When I say ‘crackdown’, I don’t mean that all of a sudden you won’t be able to buy products off Wiggle. Well, not all at once anyway. It’s already been happening, whereby brands that used to be big on these websites are no longer being sold. I’ll come up with a few examples later today. Wiggle will still be around, but you will notice that it will either become more expensive, or some brands just won’t be there anymore.
And good point heavymetal, a shop that ticks one of those 3 boxes should survive. I don’t think it’s really acceptable when a shop can’t even tick one of those. It’s crap that people have to deal with bad service from shops (I really have heard some horror stories!), and it brings down the industry. I think the retail bicycle industry does need a cleanup, a bit more professionalism, and I’ve noticed that it IS starting to happen. Especially since the 'GFC" (god I hate saying that) last year, nearly every bike shop and importer has struggled in some way, and has been forced to find a way of getting their customers back.
And nexus, spot on about the distribution of products. We’re not even allowed to sell Giant bikes to interstate customers, I can’t remember the exact reasoning for it though. And in terms of price, a lot of the time we’re not even allowed to advertise our bikes at a cheaper price (Shops have even lost the ability to sell a certain brand of bike for doing this).
