SRAM seeks to impose Australia tax

[find_bruce]

I went to restock my spares inventory & couldn't find SRAM listed. looked at bike 24 when the penny dropped - SRAM have joined the list of brands who want to control the market and prevent people from importing except through the official distributor.

Sad really as I won't be paying the Australia tax nor suffering the limited Australian availability.

Instead I will simply shift to other brands. I used SRAM because they still made decent quality 8 speed, but its not like alternative chains & cassettes are hard to find.

I do wonder how much the higher prices & lower availability affects their market share.

[RonK]

Not news - discussed months ago here.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=91793

[find_bruce]

Thanks Ron, I missed that

[warthog1]

I went to restock my spares inventory & couldn't find SRAM listed. looked at bike 24 when the penny dropped - SRAM have joined the list of brands who want to control the market and prevent people from importing except through the official distributor.

Sad really as I won't be paying the Australia tax nor suffering the limited Australian availability.

Instead I will simply shift to other brands. I used SRAM because they still made decent quality 8 speed, but its not like alternative chains & cassettes are hard to find.

I do wonder how much the higher prices & lower availability affects their market share.

Yeah I have used various sram products in the past. I will simply use shimano again for consumables.

[AUbicycles]

I am not sure what the effect will be for SRAM, they have fewer bike shops who stock them so it may mean that with regional blocking (or not selling at discounted prices to online retailers) that they can gain more stockists as bike shops know that they are no longer competing against online sales.

Mavic in Australia no longer appear to be as popular however this could also be due to the increased competition with new brands... for example ENVE and ZIPP still position themself as performance / race wheels whereas Mavic is very broad and has a wheel for every budget and occassion.

[im_no_pro]

I picked up a SRAM GXP BB from LBS recently because I needed it pronto. Was dreading how much the AU tax would be (knowing that the shop I was going to is usually expensive to begin with). Hey presto, got it for a few bucks cheaper than it was on Ribble. This is just one of a few recent experiences I have had with local stock. Maybe price local first, then give them a clip if need be. YMMV but I have done ok locally on SRAM.

[acraick]

you might telling us who the retailer was ?

Would be good to hear about retails who do have good prices.

[Calvin27]

I think a lot of the problem is people are past the point of wanting to even speak to a retailer. type the part number into google and it comes up with 4 stores who stock it and the price.

[Top_Bhoy]

I think a lot of the problem is people are past the point of wanting to even speak to a retailer. type the part number into google and it comes up with 4 stores who stock it and the price.

Bit of truth in that as well as people not wanting to travelling significant distances. I can order several brands online from the comfort of home but to do the same from local stores may involve 40km+. It seems many shops these days are limited to a very small range of brands.

[trailgumby]

I think Mavic trying to do this a couple of years ago severely hurt their brand. I simply swapped to other manufacturers, as I'm sure did many others. At the time if this decision on their part, they were on every second mid-range-and-up bike. Now you hardly see them.

I'm actually quite grateful they did this. Opened my eyes to wealth of better product out there.

The market has permanently shifted. I don't think trying to engineer a return to the "good old days" of the LBS being able to impose crap cottage industry service on an uninformed market will work.

Unless of course Shimano joins them. And if they do, it will just open the door to competitors like Microshift and others.

[Calvin27]

The market has permanently shifted. I don't think trying to engineer a return to the "good old days" of the LBS being able to impose crap cottage industry service on an uninformed market will work.

I'm of the opinion it could go the other way. Imagine a lbs store that stocked everything possible and sold complete groupsets and kit - no bikes. The biggets factor here of course is bikes have too high a margin compared to parts and too many flapping standards.

[trailgumby]

It already has, in a way, with the likes of Pushy's and Bike Bug.

You can walk in and buy stuff.

But you can also buy from anywhere in Australia. And their prices are reasonable. So are they B&M or on-line? They're both.

[fat and old]

It already has, in a way, with the likes of Pushy's and Bike Bug.

You can walk in and buy stuff.

Yeah, I tried that at Bikebug Melbourne last week. The fella was such an expletive I said thanks, walked out logged on with my phone and ordered it elsewhere. At a higher cost. Staying Oz cost me there.