Lost in the shuffle of early 2009 news was this item ... The trade publication, Bicycle Retailer and Industry News reported in January that Campagnolo is (in BRAIN's words) "leveling the playing field for retailers that sell its components." Translation: Campagnolo will establish suggested retail prices for its products, and then monitor prices posted in print and on the internet to make sure that retailers are advertising prices that are within the suggested range.Backing up the pricing requirements is a new labeling system that will let Campagnolo track when and where an item was shipped, and how many of the item were shipped. This will let Campagnolo identify "gray market" retailers (as well as helping them track products in the event that a manufacturing defect is found).
Campagnolo defends the pricing system as a means to help all of their retailers succeed. Campagnolo North America general manager Tom Kattus is quoted by BRAIN as saying, "Campagnolo is a premium product and priced accordingly--it always will be--but I want retailers and distributors to be able to make a fair margin when selling our products."
Fair enough. It's also fair to note that ShimaNO beat them to the punch several years ago. And other manufacturers seem to thrive with "no discount" pricing--when's the last time you saw an iPod on sale at Target?
What do YOU think? Please comment on this post.
How 'bout some news on Athena 11 groupset rumors?
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean no more vastly discounted online deals from the UK? (for US buyers)
ReplyDeleteI thought they already did this, to be honest. Look, in my area no one knows what Campy's MSRP is and I hear stories of bike shops over charging for it. A buddy just told me a shop in southern Maine/NH charged someone $1000 for a Chorus 11s crankset. It is very possible he got the details wrong and it was a Super Record, but still. So, Campy has this rep of being very expensive, when really it's a little bit more than Shimano per group level. If this keeps shops from over charging as well as others from under charging, then I'm all for it. It sounds like there will be better accountability on the part of Campagnolo as well.
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