Chain Reaction dropping lots of product ranges?

LittleSkink

LittleSkink

Retro Guru
Since Wiggle bought out CRC I have to say I haven't really noticed anything bad happen - until recently. Quite a few items I have been after seem to go out of stock and stay out of stock. eg SMP saddles, Schwalbe tyres as well as service items / tools like grease guns

As a business person myself I can see that reducing inventory cost/complexity makes a lot of sense but I am hoping this is a "realignment" not a wholesale dropping of lower volume products
 
i couldn't believe that it was allowed for wiggle to buy out crc. Far to commanding market position. i still buy more from crc than wiggle. Always try to buy from other shops first to spread the love
 
Has anyone seen stuff go out of stock and come back in?

I am assuming they are culling their inventory *and* dumping product lines, but maybe the are just sorting out their supply chain and I am only noticing the stuff I am wanting to buy currently
 
they were doing a big warehouse move recently and they were trimming stock.

I did see one item I was watching go out of stock and come back in the other day.
 
I've also heard a rumour that a few of the importers/manufacturers/distributors have been getting a bit peeved with both CRC/Wiggle and some of their buying and selling practices, the merger may have been an opportunity to either stop supplying altogether or change the terms of the contracts.

Not sure how much credence to give the rumour, as it was from a shop owner who was pretty much put out of business by the EU based large mail order company.

You have got to see some of the retail/wholesale pricing structures over here to believe them.
Some UK based Retailers comment that CRC sell for less than the wholesale price........ Over here the UK RRP is pretty much our retailers cost price.
 
mattr you are right about the aggressive pricing from CRC, through a bike charity I volunteer with I have access to buying at trade price - mostly CRC has historically been cheaper, sometimes a lot cheaper!

Given CRC stock of some brands seems to be disappearing (Selle SMP comes to my mind) and others rationalising (eg Schwalbe) I guess you may also be right about distributors pushing back a little
 
Re:

I had a 'discussion' with Wiggle the other day regarding the price of a tub High5 recovery .. with their online chat.
CRC wanted £24:99 whereas Wiggle wanted £36 allegedly with 35% off :shock: I did not realize they were now one and the same company.
Wiggle offered to 'price match' after I sent a link, but I declined their offer and said I would rather deal the more 'honest' CRC..... I have noticed since that the prices are now both the same.. ;)
 
tintin41":wtq7j9i6 said:
i couldn't believe that it was allowed for wiggle to buy out crc. Far to commanding market position.
Click to expand...


wiggle wanted access to the chain of original equipment supply that CRC had which was a big reason as to why they bought CRC, also they bought them to eventually put their main competition out of business, i have already had reports of orders from CRC turning up in wiggle boxes etc.

FYI, wiggle are in the process of buying a big german online website to effectively do the same thing.

the suggestion is that if they buy up all of their competition then they will effectively have no competition at which point mail order prices may actually rise, which could be good or bad for the bike trade as a whole.
 
Best to spread the love, i get some stuff from wiggle/chain reaction, this tends to be cheaper stuff generally or stuff thats not stocked by a shop. The rest of the time i like to use my local bike shops for Services/parts, buying bikes, clothes, bike maintenance products etc...
Also I bought a carbon road bike from Wiggle back in 2010, the forks had a fault so sent it back the entire bike to Wiggle who in turn send it to Germany to put a new set on, and the whole process took 6 weeks! And no race bike to compete with over tge summer :( So never again, would always use a shop!
 
I heard rumour of this buy-out early this year and pretty much confirmed the same in the summer when they started selling some stuff at unbelievably cheap prices. 600mm Shimano STi outers were 8p each and complete Shimano brake cables 10p.
I guessed it was just too much hassle for them to move them over to Wiggle's warehouse.
 
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