UKC

Interested to hear people's opinions on this-

Tried Googling Specialized bikes and noted a distinct lack of variation in prices between various online shops.

What's the deal (or no deal) on major brands imposing price controls on their products and retailers? Any legal or pseudo legal/ intimidation stuff?

In reply to Wee Davie:

Maybe just the time of year? I thought discounts only came along at the end of product year, whenever that is.

In reply to Wee Davie:

I know there's not much profit left for retailers so maybe the price you,see is the price they all paid ? Plus 15% obviously , thry need to make some profit ?

In reply to Wee Davie:
Not sure about price controls, but I noticed that the German cycling websites (bike-discount, bike24 etc) can't send Spesh shoes to the UK, whereas they send pretty much everything else - and their prices are generally a lot cheaper than UK sellers.

In reply to Wee Davie:
My understanding (no legal knowledge) is the manufacturer can impose terms on their retailers to protect their brand image, etc, etc. This can in theory include pricing structure. Don't know if it is actually written in contract but if small retailers don't go with it, they will not be able to get the supply.

One well known outdoor clothing brand did this for 20+ years and particularly by refusing to supply larger chain retailers so as to keep prices at or near the RRP (or so I was told by many independent shops). Seems to have opened up over the last few years but the larger chains only have some of the model range.

There are many ways for manufacturer to control the market, whether actually legal or not, if their products are in demand.

In reply to andy:


Almost all of the major (ice) hockey brands stipulate that stores can't ship to Europe from the US and Canada, who are again much cheaper than the European stores. Very frustrating given the price of decent sticks.

In reply to Wee Davie:
Some brands have a complete embargo on anyone selling under RRP although some concession is made for loyalty card schemes and club discount.
Brand protection and keeping other accounts sweet I guess.

In reply to Wee Davie:

Its pretty much the start of the product year for bikes, hence the lack of discounts. You want a 2015 bike? Then you've a little while to wait for them to get cheap im afraid!

In reply to Jack_Lewin:
Nope it's not 2015 bikes. Fair enough they are new and unlikely to be discounted until Summer 2015. It's 2014 and (until recently) even 2013 bikes. Specialized seem to operate a strict pricing control on all their retailers. Wonder what the legalities of it are? Probably (as people have said) it's not likely to be tested legally as, by then, the retailer will already have been sacked by the company...

Anyone with any insider knowledge of the situation?

In reply to Wee Davie:

It comes down to whether a brand thinks it can gain more by maintaining a uniform price or from a few places selling higher volume by taking a hit on margin.
The argument would be that you protect stores with higher customer service input from 'online supermarkets'
It seems to me that is the choice of the manufacturer. It comes down to how much you want the product you don't have to buy Spesh.

In reply to Jack_Lewin:

Except the deals on 2014 old stock can be good.