Quote:
Originally Posted by fignon's barber
Reliable delivery. If they have what you want, go for it. They've started to not ship many items to the US in order to help manufacturers set up artificially high prices though.
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Not exactly..Ribble is a 'distributor'..in that they buy from the manufacturer and then direct to consumers. In the US, a 'few' manufacturer's sell direct to bike shops, or have wholly owned offices/warehouses that sell to bike shops(like Mavic). But generally it's thru a distributors system in the US. It's as if Quality Bike Parts, a YUGE distributor in the US would sell direct to consumers, instead of to bike shops.
Really cheap bike stuff via MO or interweb companies compared with bike shop pricing isn't some sort of conspiracy to screw the consumer.
There ARE interweb based distributors in the US that 'own' retail places.. They sell to consumers AND to bike shops. They get the same margin regardless. I suspect Velomine and Planet Cyclery are 2 of them.