OT: How online shopping makes suckers of us all.. (The Atlantic)

[Clean39T]

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine...us-all/521448/

Article kind of peters out at the end, but interesting food for thought.

Made me think of how Backcountry, Steep n Cheap, and Competitive Cyclist are all the same company, but use different sales and codes and shipping to arrive at similar prices for the same product, presumably to capture different types of shoppers...

The same happens with a lot of the online bike retailers now: 30% off of a price that was raised 15% from when it was 20% off of a 10% lower price yesterday - plus free shipping :/

[paredown]

Cool article--forwarded to my economist friends including my wife.

Along the same line, I heard a great NPR segment with the Freakonomics guys, who got access to Uber ride share data, and were actually able to construct a 'real' demand curve using the data involving Uber's demand pricing.

[Mzilliox]

If we were not obvious suckers, there would be no consumer culture. But we are indeed suckers by our very nature. its wired into our brains. Marketing and Psychology have exploited that. see i phone updates if you need proof

[makoti]

camelcamelcamel.com is good for keeping at least Amazon somewhat honest.

[Duende]

"In person" customer service by knowledgeable folks who actually taken the time to understand my cycling needs is why I don't shop online anymore.

Became very obvious when I used to online shop that I was essentiall being bounced around to pseudo competitors... when they were all the same entity.

[smontanaro]

I'm not sure this is on-topic for this thread or not, however (and apologies that it's a bit long)...

Yesterday, I was working on my late 70s RRB, replacing an inner 30T chainring with a 36 (SR Apex 86BCD). Dang! it hit the chainstay. The 30 had been small enough to squeeze in there. (And I sold it to a local buddy.) Well, what else do I have? I have a 48. A 52/48 seemed a bit too small of a jump, but hey, the NR front derailleur should have no trouble shifting it. I figured I'd give it a try, thinking it might nestle in the dimple on the chainstay. Still no go. I need a longer spindle. I had nothing in my bin. So I started shopping.

My first stop was Ben's Cycles, who has some Tange-Seiki square taper bottom brackets I like. Toss one in the cart. Well, I need some new tubulars, what's he got? Nothing, or at least nothing I was interested in. So I started poking around the net. I was interested in trying Veloflex Vlaanderen, but every place I hit was either super expensive (according to my cheapskate meter) or if it was reasonable, they had crap for bottom brackets. I hit several places, Bike Tires Direct, Pro Bike Kit, Wiggle, maybe a couple more.

I went for a ride this morning, and flatted my rear tubie within a mile or two from home. As I wasn't carrying a pump, and didn't want to ride the rest of the way with no spare, I just walked home.

I figured, "Crap, Skip. You have to stop riding these ancient tubulars of unknown provenance which you get on old wheels you buy." There's evidence that my cheap streak tends to dominate my day-to-day thinking. Heck, one of the reasons I started riding tubulars again was because nobody wanted tubular wheels. Cheap, cheap, cheap. Bottom bracket or no, I needed to find some tires. I searched Google for the Vlaanderen, and found a good price at Pro Bike Kit. Cheapness chimed in, however, and I saw that Vittoria Rallys were available in 25mm width and tan sidewall for under $20 each. I bought four. So, I now have three bikes' worth of tires somewhere between England and here.

I could swear the Vlaanderen price was lower than yesterday. Of course, I wasn't keeping notes at the time, so I can't be certain. Still, I wonder if they have some code in their server which aligned my visits yesterday and today, and figured, "We better not let this fish get away this time. How about we drop the price a bit?"

[mhespenheide]

Interesting. Not sure what to make of it, but since I have a VPN, I'm now curious about trying some shopping while bouncing around through different shell servers.

[pbarry]

Originally Posted by smontanaro

I'm not sure this is on-topic for this thread or not, however (and apologies that it's a bit long)...

Yesterday, I was working on my late 70s RRB, replacing an inner 30T chainring with a 36 (SR Apex 86BCD). Dang! it hit the chainstay. The 30 had been small enough to squeeze in there. (And I sold it to a local buddy.) Well, what else do I have? I have a 48. A 52/48 seemed a bit too small of a jump, but hey, the NR front derailleur should have no trouble shifting it. I figured I'd give it a try, thinking it might nestle in the dimple on the chainstay. Still no go. I need a longer spindle. I had nothing in my bin. So I started shopping.

My first stop was Ben's Cycles, who has some Tange-Seiki square taper bottom brackets I like. Toss one in the cart. Well, I need some new tubulars, what's he got? Nothing, or at least nothing I was interested in. So I started poking around the net. I was interested in trying Veloflex Vlaanderen, but every place I hit was either super expensive (according to my cheapskate meter) or if it was reasonable, they had crap for bottom brackets. I hit several places, Bike Tires Direct, Pro Bike Kit, Wiggle, maybe a couple more.

I went for a ride this morning, and flatted my rear tubie within a mile or two from home. As I wasn't carrying a pump, and didn't want to ride the rest of the way with no spare, I just walked home.

I figured, "Crap, Skip. You have to stop riding these ancient tubulars of unknown provenance which you get on old wheels you buy." There's evidence that my cheap streak tends to dominate my day-to-day thinking. Heck, one of the reasons I started riding tubulars again was because nobody wanted tubular wheels. Cheap, cheap, cheap. Bottom bracket or no, I needed to find some tires. I searched Google for the Vlaanderen, and found a good price at Pro Bike Kit. Cheapness chimed in, however, and I saw that Vittoria Rallys were available in 25mm width and tan sidewall for under $20 each. I bought four. So, I now have three bikes' worth of tires somewhere between England and here.

I could swear the Vlaanderen price was lower than yesterday. Of course, I wasn't keeping notes at the time, so I can't be certain. Still, I wonder if they have some code in their server which aligned my visits yesterday and today, and figured, "We better not let this fish get away this time. How about we drop the price a bit?"

Someone who thinks like me. I've noticed items in "my cart" being reduced a few days after I've failed to hit the "buy" button. No coincidence.

As an aside, Rallys are substandard tubulars, not worth a good glue job for daily riders, but good for spares. Keep an eye out on the better Vittorias which can be had for under $40 on sale. Much better value, ride quality, and puncture resistance. jmo