Wiggle to buy Chain Reaction Cycles

[Bertleman]

Mods...feel free to move, but I thought pertinent to this forum
http://dirtmountainbike.com/news/wiggle-to-buy-chainreactioncycles.html#BbxtAyGRm8fiD0WM.97

[old fat man]

I used to use PBK, but in recent years have only used ribble and backcountry/competitivecyclist. Don't chainreaction and Wiggle come with higher risk of duties?

[josephr]

....Performance merged/bought Nashbar, Trek, Specialized, Dorel and QBP own everything else...I'm counting the days for backcountry (competitive cyclist) buys Niner and Santa Cruz.

[false_Aest]

....Performance merged/bought Nashbar, Trek, Specialized, Dorel and QBP own everything else...I'm counting the days for backcountry (competitive cyclist) buys Niner and Santa Cruz.

long time coming.

http://i.onionstatic.com/avclub/5224/22/16x9/1200.jpg

[ultraman6970]

Ribble... hmm...

[false_Aest]

4th from the left looks strangely like the "T" next to NBC

http://trekbikestore.com/merchant/840/images/site/headbadges.jpg

[eBAUMANN]

I used to use PBK, but in recent years have only used ribble and backcountry/competitivecyclist. Don't chainreaction and Wiggle come with higher risk of duties?

Ive ordered 4 times from PBK and gotten charged duties 3 times. That was enough for me.

Lately its backcountry/CC (through activejunky), ribble, and merlin. Have had great experiences with all of em, especially backcountry, from order confirmation to shipment notification in 45 minutes, truly impressive.

[ryker]

Probably a good thing... Wiggle customer service is ok, CRC customer service is abysmal.

[VanBikeGuy]

After waiting 2 months for a credit back on a chainset and 5 phonecalls (all promising to right the wrong within a week), I will never, ever, deal with PBK again. I find them deceptive with their duty collection methods.

[phcollard]

Very surprising because Wiggle seems to go downhill. My impression is that they stock much less than before - how many times do you follow a Google link to Wiggle and the page says "sorry this item is not available anymore". Also their prices don't seem to be as good as before.

They also started to use DHL for shipping of larger items which for me is an absolute no go.

The new king of overseas bike shopping is Merlin. They're just great.

[Bstone]

Merlin is great, wiggle is OK.

[uno-speedo]

Wiggle doesn't make money, fact. They're actually 5 or 6 few million in debt via public records. Neither does a lot of these UK bike companies. Margins are ultra slim, then factor in free shipping, free returns/exchanges etc., it's a business model that can't exist long term (perhaps Amazon is an exception, but how many years did it take for them to make money?!). If Wiggle buys CRC, I would hope the bike shops would start to make money again as Wiggle generally dictates the pricing in the market (and they need good margin badly) and others would follow suit.

[tumbler]

Just because they hold debt doesn't mean they don't make money. Nearly every major company on earth uses debt to finance their business. Unless you have access to their financial statements, which I couldn't find since they are owned by a private equity firm, I don't see how you can determine whether or not they are making money.