-businessperson would think that's a $2 profit... Whatever Alex at Yellow Haus (or James at Gravel & Grind) or John at Rivelo charges for anything--it's the right price. We're all just licking the bowls these days trying to hang in and hoping something changes. (I don't mean to say I know their money woes, but it is impossible for them not to worry every day. It's hard to stay on top of everything the experts say we have to do to stay alive. Have a device-friendly website? OK. Two clicks to the shopping cart, and one click to buy? That's harder. Just-in-time inventory is impossible. If Toyota couldn't do it in 1988, Rivendell sure can't do it now. On Wed, Feb 15, 2017 at 1:08 PM, Bill Lindsay <tapebu...@gmail.com> wrote: > Christopher Murray > > I agree with you. Who suggested that it is OK to be impolite? You sound > like you are replying to my post. Let me quote my own post: > > *"You definitely didn't deserve to get attitude from the salesperson, and > you should not buy from people who give you attitude"* > > That was me saying it is not OK to be impolite. You should not suggest > that I approve of retail people being impolite. I do not approve of it. I > went on to say: > > *"It was unfair to you, because he assumed you were doing to him the same > thing that the previous 19 people did" * > > That was me saying again that it is not OK for retail salespeople to be > impolite. Who said it was OK? > > Bill Lindsay > El Cerrito, CA > > > > On Wednesday, February 15, 2017 at 12:46:33 PM UTC-8, Christopher Murray > wrote: >> >> Ha! No way. I'm the customer and any store employee should treat me in a >> polite and respectful manner. It's not my problem what the 19 people before >> me did and to suggest otherwise is laughable. I've worked more than my >> share of retail. It's not that difficult to be polite-- let's not act like >> it is. I'm sorry if someone is frustrated but if they are taking that >> frustration out on the next customer they are probably in the wrong line of >> work. >> >> Cheers, >> Chris >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the > Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/ > topic/rbw-owners-bunch/nDRC-egq9g8/unsubscribe. > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
