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hoopdriver

Guru
Location
East Sussex
Our LBS here in Hastings - Handsome Bicycles - is certainly competitive with on line and even where it is slightly more I will still happily buy there rather than on line simply because it is nice to have a full service shop so close to hand.
 

Kevoffthetee

On the road to nowhere
I'm happy to buy small items from stores as usually the percentage equated to only £3-4. This is only in emergency though as If I'm ordering larger, more expense items I usually stock up on the smaller ones at the same time
 

hoopdriver

Guru
Location
East Sussex
To add to my earlier post: I bought my daughters bicycle - a Trek Lexa - at our local bike shop in Hastings. The price was excellent, matching anything we could have done on-line, and of course we had personal service, with the owners making sure the bike fitted her. That is something you can never get on line.

With the shop we have in town I will certainly not be buying anything more on line, even if, on occasion, it means paying more. Some things are just worth it.
 

Snapper88

Well-Known Member
Location
Northampton
I have a problem with my bottom bracket (knocking noise under weight) no where near confident enough to diagnose it myself so LBS will be getting my service may even consult them on upgrading my Whyte Kings Cross
 

up hill struggle

Well-Known Member
I like to support my lbs when I can, it was the same with fish keeping. 99% of my custom of went to local fish shops, one big purchase I bought online was an external filter as I could get it £50 cheaper online compared to the local shops brand which was same quality of filter but different brand.
filter arrived & was fitted only to find it was faulty unfortunately I had to pay the p&p to send the filter back to mainland to be repaired or replaced which cost me £50.
turned out after having to pay the additional p&p they cost the same but had to wait for a week on the filter coming back then the annoyance of it all, I should have just bought locally so unless I'm saving big money that's what I plan to do with the bike & support my lbs besides they can fix it if I need help with anything.
 

compo

Veteran
Location
Harlow
My favourite LBS has a price match offer. You match his price with the required amount and he will let you have the item. Recent experience, UN55 bottom bracket, he wanted £29. I bought it online for £14:99 including P&P, and had I searched more I could probably have got it even cheaper.
 

GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
A new LBS has opened in the 'sham.

It appears to be professionally run by normal people, and seems to have normal people who ride bikes a bit as its target market.

It could go far.
 

GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
My favourite LBS has a price match offer. You match his price with the required amount and he will let you have the item. Recent experience, UN55 bottom bracket, he wanted £29. I bought it online for £14:99 including P&P, and had I searched more I could probably have got it even cheaper.
I find that strange. Your LBS isn't even charging twice the online rate. They'll never make much of a profit with such measly markups. 3x or 4x is the norm "and I'll have to order it in"
 

Big Nick

Senior Member
But one thing I would never do is to try a pair of shoes for size in the shop and then buy online because they're cheaper. The height of shameful pi$$ taking.
Errrr.........oops !!

Problem was when the price difference is £35 its difficult to justify for 10 minutes of the assistants time !!
 
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