At Free Ride we have a purchasing policy that directs us to buy local, union, and sustainable products when they are available. If there were a distributor that could source parts the best complied with this policy I think we'd definitely be interested.
Of course, this would be a huge undertaking for the person(s) that wanted to do it. I imagine one has to order in very large quantities from manufacturers to be able to offer wholesale prices comparable to other distributors, and that the amount of cash tied up in stock at any given time is rather signficant. Having to rent or maintain a warehouse on top of that means that there's a minimum rate of consumption a distributor would need to maintain to avoid losing money. That rate is going to depend on the size of the niche market for community bike shops, and the assumption that other distributors wont alter their own policies to capture that market - it's not clear to me that there is enough demand, even combining all the major community bike shops into a single bloc, to solely support a single distribution operation. But that's just a guess and a real answer would require market research on the part of interested parties.
It seems to me that QBP supplies most of the CBS's right now. Maybe someone should approach them about identifying and stocking products that conform to our purchasing policies (i.e. green/fair trade/us made/union made/etc icons in the catalog) and ask about discounts for non-profits promiting bicycle use? I'd think the best way for that to happen would be for several shops to work together to create a request that could be delivered on all our behalfs. Does this interest anyone
- I'd be willing to help with such a project.
Stuart